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Showa22 At It Again!


Stegel

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Luis the middle type NCO Type95 Gunto has a Iron Tsuba. 

But when it is the initial type 95 than it has the brass tsuba.

 

So what type is it? It shows a copper fuchi. The middle type has a iron fuchi. Maybe we all wrong and Showa22 changed it to the correct fitting?

Hmm,..

 

I think not so, because the blade No. is very high. The blade doesn't fit to the fittings. 

 

Maybe we must clear this?

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Christoph: It is what it is for whateber reason. We can not know who assembled it for what reason. Can we rule out that what we see is what a Japanese dude had originally assambled  from the pieces he had? No we can not rule this out.

 

In a War people will take what they have available in parts. Especially towards the end of the war you will have lost of short cummings and people will improvise.

 

Take a look at the Gendaito you had bought from me. I was probably the 1st person to take its handle off since it had left Japan and the Seppas / Tsuba had different numbr. For whatever reason.

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Luis the Type3 from you (a very eye candy gendaito) had missing "silver" seppas i bought 2 Type3 silver seppa for that type in Japan for $100 and now it is in the original condition and the lock mechanism works perfect. I understand this as a little restauration to bring it back to its original state.

 

post-3496-0-98246700-1539627612_thumb.jpg

 

You know also that I'm a big fan of type3 swords. So it is boring for me to have a 95% original sword  ;-)

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Hmmm..... ok

 

Lets stick to the facts first.

 

Some of the bad behaviour i found:

1 Re-stamping of scabbards to make matching sets.
2 Rebuilding swords from other donor swords.
3 Adding parts to replace missing parts, and how conveniently, they now have matching numbers...
4 and the usual dealer activity, buy now and re-sell later at higher sale prices of course! (usually with very suspect bid activity)

 

 

 

Examples:

Serial # 24244
Originally sold with NO Throat on the scabbard by a different seller, then sold by him 4wks later with a "new and matching" throat on the scabbard   -no inspection mark as he doesn't have those stamps.

Serial # 19410
Aluminium handled NCO with a Copper handled scabbard sold on Aug 03 2018. Then re-sold by him on Aug 14 2018 with, you guessed it, 'matching scabbard' The mistake is you now have a Tokyo sword and Nagoya scabbard, DOHH!! The quick turn around could mean the original seller lives very close to him/ is VERY 'close' to him / or is him.
( HOT TIP----> Get ready for a future 'matching' Copper Handled sale soon..with the scabbard he just swapped out.)


Serial # 7241
Item relisted after being sold. on re-sale, had more bids with $175 increase. Looks like he 'bought' his own sword then sold it 3wks later at a better price, This second sale has suspicious bid activities

Serial # 27602
Sold with 'matching scabbard', however, the scabbard is re-stamped, once again you now have a Tokyo sword and Nagoya scabbard.

A completely invalid configuration, never released in this way by the arsenals. Very hard to notice as well for a newbie to collecting.

 

 


Serial # 123609
Also sold with 'matching scabbard', however, the scabbard is re-stamped, again you now have a Tokyo sword and Nagoya scabbard.

And the best of ALL!!!!

Serial # 41823
Originally sold with a steel tsuba and fuchi, non matching scabbard... and you guessed it, resold with brass tsuba, copper fuchi and matching 're-stamped' scabbard. Again you now have a Tokyo sword and Nagoya scabbard. It is now essentially a completely different sword....nice profit margin too!!


These all occured in the last 6mths, and i can provide evidence of these and other sales by him .

 

 

The intentional deception and lies (stating they are original and not modified) are what i am exposing and letting possible buyers be aware of what they are dealing with.

 

 

 

Now Luis,

I am a realist so i'll tell you the way it is.

 

Yes this is the NMB forum dealing with all things nihonto, this caters primarily for 'blade' lovers.

There are also other blade lovers who like the fittings, so they frequent the tosogu page.

Others again want to buy/sell blades so they visit the trading pages.

 

A while ago, Brian introduced the Military swords of Japan page.

This page is for the discussion and identification of non-traditionally made Japanese military swords 1876-1945

The pure 100% machine made swords are a subset of this page, which is primarily frequented by MILITARIA enthusiasts who want to know more about their swords etc.

militaria - Military articles of historical interest, such as weapons, uniforms, and equipment.

Historical correctness is important here.

 

As your user name suggests, you must be a blade lover. 

I don't understand why you persist (with an air of arrogance i might add) in trying to hijack this thread with your self righteous crap, are you a natural born agent provocateur?

 

 

 In one years archeologists would start a debate over the Playboy Magazine collection under my bed and speculate would could have been the reason for storing magazines on a ground level. I bet there would be some great, most obsucre theories ...

