Bruce Pennington

Matt, the scabbard (saya) is absolutely correct! This one has some collector interest, to me, because of the black painted diamonds, if original. You can decipher the fuchi stamps, yourself, here: http://ohmura-study.net/794.html

Peter, The small stamp at the top of the nakago is the "Showa" stamp, put on military blades made during the war in the non-traditional manner. The painted kanji are numbers - 5701 - and like you said, were used to keep parts together, since almost all officer gunto were of varying sizes and shapes. So once parts were fitted to each other, they were able to keep them together even if seperated, like for final polishing. I can normally read date kanji, but this one has me stumped! Nice find. the complete leather set is fairly rare!

Chris, See this Ohmura page,http://ohmura-study.net/714.html, this gunto has "silver" fittings. Also, there are many gunto with aluminum seppa, if that's what you mean.

Chris, Unusual arrangment, but not unheard-of. Can you give us details and pics of the blade? By the looks of the Kabu, sarute, and seppa, it looks to be a high-quality set-up. I'm betting the blade is old and/or family because of the tsuba. Unless someone has seen this ito type before, I'd say it is something done after the war. Do you have any history on the gunto?

Thanks Dave! All real Japanese parts, but as you say, no way to know WHO put them together.

Dave, love to see the pics! Ogling other people's swords' here, is the next best thing to ogling them in-hand!

Yes, those are strangely too perfect and not a recognized font.

This looks good from a distance, but up close the details reveal the fake. The biggest giveaway are the stamps. They are getting better with the Kokura cannonballs, but this one - the lines are to thin, the balls too big. Then the horror is the "Ko" stamp! WAY too big, wrong place and the square imprint around it. The seppa is a clear fake, and like everyone else said, the bo-hi starts too far down the blade and the tip is round (like a Nagoya).

Greg, After seeing the comment from Brian (Admin) on another thread, we might not get any actual Chinese collectors to respond: "I agree with Wah. There are a number of collectors from there that visit, and the stats show quite a lot of traffic from there. But seeing as it is basically illegal in China, and they do it under threat of prosecution, no wonder they are a bit wary about participating. Like in Russia, where there is a large underground collecting fraternity in bayonets etc, which are also illegal. Everywhere in the world you get this. For some, it is an added thrill to collecting. For others (such as some of the wealthy Chinese) it is somewhere to put excess funds, and considered a form of art. Used to by the Arab countries..then Russia, and now China."

I bet Stegel would know! My only one is 211,894 seki. StuW shows a pic of one that is 206,027.

I have the Kapps' first book and there are things in it, as well, that are tell-tale signs of folks writing about things without thorough knowledge of what they are saying. I don't have the book in hand, at the moment, but they make a statement about the number of swords that were made during the war and seem to lump both officer and NCO numbers together as if they don't realize that NCO are not officers. That aside, they put out some useful information not included in my other reference books. Just goes to show - you have to become the expert in everything because the "experts" are human and need to be checked and verified (trust but verify, eh!).

Wah, makes sense that the Chinese would develop an interest in collecting. What this means, though, is it will make Fake spotting more complex. Up to now, anytime I see an eBay offer coming from China, I disregard it automatically. But if there is a real collector population growing there, one should take a real look at an offer coming from there for it might be legit.

Wayne, Interesting point. I once read that the city of Nagoya had 17 sword factories surrounding it. I know the Seki operation had many more than that. So, in once sense, it's surprising that there isn't more variation in the font than there is. But I guess it depends upon where, and by whom, the stamping was done.

This is a discussion that should be on another thread. And David, I'd be happy to toss that around with you if you care to start the thread.

As far as I know, Nagoya was the only one making them with the side latch. That is definitely the highest serial number I've seen on an aluminum handled gunto.

Yes, for some reason they are usually in English, but occasionally they will be Japanese. These are "26".

What do you guys think about: 兼貞 (Kanesada) ?

Greg, The date is March 1943. I'm REALLY new at smith names, so I'll work on it, but there are lots of guys here who will probably get a name for you before I can!

Neil, I honestly don't have enough experience with the copper-handle gunto to say, and I've never read about an answer to why. I have read about the repair ops with Type 32's where it was common at the repair facility to file the ser# off the drag and restamp (I own one and the file marks are clearly visible), but have never heard that this was done to early 95's. Mine does not look like it was filed or modified. All I could say about it would be speculation. One possibility is that as the copper-handled 95's were the first of their kind, maybe the practice of stamping the saya wasn't standardized. I sort of doubt this, though, because they had been stamping matching numbers on type 32's for some time leading up to the 95. Another possibility is that the coppers were in the war the whole time. Maybe damage and/or loss brought in replacement throat pieces that were unstamped. I once saw a chart someone had drawn up of the known copper-handled guntos he had seen and if I understood it rightly, probably 2/3 of them had no number on the saya. So, another mystery!

Ha! I own one!

That's what they are going for these days. I paid $2,400 for mine, but that was a year ago.

Yes, low as in less than 6,000 (there were a few made over 6,000 but never 7,000). Fakes I've seen have numbers like 13,xxx or higher.

Good point Jean. I think the difference lies in that some of us are military/WWII fans and collectors vs someone who is an art sword collector. While we are both swords fans, we collect for different reasons. For me, the WWII follower, and gunto fan, the price isn't relevant, although I'd LOVE to get these cheaper!

Thanks Neil, it appears the Nagoya style bo-hi ends more rounded unlike the Kokura/Tokyo blades. The full length of it (bo-hi) is not as precisely cut, and the kissaki is more squarish. Good to know when trying to spot fakes and reproductions.

Neil, Can you post a pic of the kissaki end of the bo-hi on your gunto? I've never handled a Nagoya 95 and this being my first I was a little worried about the shape of mine. It's rounded vs the Kokura/Tokyo Arsenal blades that the end of the bo-hi follows the shape of the kissaki.