loiner1965

agree brian, moriyama san experience in reading kanji is without doubt second to none and he can see things i will never see in my lifetime of studying.....

LOL i was right your are related LOL lol....................................................................if the cap fits

to my inexperience eyes i can see kiyo too......

sure i have seen one ...will have to do a search..............i know he did do some blades with a saka arsenal stamp too

emura made swords pass shinsa i believe.....and nagamitsu ones do too

What do you mean with that - paper NOK or sword not genuine? sword is genuine ....is it a fake paper

never knew they passed shinsa with a seki or showa stamp on but if this is genuine then i am over the moon

could be fake but its smaller than a normal tsuba ..i was going to say why fake a gunto but as we know they do......as mythbusters would say......busted

i thought so too but it does have the tokyo / nagoya stamp on it....trouble is they are so many things popping up now esp gunto its hard to say real or fake

i know they are a few different designs on these but not seen this one before.....even as the tokyo arsenal stamp on it....smaller than the normal ones. could these be for another sidearm rather than the katana.

its true what george says as i just found out recently...they was no standard at all for military gunto swords....a soldier could carry any style he wanted but he could not use any sword knot that he had to stick to what he was issued

cheers dick.....so basically there is no standard gunto as such

nice blade....it could also be a mismatch koshirae too

not seen them like that before.....looks more chinese but who knows

just a thought.....how many variations were they. i seen those on the military swords of Japan link but also seen variations of those too. anyone have a link to any more

agree with john that Moriyama san is superb at reading kanji and is valuable to this forum...my only advice is to read grey doffin post on sword care and preserve it.

times are hard stephen :D

hopefully i resized it enough to be translated for you

that sounds an interesting read barry....do you reckon the outer skin was made from inported steel because of its high carbon content or was it because it was easier to use etc..i doubt anyone will ever know why as with any steel the amount of carbon can be added or reduce depending what application it was for.....interesting discussion

fully understand what you are saying brian...i do not know what steel the sword is made of only that its hand made and water tempered...it could be tamahagane or foreign steel or a mixture of the two...only the smith will know for sure. i know nihonto collectors determine the word traditionally made by meaning with tamahagane steel which as you say not strictly true...they is i believe no way of knowing without destroying the sword and using scientific methods to determine what steel was used in manufacture but for arguments sake i will use the words handmade rather than traditionally made so not to cause confusion.

least likely stamp to be on a gendaito would be the seki one as i think someone on here wrote out of 100 gendaitos they will only be one with the seki arsenal stamp....i am lucky as i have one to prove it....i think showato swords are a very interesting subject as very little is known or documented due to i believe wrong information,

i agree its like opening a big can of worms as i do not think its possible to determine what steel or what percentage is used in constructing a sword unless it was documented . most gendaito will not be as the purist say traditionally made as in tamahagane but the steps in making will be traditional......strangely enough we know more about swords made 400 years or more ago than swords made in the last century

http://www.ryujinswords.com/shostamp.htm interesting reading if completely true

glad to be of help....its great when a very experienced member like john contributes to a thread as they can point you in the right direction and your learning curve will vastly improve

http://www.japanszwaard.nl/uk/zwaarden.html forth sword down is made from western steel