Bruce Pennington

The first and last thing I do when I examine one of my swords, is to smell it! I LOVE that smell!!!

Certainly a possibility. Never saw that arsenal mark before. I have 2 concerns, though. 1. I have never seen an arsenal inspector mark at the end of a nakago. But I have seen religious symbology and other markings there. On both of these, there is a small 'stem' at the top like a gourd: 2. Has anyone every heard of the Hiroshima Arsenal processing swords?

I could find very little about that hand guard style in either Dawson or Fuller. Did they make this style hand guard into the Type 19 years?

He was a prolifice smith and/or quite popular, as I have 6 of his blades Showa, 6 Large Seki, 3 NA, and 1 Gifu, and several non-dated. The Showa and Seki were all un-dated, while the Na and Gifu were '43-'44 blades. Can't say about gendaito blades, as I don't track them if they are un-stamped. Maybe someone has an idea.

DOHH! (I thought we had a emoji for that!) Although.....technically speaking, the blade could have been refitted with 94 fittings. But, truthfully, when I typed that I was hyper-focused on the unusual fuchi and wasn't thinking about the date.

If it's a kao, I've never seen one like it. Agree with Barry that it looks more like kanji. @uwe @Nobody

@Kiipu - a head-scratcher!!! {I've edited my original post, as it was way wrong} Katsumasa is one of the few smiths with stamped numbers on the blade, that was not RJT. I have 5 of his blades with stamped numbers and they are all at the top of the nakago, with a NA stamp and number. They flow in sequential order by date, so I don't believe this was done by fittings shops, but rather by an Army system of tracking (reasons unknown). Jan '43 "143 Na" Jan '43 "168 Na" Mar '43 "1025 Na" May '43 "1550 Na" Dec '44 "245 Na" (started over in '44?) Good eye on the "Na" stamp @mecox mal. @kealpe - Keith, are you anywhere near Colorado Springs?

I own mostly WWI showato, and out of curiosity would love to slice something, even a watermelon, with them, but knowing that cutting edges loose steel every time they are used ..... I just can't do it. So, with a nihonto, I'd doubly be reticent.

Trystan, These 1886 pattern Cavalry, or Type 8?, swords are a mystery. I have one other with a double stamp, different logo, on file. I suspect they were shops making these swords, but have no data on them. Here's the other one I have:

I have a couple of Yoshiharu on file with stamped numbers at the end of the tang. You didn't show the full tang on the side of the smith's name. Anything down there?

Made in "Spring 1944" Can we see the latch release button on the other side? Type 94 or 98 Japanese Officer gunto. Unusual pattern on the fuchi (copper collar on the handle). These run in the range of $900-1,400 USD. Varies with the buyer's market, with the condition of the fittings and blade, and whether the blade, itself, is traditionally made or not. Yours has a nice looking blade with a very straight saguha hamon (straight temper line), but I don't see the smith listed in either Slough or Sesko, so it's probably not traditionally made. Are there any small stamps higher on the tang, might have to remove the tsuba/seppa set (handguard and spacers) to see one. They can be on the back edge of the tang, too.

Ok Trystan. So the logo on the tsuba must be from another shop that made the fittings. I'll file it in "Unknown".

Ed, no date on the other side?

Sounds like what happened to Ken's club is exactly what Kirill is looking for!

Thanks Rob! Records annotated now.

Yes. The Army reg called them "Hiejo Factory of Jinsen Army Arsenal", thanks to Thomas, @Kiipu, page 18 of Stamps of the Japanese Sword.

Thanks Mario! Another one of those where I logged it into the chart and got distracted, forgetting to save the photos. I want to correct my statement above about the navy blades - I don't have enough signed and dated Navy blades with stamped numbers to determine if they fit the same pattern as the Army stampings. But with the mumei blades, the number very well could be in sequential order. Without dates, it's not possible to know for a fact, but they do appear to be an intentional flow of numbers like the Army system.

Rob, My research is on the practice of stamping numbers, and covers Army, Navy, Showato, gendaito, and zoheito. It's the stamping that I chase. Here's the other one. Just discovered that it's stamped "384" and I didn't have that numbered blade in the chart! By the looks of it, it's likely a stainless blade too.

Hi Rob! Thanks for the post! 1. That chart you referenced on pg 27 of the Stamps Doc is specific to the SMR Mantetsu operation. To my knowledge, no one else was using the I Ro Ha sequential system. 2. That little stamp, to me, looks like a gourd, and now, we have a possible shop! I'll do some digging to see if I can found out where the original one came from, but I'm not usually very good at finding stuff like that! 3. I agree, the stamp on the tsuba looks like it could be a shop logo. @IJASWORDS - Neil any chance of finding a page in your book on the 川越製造所 Kawagoe factory? Thanks @BANGBANGSAN for the possible shop name!

Mario, thanks for the post. Looking at the files, seems I logged that one in last year when I read the book, too. My general feeling is that these numbers are put there by Army Arsenal inspectors. Yet, some, like the navy blades, may not fit that mold. These two examples, with the Suya logo right by the number, could indicate the number was put there by the shop that made the blade. For years, we had all assumed they were stamped in by the fittings shops, and honestly some may have come about that way, but most of them follow a sequential flow over time, specific to each smith, and to me, that speaks of Army behavior, not random shops (of which there were over 1,000 operating during the war). But it's still quite an unknown issue. @Kiipu - Thomas, do you, or anyone else, have photos of that Yoshichika with the Suya 14 on it? I have it logged into my chart, but found out I have no photos on file.

Greetings to you, too, Marcus! Welcome to the NMB. Sorry your arrival had to meet bad news. Like Paul said, your sword has literally all the signs we look for in a fake. If you haven't already explored Ohmura's fabulous website, it's a free education on what Japanese gunto really look like with over 65 pages of excellent examples: http://ohmura-study.net/900.html You can also see examples of fakes at NMB's page HERE.

Another thought is that the logo on the Dirk is specific to navy items that Suya made, while the other logo is specific to army items. We have seen that in some other stamps.

I agree with you Jean. Unless it was, like John proposed as a possibility, that it was a broken or post-war cut blade used to make this after-market item. Nothing else is right for a Japanese rig. A view of the machi could prove useful, for sure.

That is the same stamp in Nick's example. Looks to me like a stylized "壽". Which makes me wonder, now, where the logo found on Type 95's came from. It seems to me that the one on 95's is a more full renditon of that kanji and the ones on early dirks are maybe simplified?

It does appear to have been hardened. Agree with John on this. Seeing the nakago might give us important clues.