 

Even here, i see that you miss the point no matter how obvious...  simple really, it's not about the level at all.

*edit by admin - point made*

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My take on the sword while it is my turn to historically molest it...

 

Day glow ito  with perspex tsuba , sprinkles of glitter , fake jewels embedded into the tsuka and saya

It would have a worksafe reflective piping along the edges of a new Hi-viz combat cover.

to keep the militaria guys happy i'll stamp matching numbers on all parts visible.

 

I would then say it is not modified in any way and 100% original.

 

But hey..... the value is only in the blade.  who cares about the rest.

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@ Stegel: You are welcome to call me an  arrogant wanker. I don't take offence from this. No hard feelings. However I'd prefer to be called ignorant or stupid or both. This would be more accurate and do me justice.

 

Looking at your latest post it feek a bit pedantic bean counter like.

 

I have no idea how many NCOs there are. Probably several thousands. I see no point in documenting them.

 

Look at what Showa22 has up for sale. If you like it then buy it. If you do not like it then do not buy it.

 

Personally I just do not look at his auctions and I am too busy to document other people auctions. Wanking myself is of higher interest and pleasure. But everybody do what they enjoy best.

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Luis,

 

As a sociologist, you say you don't look at the past, only the present.

Well do you choose to ignore and accept deception and lies? just accept them?? even in our present/current society?

 

This is the point of my original post, as these items can be viewed as historical artifacts where the value of them lies in their 'unmolested' originality, any blatant changes are just simply wrong, and i, along with a large proportion of collectors won't stand for it.

 

My collecting focus is now solely on the type 95 model.

Sorry if i offend you with a pedantic bean counter attitude with these, but i can tell you more about them than you could imagine.

minute changes and production variations etc...

If lightning strikes and you have a sudden change of heart, with an obsessive desire to start collecting these, then i would be glad to get you up to speed, perhaps only then, you would appreciate the purpose of my original post

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Stegel In understand you and where you are coming from. You want a relic / artefact / item that is in most original condition. No debate on this. I fully understand you.

 

My point is just that it makes no sense to debate in Showa22 Frankenstein lab. He will keep on feeding the market. Everybody is free to buy his merchandise or to dismiss it. As long as there are still thousands of NCOs in unaltered condition preserved I see not much point in worrying about his actions - for the main reason that our debate does not chang anything. He will continue as long as he makes a buck on it.

 

Since we still have larger quantities of these swords left - since they are mass produced - I would want to think he is causing little harm in the end.

 

Decpetion and lies are core behaviour in any society. I may not like them but as long as I want to socialite I will have to cope with then,

 

The modern Gassan smiths, Kiyomaro and some other great master were also great conartists. Should I ignore their work? No. I would be most happy to own it and it also part of their history. Now would removing a Gimei  by Kiyomaro be wrong since it is an alteration? I can not answer this question and everybody needs to be their own judge.

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Any idea to analyze this sword correct? The Tsuka looks to the initial type. The blade has a high serial No. I think the sword is total re-assembled an nothing fits really together. Is this correct, or I'm wrong?

Chris,

 

You made me have a good look at the original sale info back in April 2018, and the damage this seller is doing only gets better.

 

What was originally sold was a 100% genuine and un-adulterated Steel tsuba variant.

It had the 'transitional' tsuba, which has the punch outs for both top locking and side locking mechanisms.

I have only come across 5 of these in the last 20 yrs, all were exactly the same configuration and all had the Jinsen Arsenal acceptance stamp next to the normal fuchi stampings.

 

He has actually done himself and the collecting community a disservice.

He swapped this tsuba out for a brass tsuba.

post-1868-0-07536500-1539632638_thumb.jpg

post-1868-0-98739600-1539632662_thumb.jpg

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My point is just that it makes no sense to debate in Showa22 Frankenstein lab. He will keep on feeding the market. Everybody is free to buy his merchandise or to dismiss it. As long as there are still thousands of NCOs in unaltered condition preserved I see not much point in worrying about his actions - for the main reason that our debate does not chang anything. He will continue as long as he makes a buck on it.

 

 

The fact that he has pulled his sale last month after i exposed him, and again just the other day with his latest sale, tells me that this post/forum and debate is making a difference.

People are reading and taking note- including showa22 himself, (i think he values his 100% feedback rating.)

 

 

 

Since we still have larger quantities of these swords left - since they are mass produced - I would want to think he is causing little harm in the end.

I thought you said you were a fatalist?? you have a fairly optimistic attitude i think.

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Thanks Stegel very interesting.

