Bruce Pennington

Neil, Does this blade have any stamps? The reason I ask, is that in one of Ohmura's discussions, he mentions "tosho mei with saka or na stamps" (these along with star-stamped blades are always gendaito, he says).

Found at this Warrelics Thread. I'm stumped by the 32-ray emblem and the backstrap pattern. I can't find anything like it in Fuller or Dawson. Anyone recognize them?

Oh, right, yes that was my first thought on this too. My question on the TA and FU was that you were supposing that the I and O were tied to locations of the smiths - so do you see a connection with the TA and FU for Munetoshi and Masakazu?

Well, I'm open to suggestion, but this would be the first time an English letter is used in front of the numbers. Would this shed a new light on the other katakana found before numbers: Munetoshi タ2353 Masakazu フ 37

Thanks for bringing these to our attention, Thomas. Now we have stamped numbers on Type 95 nakago too.

That's a fabulous piece of history, and the story (at least part of it) of a man's life. Thank you for sharing it with us! It's sad that so many stories, so many lives, are lost. I'm just glad you were there in the path of all this to save and honor this man's service. Sadly, to many who served in the war, things like this are often something they preferred to just walk away from. Too many painful memories. He might have been the one that dumped it all at Goodwill. Or it could have been family, after his death.

Must be. Here’s mine:

John, I think you're right. I checked some other blades with stamped numbers and they all had the horizontal base to the "1". These two one's are just low and the base isn't fully struck. Thanks!

Thanks John! I've never seen so many Mantetsu on one site! I had a couple of those already but several were new. Now added!

Guys, I'm pretty sure the first character in this number is a katakana. I want to say it's "イ" but it looks like the top is just a corrosion dot to me. What do you say?

Good eye, Thomas! Dang, another unknown! The four bumps around the circle strike me as familiar, but I've looked through my files and can't find a similar one. The center was different, but I could swear I've seen a circle with semi-circular bumps around the edges like that. I checked Dawson and he doesn't have an example with this stamp. All his are made by Solengen (sp?), and some have Japanese inspector stamps. But this one looks like it was made by a Japanese shop, or at least the handle was.

Simply using yokusi steel ( if I have the name right) would require the stamp - it’s not tamahagane.

Well, if Chris is right, that this isn't possible (nearly impossible?) with any steel other than tamahagane, then this supports the theory that the large Seki stamp is Gild stamp that has nothing to do with the regulatory stamping system. Hmmmmm.

That was tough! I hate their writing, sometimes. It's like trying to read Doctor's prescriptions. Couldn't get all the date, 2 kanji didn't make sense.

I believe I've done some business with you too, welcome! Your very presence is a sign of your honesty. Shady dealers would never join the forum using their sales name (I can think of a couple or 3). So!! Are you a collector too? If so, start bringing out the eye-candy!

John, Here is where the Gendaito/Nihonto jargon gets me confused sometimes - are you saying the blade is "traditionally made"? and that the large Seki stamps aren't part of the required stamping on non-traditional blades? Or are we saying that this blade was made using traditional methods (including water quench) but likely used non-tamahagane, and therefore the Seki stamp?

Found it Brian, thanks!

Thanks Brian! I don't see a "File Actions" option.

Stamps Doc 6.0: includes re-write of the "Stamped Numbers" section due to results of the Stamp Survey. Also includes discussion in the Type 95 section of the suspected tie between the Gifu stamp and the Seki Shoten stamp (being of the same re-named company). I'm also posting the current version of the Stamps Survey for those of us that love those tabulated data! Brian - if it's not too much trouble, could you replace the outdated version of this in the Member articles section? Thanks! stamp survey (1).pdf Stamp 6.0.pdf

Ok, thanks! Not what I thought.

James, Could I see the full tsuka on that one? The portion of the wrap, plus the basic tsuba, look like Rinji-seishiki fittings.

Thanks for looking into that for us John! At least it gives us a "earliest known" date we can reference. The sakura pattern on the tsuba (1st pic), shows that this is one of the gunto that Ohmura calls an Army Civilian Employee Gunto (probably Gunzoku). They are discussed HERE on NMB. There is another thread, which I haven't found yet, that quotes a WWII survivor that describes this pattern fittings as something a village paid to have made for one of their people going off to war.

We know they weren't army inspector marks, they were definitely personalized marks, like the "check-mark" of Nike. I've just never read a dedicated article on them that went into their history.

So, numbers 1 & 6 are enlisted rank but their swords had mei. We don't know how they were mounted though, do we?

Yes, my thoughts too. I know the kao is just a personal mark for the smith, this blade shook my subconscious assumptions loose when I saw it had both the Seki stamp and kao. I'm firmly planted on the "inspector stamps mean non-traditionally made" side of the camp. As to the original question - how long have smiths been using kao - I want to say I've seen some pretty old blades with them, but I haven't kept track of them and/or the ages. Hopefully some of the nihonto guys can opine.