Bruce Pennington

Then it's quite possible your blade is something old. Have you had the guys look it over?

These are the first run of the Type 95 NCO gunto. They made less than 7,000 of the copper handled, officer-style saya Type 95s. So ours were made in the first third of the nearly 1 year production (going by memory here, but roughly mid-1937 to early 1938ish). I use a standard Japanese cleaning kit that comes with uchiko ball and choji oil. I've tried 99% alcohol and it does put a bit of a shine to the blade, but it doesn't remove the permanent stains.

Nice one Jesse! Close on the assembly line to mine! If you haven't already read these, start with Ohmura:http://ohmura-study.net/957.html Stu W at Warrelics: https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/Japanese-militaria/ija-type-95-nco-sword-info-228172/ Trystan's thread: And Steve, Shamsy, has an excellent history, which I'm not finding right now, if someone could post a link?

This page says 2004, second printing

Thanks Marco! Looks like I'm going to add a Family crest section to the Stamps Doc. I've got 2 of them now.

What do you think - Tokugawa, but stylized? Found HERE

Another rain-pattern, but it's nicely done. I like it!

OK, no fair teasing! If you can't post pics of it, PM me and I'll give you my email. I'll post them. Well said!

I've noticed gunto prices have recovered from the COVID slump. In fact, they seem to be higher now than before the virus hit.

Edgar, Can we see pics of the nakago (tang)? Do you know if it is signed?

Trytan, Is that the swordsmith's name? If so, I don't see it on the Seki tosho list.

Seconding Brandon! I've read many arguments on both sides, but personally lean toward "late-war officer". In light of Nick Komiya's revelation of the military orders that great loosened the mil specs on swords and guns in the last months of the war, this gunto is like the Japanese version of the Chinese-made Emergency Late War Gunto. The IJA had already allowed officers to rent/buy Type 95s early in the war. Not it's late in the war, suppliers being bombed, etc, why not go back to the 95 makers and have them crank out some more officer gunto. But that's still just speculation on my part.

Just to reinforce Hamish's answer. Trystan (@BANGBANGSAN) brought this Chinese factory to our attention. Gimei From China. He's posted other pictures in other threads where you see the actual area of the factory a bit. So, we have the Chinese faking Mantetsu now, plus I believe there is at least one guy in Japan taking mumei (unsigned) nihonto and faking Mantetsu mei on them to take a $1,000-2,000 sword and turn it into a $6,000 sword. US prices on Mantetsu aren't quite that high, more in the $3,000 range, but that's what's going on. I posted this here in hopes go gathering as many perspectives as possible to weigh the evidence. Most of you guys have way more experience at seeing the reality of a blade than I do. I appreciate your gut feel on this!

SO! Thanks to Kelly (Japan auctions), we got word from the seller of the latest, Spring '42, Takanobu blade, that there IS NO serial number! Argggggh. The first one we found, Winter '42, has a serial number that is appropriate for the 1942 year, but the mei is ugly for a Mantetsu (which could be explained by the idea that Takanobu, himself, cut the mei). This latest one has perfect, beautiful Mantetsu styled mei, but no serial number! And both have wavy hamon, not the standard suguha, but you would expect that in a custom blade made by a big-shot in the company that doesn't normally smith blades. Hrumph! The first one, linked above by Thomas, was posted in 2009, quite a few years before we started seeing suspect Mantetsu blades coming out of Japan. So, to me, the evidence tilts toward legit. This second one comes out in the gimei Mantetsu age, with great mei, but no serial number. So, it could be a fake, and the forger missed the detail about the serial number. I just don't picture a gimei forger knowing the Mantetsu operation well enough to say "Gee, let me pick an obscure, almost unknown engineer in SMR to the collecting world, to create a faked custom blade".

Like what Hamish? Don't know if this helps at all:

Saw this for sale. Quite gorgeous, but out of my price-range, if anyone is interested. For Sale HERE.

Someone thought the Nihonto guys would be a good place to get some opinions on this hamon. It's on a Mantetsu, so not nihonto, but the blade is attributed to Takanobu, who was the engineer in charge of over-all blade production for the SMR factory. This is only the 2nd blade I've seen with his attribution on it (Takanobu quenched this), so if not gimei, it's a rare one (I don't own this, BTW, it's for sale on Buyee/Yahoo). JP thought it struck him as Seki style hamon, which if true could help support the gimei idea, but it could simply mean that Takanobu got trained by a Seki smith. Any thoughts?

Another. LINK

A picture from Chris (Vajo, not his gunto). LINK

One of Neil's. LINK

Adding to the collection. LINK

Ha! Good catch, didn't spot that! Yeah, the whole thing looks like it was Bubba'd up. Some of these gunto arrive in pretty bad shape. The handy-man in us makes us want to fix it. I suspect this one was one of those.

Tortoise shell and god dedication: "The writing on the side of the blade reads "Hachiman no Kami" which translates to "Hachiman the Lord (god)". Hachiman is the deity of archery and warfare."

Dave, that ito reminds me of a Rinji I just saw. It was almost colorless, tan, and quite course. Here's a picture. The seller said the fuchi was a reproduction replacement but claimed the rest was original.

Dave's example is the kind Paul is referring to. It's what I'm used to seeing also. An option on this one is that as 1945-made blades (I assume), there were likely many unused ones at factories and even a warehouse or 2. The gunto I started this thread with could be something thrown together by the locals at war's end and sold as "souvenirs" to occupying G.I.s. A similar thought as the souvenir Army/Navy gunto produced by Tenshozan for the US Army PX. So, the blade may have been made for the war, but the koshirae is cheap tourist stuff. A possibility.