 

To the available quantities of NCO swords.

Compare the car market. Search for mass produced Datsun from the 60s you will find only a few in very high prices. Why? Because the owner don't care about it. Why they should do it. A cheap car mass produced. And now they are rare. The same is in the sword market. You will find all high quality blades from important smith mostley in good condition, like Ferrari. But the market now recognize that the ugley mass produced cars get rare and rise up in the price.

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Jean,

I only looked at the basics for my data base to start with and wasn't aware of the rarity of the original until Chris made me look deeper.

In fact the picture of the tsuba in post 41 is a blow up from the original sale pic, and only about 5% of the original photo.

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However I had thought that those with iron tsuba would have also iron seppa & fuchi? I usually use Ohmuras site for reference for the military stuff.

 

In the original listing I think I see extra seppa added on, and the tsuka does not have black fuchi. So maybe the last seller thought people wanted the ones with iron tsuba and changed it to this one? And now Showa22 changed back the tsuba that had originally belonged with this tsuka? In the end sword has been tinkered multiple times regardless of the final outcome...

 

Since everyone was debating stuff and not answering this...

 

It's fine to have a brass, unpainted seppa on a black, iron tsuba. I have examples. I never remember seeing it the other way around though. The brass tsuba always has a brass seppa.

 

Likewise, it's fine to have a brass, iron or plated fuchi on an iron tsuba sword. Again, plenty of examples. But you never see a black painted iron fuchi on a brass tsuba sword.

 

There's certainly a perception and trend for brass tsuba to fetch higher prices. That's about it really...

 

Edit: oops, missed page 2! Apologies if I repeated anything!

 

Also, damn!! It was a double pierced and also Ichi. Now that would have been nice to own.

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Stegel,

 

I want to thank you for this topic which shows the excellency of some NMB members who can claim (but will never :) ) the name of experts.

 

I feel all the more free to make this comment as I am not interested in this topic but like to understand and you have made a very clear, thorough demonstration, easily understandable for the layman I am so congrats.

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Hello,

All of these posts actually make interesting reading ...I find my knowledge of the NCO variation greatly increasing after every bout...thank's to all...! I never really liked or appreciated the nco variants until these debates started....Just wish I'd bought them when they were relatively cheap and not so popular..

Regards,

Paul...

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Hello,

Yes,well said Chris...Also,but slightly off topic.Having compared different type of gunto fittings I agree with one of your earlier posts and with reference to : 1944 pattern type 3 shin-gunto...They do indeed look and feel like a more purposeful weapon as does the end of war variations of the nco model 95 with wooden hilt...no frills,bells or whistles but does what it says on the tin....

Regards,

Paul..

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As a note about fradulent sales on eBay, they have adopted a very draconian stance on feedback which does make it way harder for negative buyer feedback to stick. But once it does stick, its nigh permanent. And people who do buy on eBay pay really close attention to that. I got into nihonto from a military collector standpoint. My first Japanese sword was a gunto (very proud of it, haven't shown it yet), but it opened up my tastes to the larger world of nihonto and while I cannot currently afford an honest nihonto katana yet, my hope is someday I can. I know I would be severely disappointed if I bought any sort of nihonto that had been altered with intent to defraud or deceive.

 

I am also very glad someone mentioned the Ohmura site as a good reference point for guntos! Its what I generally look at to make sure of what I am looking at in a gunto. I think eventually guntos will be accepted more and more as part of the nihonto family, even if many of their construction techniques are not traditional, much like how the kyu guntos are finding acceptance. I am not making assumptions of anyone in this community, its just what I've noticed in regards to overall attitude throughout the internet to guntos as being inferior. The good ones will survive, the lousy ones will not; much like how mass produced traditional blades tend to not survive as long as good-quality ones.

 

In any case, I am so very glad to find an English-speaking nihonto community with such a deep wealth of knowledge.

 

In regards to this thread's main point. I agree! Do NOT trust Showa22, I've seen him 'sell' some pretty spurious stuff that gave me pause too. So glad I haven't bought from him!

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Showa22 must have a lot of swords and parts. I have no clue where he gets all his stuff and who polish and assemble it. When you look on the pictures i feel he is in a old warehouse (pictures are made on a dirty bed). All is looking something strange. But in trust, i think when you buy it you get what you see on the pictures. So you can trust him as a buyer.

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Correct Chris, a fair few of his swords must be US based, as they would be illegal to own in Japan.

 

That is why they come from Japan. If something is illegal in your place and hence can not be sold there, rendering it to 0 market value, you bring to a place where it is legal, can be sold and is thus worth something. That is where someone can make his share of profit.

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