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Bruce Pennington

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Everything posted by Bruce Pennington

  1. Bruce Pennington
    Aoi Japan graciously send me the original picture and with the added clarity I can see the top kanji is a 5! It could even be 556, or 526!
  2. Bruce Pennington
    Hm, I may have to amend my comment on this on my Stamps document. Are those smith names or factories?
  3. Bruce Pennington
    I don't think this one has been posted yet. It's a single kanji used for "Good Luck".
  4. Bruce Pennington
    John, The way I read that discussion is that there were certain years each of the 4 mei appeared, or began being used, but that didn't mean the previous mei stopped completely.
  5. Bruce Pennington
    Thanks guys! It came from AoiJapan sales site. Here's the full-sized picture. It's not high-res enough. Sometimes someone is able to recognize the kanji hidden in the mess, so it was worth a try. Thanks Stephen! Your guess is along the lines I was leaning, so I'll go with 326.
  6. Bruce Pennington
    Thanks Stephen. I'll go with that unless someone else has a better idea. Neil - No kidding! But it's clear someone spent a couple thousand on the polish, so they've likely added that to the 3,000 Mantetsu price. The Japanese sites seem to sell at higher prices than we see elswhere.
  7. Bruce Pennington
    Katakana "I", but the numbers aren't very clear. Anyone make out the numbers on this Mantetsu nakago mune?
  8. Bruce Pennington
    Thanks Eric! I generally ignore this site because they usually don't post pics of the serial number, but this one had it! I appreciate it. Though I can't make out the number. Katakana "I" the "3" or "2", then the rest is too blurry. anyone want to take a stab at this number? Quite a beautiful blade, BTW!
  9. Bruce Pennington
    Oh never mind! I forgot the general tassel had red and brown laced with gold. Just pretend this never happened {tiptoeing away now}
  10. Bruce Pennington
    OK, learned something new today! Ha! However Dave’s point was the main point - only 95’s use top-latches (mune edge).
  11. Bruce Pennington
    Sorry, I was referring to this one:
  12. Bruce Pennington
    Sooooo, I seriously doubt Tojo carried a Field grade tassel!
  13. Bruce Pennington
    Chris, the kaigunto don't use latches, and therefore wouldn't have the holes for it. Shamsy or Stegel have seen it all and could tell you for sure.
  14. Bruce Pennington
    Do you know who the second sword is attributed to? It has a Field grad tassel.
  15. Bruce Pennington
    Chris, good eye! You're right, it's seems to be leather! How unique.
  16. Bruce Pennington
    Barry, if you look closely at his first pic, you can see that his saya is bare wood. It was originally covered in either leather or canvas (which is what he’s looking for). The wood isn’t painted so it was meant to be covered.
  17. Bruce Pennington
    Interesting that the one from Bill’s site has no same’ at all, but is black painted wood under the ito!
  18. Bruce Pennington
    Many officer blades come with a date on the other side from the smith's name. If yours doesn't have one, it's not really possible to say. If you know the smith, some of them died during the war. So if you have a date of his death, you'd be able to say it was made "no later than ...".
  19. Bruce Pennington
    I’m surprised they gave us such a clear picture of the fuchi stamps! Quite an artsy-fartsy Kokura stamp! At least they attempted a Nagoya inspection stamp. And gee, I didn’t know the Tokyo inspector was a contractor!
  20. Bruce Pennington
    I had the same negative response as Neil when writing to them. I even had someone write my letter in Japanese.
  21. Bruce Pennington
    This one popped up over on gunboards and I just noticed the original slot for the officer style latch in the koiguchi has been filled with a new wood piece, obviously newer than the liner!
  22. Bruce Pennington
    Interesting. I didn’t even know there were more than one color!
  23. Bruce Pennington
    Just a slight technical correction: Seki stamps were from a craftsman’s guild working under Kokura Arsenal administration until Kokura’s authority was split up and then they fell under the Nagoya Arsenal.
  24. Bruce Pennington
    Hamfish, I just realized what you meant by the interesting koiguchi! You’re right it appears to be made for this 95, which supports my first impression that this was a gunto purchased by an officer during the gunto shortage with a custom built saya.
  25. Bruce Pennington
    Thanks Stephen. I added it to the Stamps document. Latest version 1.5 attached if anyone wants a copy.stamps.docx
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