Bruce Pennington

Thanks Brian! Paul - My apologies my good man! I was at the end of a LOOOONNNNG work day and had some adult beverages under my belt, so I got a bit emotional in my last post! Ironic, because I hate it when I read a thread where guys are going off on each other. Hugs and Kisses!

Nice find Paul! The blade looks almost short enough to be waki-length. What's the cutting edge legnth?

Paul, you state you are "...here to learn..." yet disregard the expertise of one of the most knowledgable Type 95 experts that exist in the community. He states that it is "undeniably" legit, and you complain that it's a "ver opinionated" statement - well of course it's opinionated - it's his opinion! If you are interested in learning you might spend some time asking what it is about the gunto that seems so legit. Well you didn't ask, but here's a few points: 1. The fuller groove is accurate, even down to the proper shape at the kisaki, which fakes (to my knowledge) haven't gotten right yet. 2. The Tokyo inspector stamp on the blade is completely accurate, which is so far beyond the fakers to get right. 3. The nakago is completely accurate, well made, with proper patina. The fakers have yet to successfully reproduce a beautiful nakago like this. 4. The barrel screws are perfect. 5. The base of the ito design is perfect. 6. The precision of the ito wrapping is perfect, not the "sand-blasted" look the fakers produce. 7. The serial numbers are legit. 8. The seppa and tsuba are completely accurate. And I'm nowhere near the expert on 95's that Steve is. There is NOTHING about the gunto that looks fake. NOW, as to the saya, I agree about the bright aluminum screws. I don't like them. As I stated above, I don't like the paint job on the saya. I find it odd that the saya has legit semegane and ashi, but horrific ishigane and koiguchi. Weird. So is the saya a piece-together contraption? If so, the possibilities are by 1. A foriegn post-war dealer, or 2. a post-war collector. Or is the saya something done by a early war Japanese shop, grabbing what he could get and throwing poorly made make-shift other stuff in to complete the job? We know that hacks existed out there during the war because Nick Komiya has provided articles and Tech orders complaining of their poor products. So, the origin of the saya is any mans' guess. Yours is just as good as mine, and both have been stated. Guy is the owner and gets to roll with his own take on the matter.

Same here, and I'm not at home to prowl through my reference books.

A bigger flag maybe? I'm not at home and don't have my books - doesn't the one in Dawson have a different shape to the "blade" as well, like a taper where the flag goes?

Ok, wow! After an honest discussion with the guy, he's stated he will remove the add! I passed along my best wishes and empathy for having a repro on his hands. Rare event, and testiment to his character!

I sent the seller a message. Hope he listens. Sometimes they get irate.

I agree with Shamsy & Hamfish! Blade and its fittings legit (lucky you with such a low serial number!!!) The saya and its fittings are a puzzle. The paint quality on the saya is crappy, unusual for a 94/98. The ashi and semegane look great while the koiguchi and ishizuke look worse than a Chinese fake! The Chinese fakes are better than this work! HA! All I can imagine is that with the shortage, and suppliers scrambling to meet production demands, mabye this custom koshirae guy couldn't get all the fittings for this, and had a local guy craft the odd ones for him on the "hurry-up". Guy, I think your theory is right-on.

Same here, only once or twice on a 98. I have a Rinji ('44 pattern) with it. I can't say I've seen anything about it in the reference books, other than the fact that it was used, in general. Sort of makes your gunto have some personalized uniqueness!

Wow, it's a shame it didn't have the original flag with it!

Hi Bruce - Bruce here! You're talking about an Officer Type 98 in combat saya (scabbard). That all you need? Have you taken the tsuka (handle) off to see if there is a swordsmith name and/or date? Ha! John was posting as I was, beat me by 1 minute!

Eugene, In my earlier years, I would have rattled off a long list of the things I see wrong, where the veterans would remain silent. But as I have been at this for a while, I'm seeing how much better the reproductions are getting, and I realize that every bit of help they can get by reading posts like this, helps them make their fakes even better. I would recommend you check with your original person who raised the concern about it's originality. You might also visit the Ohmura site and study the pictures there. http://ohmura-study.net/790.html I'm not trying to be rude, but we don't know you and your authenticity in your posted reasons to be here. And even if your intentions are completely legitimate, the "bad guys" are still out there and could read this post. I don't want to help them any more than necessary.

