Blank Nakago.

[Dave R]

 How common is it for a factory made blade to have no stamps or signature on the nakago. I have recently bought a damaged blade in what was left of Shin-Gunto mounts, sold as being a factory blade in homogeneous or mill steel. There is a cursory attempt at yasurimei, not even the same on each side, and very lightly done.

[Bruce Pennington]

Dave, I have seen plenty of blades brought for I.D. with no markings. Seems fairly normal in my brief experience.

[Shamsy]

As Bruce says, not uncommon at all. I'll add that paint was used as a substitute to carving for some of the mass produced blades, so it's not an unreasonable assumption that some of these blank nakago probably had painted markings at some stage. Still plenty that have the paint intact to.

[Dave R]

Thanks for the info guys. I had it in my mind that a non-trad. blade would be stamped with an arsenal mark or Sho stamp. The reason I was bothered was that I had no intention of working on a  traditional blade myself.

 It was bent like a bow, having apparently been run over by a vehicle at some point. It is now straight.

As to why I bought it, I regard these tool steel blades as the "last of the series" for real Japanese swords..... Anything made after 1945 being a replica. My personal opinion only, and I know many would disagree.