Rare Scabbard Lock

[Ed]

Not as cool as Bill's Prototype NCO sword, but still a rare find, and I thought you guys might like it. A friend got a sword in a Shi-gunto koshirae and it has a Iida scabbard lock. They can be seen in Dawson's "Swords of Imperial Japan" pg 169. He didn't send me any photos of the tsuba, which is specialized as well to accept the locking mechanism. I am trying to get him to send me the entire thing to photograph, if he does i will post more photos. The sword itself is a bit unusual as well as it has had the Nakago extended (see post under nihonto).