Kintepro

Awesome, thank you very much for taking a look! I ordered a lot of 12 or so, we'll see if that'll do the trick.

Hey guys, just curious what your thoughts are on this type 98 that I recently picked up from ebay. I thought it looked ok from the listing photos, but there are a couple points I would like to highlight and/or ask about: 1. For one, the listing didn't show the tang, so I included some detailed pics of it below. If anyone here is able to read Japanese and translate the mei I would certainly appreciate it! Chat gpt gave me names like "Noda Hideki" and "noda Akinobu" and "Noda, Shōwa 18th Year" I think it was struggling to accurately interpret the photo. I couldn't find a replica of it exactly. I may look more on my own tomorrow to see if I can find something similar. 2. What do the painted red symbols mean? 3. There was a bit of a gap between the seppa and the habaki with the mekugi installed. Although I can push the tsuka all the way tight with the mekugi uninstalled... it's pretty minor. Almost like the hole is just slightly off. I was able to re-attach the mekugi and get it a little tighter with a foot-ish long piece of floss, but there is still some play in the tsuba. The tsuba also looks slightly rough or damaged where the chuso hole is. The tuska hugs the nakago tightly regardless, the blade doesn't wobble if I move it around, just the tsuba and seppa (a little bit). I may be overthinking it, perhaps a little play is normal in something that's probably pushing close to 90 years old. 4. Hamon is very hard to see. I can see it all the way to the tip in person with a flashlight on the blade but didn't capture well on camera. 5. None of the seppa are numbered, but the tsuka and fuchi have matching numbers 37. 6. What does the small black symbol painted inside the tsuka mean? Nothing else stood out to me as too weird. The blade isn't perfect. There are scratches, some small corrosion spots, two fingerprints from someone not handling it properly, etc. I'm more into WW2 collecting and figured it was appropriate to post here in this sub forum. If you guys think the $1200 I paid is way too much feel free to tell me off lol, I'll go get my money back. Here's the full album but I will post some noteworthy photos below. https://imgur.com/a/8nS44c6

Well, that explains a lot lol... Thank you for the tip. I'm looking at another one on the bay for 1500 beans. It is a Kanezane factory showato blade. It is in decent shape but has some small amounts of staining, a few chips, and what might have been pitting... I may hold off and try to find one in better shape. The one you linked to looks really nice! That was a good deal for ebay. https://www.ebay.com...174627&segname=11051

Some more pictures of the tang.

I recently picked up this Navy Kai Gunto from the seller "Showa22" on ebay. Now, I have read that he occasionally sells some suspicious pieces, but he does have 100% feedback and a no questions return policy, so I can get my money back if need be. I first thought this sword looked pretty good, though perhaps a bit of an aggressive cleanup of the blade, but on further inspection, I have found some things that appear suspicious. First, there is what looks to be a delamination along the hamon. Secondly, the Fuchi is very loose over the hilt once disassembled. I cannot imagine that is original. The pommel/sarute are also a bit loose. Another user on reddit suggested that it might be a "put together" sword with some original parts but perhaps not originally from the same sword. The tsuba and seppa are not numbered as far as I can see. The hanger fittings on the saya are slightly loose. The tsuba/seppa are slightly loose as well but it may just need a new dowel (mekugi?). What are your guys' thoughts on the piece? The sale price was $1750 + shipping/tax. Based on the small number of examples I could find, I think that is reasonable if it's original but if it's just a put together sword I may end up returning it. Here is also a drive link with a video of the fuchi and more pictures. Most of my pictures are too high resolution and don't want to post. https://drive.google...whzsWKdl-VXknFVGJhza