Bruce Pennington

One found by @Pippo:

Some people like the battle damaged gunto. It’s a matter of taste, like everything and collecting.

I get nothin' on the link.

In my extremely inexperienced mind, on the topic, it seems as plausible an idea as any other. I have read in a couple of places of commanders awarding tanto to those pilots. No comments as to where they got them.

It was well worth the polish, quite gorgeous!

Here's an "8 8" on a gunto posted at Wehrmacht-Awards. Mumei Type 98. Matches the number on the tsuba/seppa:

So, here's an example posted on Wehrmacht-Awards that, to me, seems to show the shadowing. Am I right on this one being oil quenched?

Fuller has a few naval stamps, but none of those are listed. Neither are they listed in that chart you sent me. I know I've seen that anchor with sakura somewhere, but I don't recall where that was.

Thanks Durrell. Not surprising. Seems to be the case on most RS gunto. It was worth a try, though.

Found one on Reddit. By the looks of the fuchi and seppa, seems to be on a late-war gunto. HERE. They quite often are found in wooden saya, painted black and covered in leather. In the last year of the war, an edict went out to drastically reduce the use of animal skins (leather, shark, ray, etc) and move to cheaper, easier accessed materials. I believe that is what we are seeing with this one.

Hey Chris, we are all playing around. It’s a bad fake mei.

Durrell, that's a Gifu stamp. Found your photos of the mei and date (Kanekage, 1944). Thanks!

You have to be willing to acknowledge that even a swordsmith might go to work with a few too many under his belt, every now and then! Heck, this might have been the night his wife left him for another man!

I'm way out of my league, but the nakago workmanship doesn't match the excellent look of the blade, so I'd side with Grey on this. On another note, what is meant by "aikuchi"? Google says it's a hilt and scabbard that meet without the handguard. Sounds like another word for shirasaya? Or is an aikuchi fittings for active use, whereas the shirasaya is a resting set of fittings?

Someone over at Warrelics was very pleased with some work done by Ralph "rbminis", just to add another source for fabricated parts: https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/f216/Japanese-police-short-sword-meji-period-796263-post2178595/#post2178595

Rob - any stamps?

Not 'art' per se, but I couldn't help myself! SteveM translated this seal script to "received from my father-in-law" and "1871". Found HERE. Posted by @Ian B3HR2UH

I have had Don Schlickman make some tiny screws for me and he does excellent work! Thank you for posting this, I have tried to recall his name a couple of times, recently, as guys ask for parts; but hadn't been able to drag his name out of my memory banks!

@IJASWORDS - any chance you've had the handle off that Yoshichika? Wondering if it has that peculiar 'Taisho' stamp at the nakago-jiri like Corry's Yoshichika blade.

Got a collection going, now, of unknown stamps at the end of nakago. No idea of their meaning, or why they are there - forge/shop logo? smith kao? polisher logo? etc. Thought I would post the ones I have with the smith, when known. If you see one you own, or know where to find it, I'm trying to get the smith name of the blade they were found on. With that, I can do a search for each smith's blades to see if the mark recurs, or if they are one-off oddities. Thanks to anyone who can help ID these: on Kuniyasu on Masahiro Unknown smith Unknown smith unknown smith unknown smith unknown smith on Yoshinao blade on 1943 Yoshichika blade

Well, I may be out of date on pricing. However keep in mind dealers price at the very tip top of the market value, if not over the top sometimes.

Right, and I have many mysterious stamps like this at the end of nakago of unknown meaning or origin. They could be a shop or forge logo. Someone proposed it was the polishers logo. I don’t have enough of them to pin any of them down to a particular smith or area shop.

Ok, maybe it's my browser, but many of the photos, including those of the nakago, are gone or not viewable anymore.