Type 95 Military Sword Variations Monograph - Available for Download

[Bruce Pennington]

That’s great, Sam!

[drb 1643]

Nice one Sam! I sure love the NCO’s!

Tom

[Scogg]

Here’s a late war maroon ito wrapped handle with unserialized blade.
 

Just sharing because you don’t see these everyday. A bit pricey for my blood.  

-Sam

 

https://ebay.us/m/IOG2fJ

 

 

[The Blacksmith]

Wow, what a labour of love, and a so needed work. Brilliantly executed. Well done Sam and thank you so much both doing it, and for making it available to us. I will greatly enjoy going through it in depth. I really like these swords.

 

Thank you.

 

Russ

[Scogg]

My pleasure @The Blacksmith Russ! Thank you very much for the kind words. I still consider it a "work in progress".

For what it's worth, and for those interested. Currently I am collecting each variation so that I can take more standardized "professional" looking photographs. 

Hope to update the document to the "Second Edition" around its 1 year anniversary. 
-Sam 

Here's a little sneak peak of the "work in progress". Had to shrink file size for this post, and I am still fine tuning stuff 

[The Blacksmith]

@Scogg The sword on the right, is that a field repair, I mean the screw in the mekugi?

[Scogg]

2 hours ago, The Blacksmith said:

@Scogg The sword on the right, is that a field repair, I mean the screw in the mekugi?

Good question. The sword on the right represents what Jim Dawson’s cyclopedia refers to as a “2a pattern”. These swords have thick seppa that have a cutout for the retention clip, and also the tsuba is more thin than other aluminum hilt steel tsuba Variation4 swords. 

The missing mekugi is unrelated, and was probably lost or damaged when somebody tried to disassemble it. I put the bamboo mekugi in there for security. 
 

It is currently my interpretation that these thick seppa and thin tsuba “Dawsons 2a” swords are indeed factory repairs or field repairs. You find this unusual configuration scattered amongst all top-latch variations and on both Tokyo and Nagoya stamped blades.

My photos are an attempt to show those differences next to a “more standard” and what I believe to be a factory original variation 4 sword.

 

Other interpretations may vary…

-Sam

 

 
 

 

[Scogg]

@The Blacksmith If you mean the first photos, where that screw mekugi punctures the ito. That’s a “Variation #2” sword with Suya Shoten ferrule stamp. 
 

Both Suya and Iijima had the mekugi puncture the ito like that for a very narrow serial number range right after the copper hilt Variation 1 swords. Gifu had a slightly different mekugi situation where the Ito kind of bends around the mekugi. 

June 24th 1939 the hilt pattern was changed so the mekugi would go through the diamonds and no longer interfere with the ito. They did this by making the wrap pattern symmetrical whereas before it was asymmetrical. 
 

Copper hilt swords only have the grommet and no mekugi unless they are field repairs. My example up there looks like a copper, but really it’s aluminum #7249

 

Best, 

-Sam 

 

 

[The Blacksmith]

Ok, thank you for that Sam, that is much appreciated.

[Scogg]

Here is an example currently on eBay that has had the serial numbers removed. Presumably someone scratched them out thinking they were a bad thing.. 
 

A shame to see. I can’t even catalog examples like this.

-Sam 

 

 

[Bruce Pennington]

31 minutes ago, Scogg said:

I can’t even catalog examples like this.

Heck, Sam, plenty to catalog - all black paint job, Nagoya with Seki stamp - Ha!  Sorry, that's what I watch for!

[Scogg]

Haha, true Bruce. I do attempt to list them, but they frustratingly have to reside off of the “master list” because I have it in serial number order. I have a few now that have either been obscured like this, or had the numbers polished away 
 

This one will have to be: 1 _ _ 4 _ _  

 

 

[John C]

At least they left their initials carved into the tsuba.

 

John C.