Probably Shin Gunto translation help..

[sechan]

It looks like a WW2 Shin Gunto sword. Can anybody tell anything about it? Thanks.

[Ray Singer]

The mei (inscription) reads Norimitsu. At a glance, this does not look like an authentic mei of the smith from the Bizen Norimitsu lineage.

[John C]

Steve:

WW2 mounts, however I don't think it's a ww2 blade. Could be an older family blade or a pre-war made blade.

 

John C.

[Bruce Pennington]

Steve,

Are you able to post photos of the bare nakago showing the machi (notches where the nakago meets the blade) and a couple shots of the blade/tip?

[sechan]

Here it is..

[sechan]

forgot..

[sechan]

I hope this is what you guys are asking..Thanks.

[Bruce Pennington]

Thanks, Steve.

When trying to ID a blade, and weed out fakes, there are a few things we can look at.

1.  Do the machi line up?  Chinese fakes often have offset machi, like NCO Type 95s, that don't line up.  Yours line up.  However, some fakes get that right, so it clears the offset machi test, but still not sure.

2.  The bohi - Fakes often get the bohi wrong, starting too far down the blade and ending poorly.  Yours starts prior to the blade and ends with a clear shape.  That's good.

3.  Kissaki (blade tip) - Chinese like an anglular tip, Japanese nicely rounded.  Yours is rounded, however like the machi line we have seen rounded tips on fakes.  So, good, but not definitive

4.  Hamon (temper line) - Though hard to see, yours seems to have one.  Others might disagree, don't know for sure.

5.  Nakago - Shape, yasurime (file marks), shinogi line (ridge that runs along both sides, full length of the blade and through the nakago), mei - Japanese nakago have distinct features.  Fakes usually get all of these wrong.  Yours has no yasurime and the shinogi is weak.  The mei looks poorly struck.

 

Overall - My first thought was that this was a zoheito (a particular style of factory blade made of one piece steel).  But they usually are not signed (except by one smith), and the end of the bohi usually has a different shape.  However I do have a zoheito on file with a non-standard bohi ending.

 

What I think we have is a late-war blade, possibly a late war zoheito.  Sesko lists one wartime Norimitsu and we are aware that there were many unregistered smiths operating during the war.  I don't think this was the Nobumitsu listed in Sesko, as he was an RJT qualified smith, but it could have been one of the smiths we see that popped up at the end of the war.  

 

All that being said, it could be something made in occupied lands, and it could be a fake.  But with the fittings and the points I see, I think the odds are in line with late-war work.  Just an opinion.

[sechan]

Thank you very much, very interesting.