A Friends Collection: Part I

[Promo]

A friend of mine who also collects firearms as I do (and where I know him from) once told me that he inherited a few blades from his father who had a huge passion for Nihonto. He promised me to one day show me those blades. Due to COVID and him living further away from my home it took us some time to finally find a possible date. While he in advance told me he would rather not want me to take them apart we then agreed that we'll look at in person and see if they are easily disassembleable and then decide if they can be taken apart. I told him I'd do a lot of pictures and hopefully find others who will help me to learn as much as possible on his blades to pass back the information to him for him to keep it with the blades (since they are from his father he wants to keep them and not sell).

 

In place I was amazed to learn there were a total of 6 blades that he had. Of those six he obtained five prior to WWII and one post WWII. Since he lived in Vienna and due to him having studied medicine it allowed him to stay in Vienna and care for the wounded (as far as I understood). Due to frequent bombings in which his collection once nearly was destroyed he rented a small storage inside St. Stephan Cathedral in Vienna where he managed to safely store the blades during WWII.

 

Anyway, to get to the blades - I'll be posting them in exactly the order I took the pictures. This means I'll be starting with the blade he obtained post WWII which quite obvious is a blade in military mounting, so a WWII blade. I know this is the incorrect forum, but to keep all threads in the same section (at this point: I had considered posting all blades in a single thread, but due to the larger number of the blades I think this would probably be confusing so I will post individual threads for each blade) I'm nevertheless posting it here.

[Promo]

Last few pictures I have of this blade.

[Geraint]

Dear George.

 

That's a sweet Kaigunto!

 

All the best.

[Bruce Pennington]

Someone will have to translate the smith name for you, but I can say the Type 97 kaigunto was assembled by the Toyokawa Navy Arsenal (small stamp on the seppa), and the large Seki stamp on the top of the mei indicates this blade was a showato inspected and approved by the Seki Cutlery Manufacturers Assoc.  I personally feel that the blades with the large Seki are high quality showato, with good workmanship in the blade.

[Promo]

Thanks for the feedback! Does anyone have an idea on the smith/can help with translation? @Bruce Pennington, I can at least tell from handling it that it really looked great for a WWII blade!

[Bruce Pennington]

Here's your guy, Georg: