Lareon

Ok, thank you all for your replies. I must admit when I first saw them for sale I was uncertain about the darker purple one hence the post. when it's in hand it seems genuine in every way. it feels old and brittle at places (probably why the tassels have come off) but as pointed out this is inconsistent with the colour being vibrant so you could rule out damage by light it has a bit of fraying consistent with being on a sword (doesn't prove anything though) the weave and material is almost exactly the same as my others. if you compare the edges of the tassels there is a difference (see attached photo) the blue brown tassel is stitched with a solid colour on each side the purple tassel has a single row of the opposite colour so one edge has a single row of purple and its opposite edge has a single row of brown. the length of the tassels is the same too (I believe there is some variance in this anyway so again doesn't prove anything) the only thing throwing me off is the colour. it is a very rich deep blue / purple but that seems to be explained by others as different variation in colour Thank you all for your feedback Tony

I purchased a couple of tassels recently with a skeptical mind on at least one of them. I wanted to get a general consensus on everyone's opinion of these two I wont mention too much as I don't want to tilt opinions one way or the other with what I believe to be the case.

Picked this up on a whim but was wondering if someone with a book could give me the right name. I'm not at home at the moment so don't have access to my books to check, 19th century 1886 company grade officers? Don't have it in hand at the moment so these photos will have to do for now

Ah Yes, In the end I didn't go for it but it is cleaned up nicely. glad to see it going to a good home

Just wanted to say I bought some Bags recently from Tomoko and they are excellent quality and am very happy with them. Would Highly recommend both the service and the items Tony

Really Nice, in very good condition. @Bruce Pennington has a download available with a lot of info on Mantetsu swords - click downloads at the top of the forum

A few close ups of the Sarute. the colour is much darker than the wrap. no idea if it's original

A sword I purchased around a month ago in the US. Nothing special but in good condition

Kelly Schmidt is the man as Brian says he has a newsletter with items in he sends out periodically too which is nice

yeah looks good, decent amount of paint still on the tsuka too.

also please Don't touch the metal with your bare hands, you will damage it. wipe off any fingerprints you may have left on it and as Brian said, read the FAQ on caring for it as a starter.

It's a shame the fittings feel so loose on it but if it's a symptom of original quality control then I'm happy with that. I will finish my 95 collection with a copper handle and an iron tsuba version at some point. Not seen a copper handle in the uk for a while at a price I like So got to get lucky

Ah you solved one of the mysteries for me. this was the no.1 reason i was sceptical, due to my ignorance on the change of pattern I was comparing it to my others and could see the tsuka pattern was different It also feels different in the hand to my others the texture and weight are different

Apologies I forgot the blade serial number photo

PM Sent

Here is my least favourite NCO blade, I debated for a long time whether this was a good fake or not so opinions are welcome. a few things made me question it. It did come with a nice surprise though, there was no mention of a tassel with it when i bought it but when i collected it, what was hanging from the Saya, a genuine NCO tassel (broken) but genuine. the fittings are very loose and feel like they dont fit, there is play in all the fitting and i don't know why. maybe i can fix it somehow. The Saya is Re-Painted black (Badly as you can see from the throat) something about the bohi shape made me suspicious i guess. serials match on the saya and the blade. blade is scratched to hell on the sides but is still sharp - i could ID all previous owners from the fingerprints on it. the feel of the tsuka is different to my other 95s it feels lighter and rougher? anyway here are some photos Will put up more if people want. Tony

Thank you Steve, Pleased I got as far as I did

The sword is in fairly poor condition but I was wondering what the mei said Sho Wa ju ...hachi ??? nen go ??? gatsu fourth - im not sure about may 1943 ? I'm probably wildly off but i'll be interested to see

Perfect, I was looking for something like this recently, thats a great help

Thanks for information - do you have a resource for the age / company / serial number rough dates? Cheers

I saw this for sale here: https://www.antiques.co.uk/antique/Japanese-Illustrated-Text-on-Samurai-Armor-and-Equipment thought the information inside was worth preserving and maybe of interest to someone

Thank you all Tony

Navy Tocho below but you never know what post processing has been done on the photo. throw it in photoshop and make it pop a little and the colour will be wildly different. even take it with a phone and adjust the colour a bit to make it look "cleaner" will adjust the colour

Apologies Thomas, I didn't see this The colour is a very very dark brown almost to the point of black. the serial number does match yes, it's very obscured though, i've taken a quick picture for you as best I can.