Bruce Pennington

Minor correction - There wasn't a Seki Arsenal. The Nagoya Arsenal governed sword making in the area of Seki. The stamp is first seen in 1940 (1 in my survey), some in 1941, but the massive majority of them are seen in 1942, with many seen in the rest of the war years.. It's not known for sure if the stamp is of the Seki Sword Guild or an Army inspector stamp working the Seki area. But it's presence on a sword does mean the blade was made by non-traditional means.

Welcome to the club Chris! The Shingunto world is full of complexities and variations. My collection is at 22 now, and I've gotten each because it represents a certain distinct variation from the "standard" gunto, and I still don't have all that could be added. You've got a real beauty there. Can't go wrong with anything coming from Neil. His stuff is top-notch.

I've never heard, nor read, an explanation. My guess is that it started when Japan was "modernizing" their military and were using guns and swords made in the West. But that's just a guess.

Ok, you had me at "stamped numbers"!!! Ha! So, they were doing this as early as the late-1800s. Great thread Thomas, thanks for all the links! Enjoying this!

I’m glad you asked me, Stephen, because I see that I missed the one for sale on eBay! I don’t have that one! I sent an email to the seller asking for a picture of the character under the habaki. It looks like a HI ヒ

Takehisa was one of 8 smiths whose blades often have the W/M stamp: Research from collectors on the Nihonto Message Board (www.militaria.co.za/nmb/19390-the-mysterious-w-stamp/) have revealed ‘W’ stamps on the following blades: Type 19 sabre; Type 95s made by Ijima for Kokura & Tokyo 1st Arsenal; Mantetsu; Kaneoto (with Seki stamp); Haruhisa; Kokima Kanenori; Tenshin; Takehisa; Yoshiharu; and Yoshitani. We don't know why it just shows up on these blades. We believe it is a "midway inspection".

Glad to see you're reading some Classics Thomas! Seriously, we are all grateful for you're ability to research and share. Does the publication offer any pictures?

Nice presentation Neil. I agree it's nice to have matching numbers, as it means no one has done post-war mixing. In the case of this late-war piece, it also acts as evidence that the odd gunto was actually made that way.

Hale, The numbers on fittings, like John said, are put there by the fitting shops to keep all the parts together for a particular blade. Each blade has different curves and thicknesses, so the fittings are customized, filed to fit nakago, etc, for a particular blade. The numbers keep those parts together when not on the blade, like for polishing. If you have all matching numbers, it simply tells you all the parts were original from it's making. But many gunto have parts without numbers at all, or have a mix of numbered and unnumbered parts.

That's a new one too! Any more pictures of that one? It should be Spring 41, but it's always good to have a full set of pics.

That's great Trystan! I had two of these, but not the rest. And that's our first recorded "KO" number!

That's a fabulous find, Thomas! I don't have my reference books at the time, but this seems to be 2 years after the introduction of the Kyu-gunto and the Type 32s? Weren't they in the 1886 time frame?

You can see date characters under the rust. It was all there but covered up by rust.

These run around $450 USD

Interesting! "H 222 マ" Quite elaborate for a fitters number.

Yes, I keep forgetting about the other sources. I remember Shamsy showed us some Polish very good replicas.

By the quality of the stamps, I'd say pretty recent. The older ones have really bad stamps. There have been some posts recently of one of the Chinese factories that are cranking these out, and they are improving, sadly.

For example, this is what an Iijima, Kokura, blade tip looks like:

Wow, Trystan, the stamps are very good! It if weren't for the bad blade issues, I'd have fallen for this one. MIchael, the bohi (fuller groove) is wrong, the blade tip is very close, but wrong. The numbering looks wrong. Certain fine points about the scabbard throat and handle

Thanks Adam! Strange the seppa/tsuba numbers "2 2 2 2" not matching the serial number or a painted number. Maybe simply used to keep all the fittings together.

Thanks again, Trystan. I somehow missed the Wa 6 when I transcribed the Komiya chart, and I had the pics of 134 in my files, but had never entered it in the Word document chart. Now both are logged.

Thomas, I don't have records of the 6 or 134. Do you a source or photos?

Yes, that's the one. The link to the yakiba.com site doesn't work, though.

Thanks Trystan for the new addition! It is the second production waki I have record of and the first one is Autumn 1940 Wa 33! So like, Thomas said, this "line" of production seems to have some experimentation, or custom orders, in it! I don't have pics of the whole waki (33) but here is what I have:

Ah, yes, you got it! Here's one on a Type 98 tsuba