Bruce Pennington

Thank you my friend!

Hi Steve! I had the same difficulty getting a clear translation of my first Mantetsu Koa Isshin when I first started. The WWII era kanji are not the same as Japanese kanji used today. Plus practically every kanji has multiple translations/uses, so if you don't have experience with the context of what's written, it can be difficult to get the original meaning. You can read about our discovery process in this NMB thread: Attention Mantetsu Owners: A Survey And read an article some of us put together about the SMR Mantetsu sword production: South Manchuria Railway - The Mantetsu Blade I restored mine and even paid to have it polished. They are currently selling at a price high price, to you would likely get your money back, depending upon how much you paid for it.

Love it! But did you kindly tell them to keep their fingers off the blades? Ha!

Hey, it's got a decent rain-pattern habaki though!

The question is, of course, are there any stamps? Any star stamped blades?

January 1944, Kinmichi, small "Na" stamp of the Nagoya Army Arsenal Instspectors. Type 98 Japanese Army officer gunto.

Dang, nailed that one too! I hate the way these guys write.

Ahhh so! I see it now, thanks Kyle!

And doing a No-no, here's another I could use help on: Mei 2:

A showa-stamped blade - Kane ???

This seems to be coming from a particular sword maker or faker. Chances are that it's a faker. The nakago quality are all the same poor workmanship. But using various stamps:

Another one currently at a Sofe Auction:

Re-posting some new ones I had posted on another thread (but I had been looking for this one!)

BINGO! That's the thread I had tried to dig up, unsuccessfully! Now I'm going to have to re-post these new ones over there. Not so hard, now that I know how to copy and paste a post-link! Thanks Matt!

So, here are the 3 for comparison. All 3 are different. As we know, the reason could be because 3 different people - the smith, an apprentice, a mei-signer (always forget the word for that!) - could have done the 3. Or, as we know, during WWII sometimes there were multiple smiths going by the same art name.

Righted the photo: Nice gunto, BTW!

I have 2 blades on file of Kiyonubu, one Seki stamped like this, the other with the "Tan" stamp. Dennis, could you do me a favor and measure the Seki stamp? It should either be 3-4mm or 5-6mm.

A nice mon on habaki, found at an auction site:

Also make sure the images are JPEG. Some new iPhones are using a different format for pictures.

Just got the reply from Newrem at Guns.ru. He said the photos are from another source and the blades aren't his, but his theory is that, at least for the Katsumasa, it came from a broken sword like the one in the famous picture: At least in the Katsumasa case, he may be onto the answer.

Can't imagine it being original, however with gunto we never say never, nor always! Depending upon how much punch-force is needed to move it, I'd worry about crushing the table-side of the tsuka. Be sure to pad the underside of the ito/same' to avoid that. As to how - maybe some metal shop guys can give a tip. Metals guys like @IJASWORDS may have an idea.

I'm not in Australia, but I have shipped several swords to guys there. What restrictions are you referring to?

I think this is the heart of it. The fakers know there will always be enough inexperienced buyers out there to buy their cheaply made products. They can make 10 X profit with the cheap material/workmanship vs making 10% profit with high-end work.

Rob, After the "@", as you type, you will see a dropdown list of names developing below your typing. You have to click on the intended name and it turns blue. If you don't click on it, and simply keep typing the name, it doesn't work, and simply comes out as text like @robinalexander.

Rob, Not sure what you're asking. Are you asking how to post a @robinalexander notice? Or are you asking how to grab a link to a particular post like this: