Arsenal Stamps.

[Bruce Pennington]

13 hours ago, Stegel said:

That anchor is for the Kure Naval Arsenal

What da heck!?  So, I wonder if they were making Army fittings or maybe just in-taking gunto from civil shops to process for the Army?

[Bruce Pennington]

@Kiipu - another double stamped Toyokawa, both large and small.  Seems to be showing up on the souvenir blades, so maybe these are war surplus, originally with one stamp, and the second one added in the souvenir assembly process?

[Kiipu]

I think both wartime and postwar blades were used.  Another possibility is that wartime swords were scrapped and the blades reused?  One thing I have noticed is the cutoff tangs on these.  Is this a sign of a postwar made blade?  Do any wartime blades have this feature?  With all that said, I have not really looked at these swords from a manufacturing point of view.

[vajo]

Thats a nice sword Bruce. I belive its a real wartime sword, maybe produced but not out given to a officer. The nakago looks like cut of to mark it as a none wartime sword. Very interesting. I like it.

[Bruce Pennington]

1 hour ago, Kiipu said:

One thing I have noticed is the cutoff tangs on these.  Is this a sign of a postwar made blade?  Do any wartime blades have this feature? 

I originally thought this might be a sign of post-war work, and it still may.  It may simply be a sign of rushed work.  I have a 1943 Yoshishige kai with a jiri almost as crude.  So, after re-looking at it, the broken-off ends may still be a sign of post-war.  We'll have to start looking for that on kai vs souvenir.

 

My Yoshishige

[PNSSHOGUN]

Yoshiharu with W and another stamp at bottom of tang: https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/j1016514609

 

 

[Bruce Pennington]

Thanks John, that's  a great one.  Haven't seen one of these with a "TO" stamp.  @Kiipu - got any W stamped blades with a "TO"?

 

As I filed this, the 2 Yoshiharu I have are both 1943 as is the single Yoshitani.  The W-stamped Mantetsu are mostly 1942 and 1943, with 2 '44s.

[Ross]

Hello.  My father gave me an NCO Shin Gunto sword from WWII.  I am trying to determine its history and the meaning of the tang stamps on its handle.   I have pictures but can't seem to load them here.  

 

Thanks!

Ross

Indianapolis

[Bruce Pennington]

You will find all your stamps on Ohmura’s site: http://ohmura-study.net/794.html

[Kiipu]

On 11/1/2021 at 5:37 AM, Bruce Pennington said:

@Kiipu - got any W stamped blades with a "TO"?

 

I do not recall running into a 東 & M combination on a nakago before.

[Bruce Pennington]

Came across this on a Gunboards Thread - Navy Officers Sword.  It has stamped "1  66" on the nakago.  The "1" is large, and the "66" is small.  Can't decide if that was intentional or simply a guy grasping for number stamps and grabbed different sizes.  The painted numbers are "166" so I'm leaning to the "not intentional" theory.

[Kiipu]

On 11/1/2019 at 6:38 AM, Bruce Pennington said:

A new one! And while this one is actually engraved, like mei, it says "Inspected."

 

The WAF is off-limits to nonmembers.  So, this leads to the following questions.  What type of sword is this, army, navy, civilian?  Do you have pictures of both sides of the tang?  Are there any other inspection type marks on the tang?  The kanji character that is depicted is 撿 which can mean several things.

https://nihongomaster.com/Japanese/dictionary/kanji/7953/撿

[Bruce Pennington]

1 hour ago, Kiipu said:

Do you have pictures

Here's all the pics provided by the owner.  No pics of the other side.  It's the only example of the "stamp" observed so far.  It's an Amahide blade.

[Bruce Pennington]

Here's a puzzler found by @Stephen.  Enough similarities to the Yamamoto Gunto Shop, but enough differences too.  I'm leaning to the side of it being a different (and unidentified) shop logo.  Any ideas, anyone?

 

Yamamoto

 

 

Mystery

 

[BANGBANGSAN]

Saw this unusual type 30 bayonet, it has both Mukden and Tayogawa arsenal marks.

 

[Shuriken]

This was posted way back on page 1, but I didn't see (or missed) discussion on it. Can someone shed light? Thank you!

[Stephen]

Half struck showa stamp

[Bruce Pennington]

Right.  some of the most challenging stamps are the ones that are partially struck.

[Shuriken]

thank you @Bruce Pennington and @Stephen

[Shuriken]

Well, speak of the devil. @Bruce Pennington and @Stephen you may be interested in this. Showa stamp on a very nice looking blade with beautiful fittings. 

 

@Ray Singer can you shed light on the mei?

[Shuriken]

[Bugyotsuji]

Seki Ju Kaneshige *(No, see below) 

関住兼重

[Stephen]

Or is that Kanenao?

http://www.japaneseswordindex.com/oshigata/kanenao3.jpg

[Shuriken]

@Bugyotsuji thank you. Forgive the question: the kanji in your post, are they meant to match the mei? 

[Bugyotsuji]

Just checking on the PC screen, and Stephen has what I am now seeing, Kanenao 兼直

 

(Scrub my post above!)

[Bruce Pennington]

I'd go with Kanenao:

http://japaneseswordindex.com/oshigata/kanenao3.jpg

 

 

[Bruce Pennington]

And that's one heck'ov a hamon for a showato!

[Bruce Pennington]

Can anyone elucidate on the blue painted kanji.  Doesn't seem to be the normal numbering.

[Shuriken]

2 minutes ago, Bugyotsuji said:

Just checking on the PC screen, and Stephen has what I am now seeing, Kanenao 兼直

 

(Scrub my post above!)

Let the record show I am ALWAYS grateful for your insights @Bugyotsuji  and everyone here!

[SteveM]

10 hours ago, Bruce Pennington said:

Can anyone elucidate on the blue painted kanji.

 

Looks like it says 

白　無号 

(White. No number)