Bruce Pennington

Had to add this one, owned by a Russian collector - Waids - at this Guns.ru thread. Field grade kyu with a 1767 Kinmichi blade, chrysanthemum.

That's a good one for recharging the batteries, Neil! That hamon has definite hints of mammory throughout. Truly gorgeous Kai, Volker!

Photo added for posterity Just came across this one, a kabutogane cover, HERE

Just came across this one. Appears to be on a set of old civil koshirae, found HERE

The screw is what is normally seen on a Type 95 NCO gunto with aluminum handle (saya). The fuchi (handle collar) is a close approximation of the Type 98 officer fuchi, but only close. And while there are variations of the release button, I have never seen one with this pattern on it. If you want more verification, please give us photos of the full sword, a clear shot of the blade and blade tip, and certainly remove the screw and take off the handle so we can see the nakago (tang). You can buy the 2-prong driver tips at Ace Hardware, or I use a tool like this one to hold the nut while turning the other side with a normal screwdriver:

The late-war fittings with this type kabutogane usually have the same dull black saya like this one has. I think the blade was re-fitted late in the war with this koshirae.

This is an interesting piece for a couple of reasons. While the inspection mark was used by the Arsenal throughout the war, I was not aware (just hadn't heard nor read) how many years they were cranking out zoheito. The kabutogane is definitely late-war, so with matching fittings, this could imply the zoheito was made in '44-'45. Of course, the second ana points to the fact that the blade was re-mounted at least once, so this still could be an early war (late 1920s to early 1930s) and simply refitted toward the end of the war. Anyone know the production date-range for the zoheito?

Wanted to post this one, found on THIS GUNS.RU THREAD. It has an undated blade with mei: Takayama To Masahiro made this; with small Toyokawa anchor. From the shadowing of the kasaki, it appears to have the fat tip of the Takayama styled blade. So the question is - did Masahiro continue to work for the Tenzoshan factory making blades for the souvenir operation, or was this a surplus blade? It is the first Takayama-to I've found in one of these. The growing variety of smiths and blades I'm finding in them seems to support the idea that at least some of the over 8,000 souvenirs they sold had surplus blades.

Thanks guys. I don't know that there was an "industry standard" for shops putting their logo on stuff. But, my very limited observation of the practice makes it seem that their logo went on the stuff they actually made. Like the "N" in diamond on some dirks or the "W" in diamond of Wakase Co. that made the patent-stamped sayajiri with drag. So, IF that is the norm, then this shop logo would imply they made the blade. But after hearing everyone's thoughts, I really doubt they did. I like Geraint's idea of an import/export shop marking the blade for sale on Yahoo with their logo. As to the stamp vs engrave issue, I have a couple others that were stamped in similar locations: Stamped engraved So it's not unheard of.

The Ruskies said it's "Norimitsu". It looks like it was put on with a hot knife in soft butter.

Another one on this Guns.ru thread.

Found on this Guns.ru Russian site. The blade looks old, can't speak to the horimono so opinions needed. But then there's that "Japan M.I." stamp! What do you think we're seeing here? It's a 2017 thread showing a blade being sold on Yahoo. I personally am thinking it was a real blade, but a modern sword shop, logo stamp, "spiffed it up" with the horimono. Thoughts?

Fine example!

I had this filed as a "Feb 1941" but I think it's really 1942, no month - correct?

ANNNDDD another one! HERE

At first, with 2 daggers having different serial numbers, this had the possibility of being something pieced together post-war for souvenirs. But I've just come across a third with the same "015728" serial number, but with kanji on the other side rather than the Seki stamp. So, repeated serial numbers is a classic error of fakery. Found here on Guns.ru

I don’t know. I simply saw it as I’m combing through a Russian website looking for stamps and Mantetsu blades.

Thanks Moriyama-san! So diety name, makes sense.

Seal script mei! Anyone? Found on this Guns.ru site.

He's listed #3 on page 9 of this one: Don't know if there's another George meant.

There is an interesting gunto posted ON THIS RUSSIAN SITE, that I think is original. Dated Feb 1945, it has poor quality Type 98 tsuka/tsuba, but really poor quality RS saya, black painted. My first thought was pieced together, post war, but the really poor RS saya along with the low quality 98 fittings really strike me as emergency late-war rush-job work. I realize that the multiple holes in the nakago means the blade was re-fitted at least once. So it likely began it's life in Rinji seishiki fittings and was re-fitted with the Type 98 tsuka/tsuba set. What is puzzling is why there would be 2 holes at the end of the nakago. Type 98 tsuka only need one hole. Rinji tsuka use 2. So why the extra hole at the end? I still think it was all WWII original, but definitely some refitting happened in it's short life.

You've got a nice collectable item there, Tony. While not "rare", the Gifu stamped 95s are not that common, and the early models with the authentic wrap are in short supply. I have one too, and as a 95 collector, these are a "must have" item! My Nagoya with the same wrap is also loose in the fittings. My experience with the Nagoya Arsenal 95s is that their quality control wasn't as tight as the Kokura/Tokyo Arsenal operation. Less precise bohi and not uncommon loose fittings. So, not as "pretty" as a Tokyo gunto, they are still unique in their own way and worth preserving/collecting.

Peter, Any stamped numbers on the back edge of the nakago?

Jan ‘44

Interesting - Katsumasa was one of the few non-RJT smiths with numbered blades, and I now have 4 of his: Jan 1943 "133" Jan 1943 "168" May 1943 "1550" Dec 1944 "254" And he is the only observed Nagoya stamped smith with numbered blades.