I agree. This claims to be made by Suya Shoten, but their standards and quality control were much higher than this. The serial number looks very short by the size of the painted over area - maybe too short. But it would really help to see that.

Brian, Thanks for that link, I had not seen those articles before! The one on gunto requirements was interesting. It states that a hamon is optional. Also interesting in the cutting test that a steel plate was to be cut as well as the usual bamboo role.

Chris, If you don't find an answer here, a couple of guys that might know are Nick Komiya at Warrelics http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/Japanese-militaria/ and Chris Bowen, currently active on Facebook: Military Swords of Imperial Japan (Shin Gunton).

The reason that made me curious is that it seems that on all earlier Type 95s, the standardization and quality control of the Tokyo arsenal, and it's associated contractors, seems to be tighter than the Nagoya group. So if I were in a decision making role at the end of the war, and was going to pick a group to continue making swords, it seems I would pick the one that did the best work. Unless that group didn't exist anymore, or I wanted to use them to make something else that their quality production reputation demanded. Probably a question that is unanswerable, but thought I'd throw it out there just in case.

I agree and have never been able to put it into words like you just did. The real tsukas have crisp detail, and the fakes always seem not-crisp. Also, they definitely like those brass tsukas, don't they! I have NO idea what that belt hanger is supposed to be.

Chris & Steve, Concerning the use of the term "Type" - If I understand Nick's objection it is this: There were official Imperial orders by the Imperor officiallly creating certain weapons of all kinds. Those orders generate the "Type" designation. Everything else is a variation of those official Types. It bothers him when we use the word Type for the Rinji gunto because that implies that the style was ordered by the Imperor, which it was not. Like Steve said, and I tried to explain this to Nick as well, collectors live in another world, using differing languages. We use nicnames to simplify language. Instead of saying "hey look at the 80 Yen model created to be simpler to manufacture and has laquered ito designed to withstand more use without cutting and unraveling!" We say "hey look at my Type 3". So I understand his objection, and as I get deeper into military gunto, I struggle with it too. We collectors are even bothered when a seller calls them "Marine Landing Sword"! HA! So until the community settles on a term that makes everyone happy, we're going to have lengthy sentences to describe what we are about to discuss. And it will generate lengthy threads like this one!

Sorry, I’ve never heard that part of the process.

Chris, very cool that you found these two "sister" swords! Are the nakago numbers you refer to painted numbers? The 98's were being made all the way to the end of the war. The Rinji (type 3) or Contingency sword was made parallel to the 98's. Earliest date I've seen is Dec '42 and they run all the way through '45.

Seems to me almost all late-war Type 95 NCO gunto were made by Seki/Nagoya, with a few made by Incheon. Any idea why? Were the other contractors (Iijima, Suya, etc) bombed? Were they tasked with other weapons contracts? Anyone know?

There seems to be a rash off these with fake “Gifu” stamps lately. The Kokura stamp is wrong and there’s no inspector stamp. The serial number is upside down for a Kokura blade too . Good quality reproduction, but not authentic. I wouldn’t pay more than $150 USD for a reproduction.

Andrew take a look at this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/GREAT-WWII-Japanese-Samurai-Sword-Officer-SHIN-GUNTO-World-War-2-KATANA-Blade/222672092411?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D41451%26meid%3De2599044f4dd4b888818b0785fd5d66f%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D6%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D202073969705&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851 Leather saya seems very similar.

Dawson has some that are close. Closest seems to be the Guard Design #3, pg 226. He states "During the ten years that passed between the introduction of the 1873 models and the introduction of the 1883 models, the navy apparently experimented with a variety of designs that were not included in the Naval Uniform Regulations" So I'd say a Navy 1873 variant. Be nice if someone would translate the kanji?!?

Chris, The issue guys have with the "crew gunto" label is there was no such official term in the IJA. There were official "Types" (94, 95, 97, 98, etc) but not "crew". I understand the image created by Ohmura-san's page, but as good as he was, there has been MUCH research into the National Archives on this. Like you point out, if a guy wanted to use a waki because he worked a tank or aircraft, that was his choice. But it was just a waki. There are blade types (tanto, waki, katana, etc) and Types. Other than the contengency models (Rinji), there are no other official labels. As collectors we throw some labels around because they have been adopted by our world, and that does help communicate something specific to others, but if it's different than official lingo, it can run aground with guys that get more deeply into the craft.