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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;the blacksmith, post: 9862304, member: 20148&quot;]I am thinking that this sword was possibly put together post war, but using many genuine parts. </p><p>The <i>kabuto gane</i>, (Pommel) is a shin-Gunto type, used by the Army. However, the fuchi (the metal collar at the end of the grip by the guard), doesn&#039;t match, they usually do. The sarute (metal ring for the sword knot) is crude and quite wrong. The guard (tsuba) is one of the three or four types that were available for private puchase either by officers, or civilians attached to the Army. The seppa ( metal washer in front of the tsuba is crude, and only a single piece. There would be a matching one on the other side of the tsuba. There are usually three or four , all different, on each side of the tsuba, unless there was no room for more than one without drilling a new hole in the nakago!</p><p>The saya (scabbard), has two suspension rings (Ashi), which is usually used by the Navy, though not always, though a two ashi mounted Army sword is a bit of a rarity. Usually a civilian saya like this, would have been covered with a leather combat cover.</p><p>The grip binding (Tsuka-ito) has obviously been fairly recently re-wrapped.</p><p>As for the blade, we need better pictures I am afraid. Tyu holding it vertical against a dark background. Also, as has been mentioned, is it possible to take the Tuska (grip) off, and photograph the nakago (tang)? A lot of knowledge is contained there, and not just the signature, the shape, colour, filemarks, number of mekugi-ana (holes), arsenal stamps etc. </p><p>Quite a lot of swords like this were put together to sell to GI&#039;s as war souvenirs post war. Some, I suspect like this, made mainly out of genuine parts. Others were quite crude copies, and some were even made in China and India, even the Phillapines as souvenirs, even then!</p><p>I&#039;d love to see slightly better pictures if possible.</p><p><br /></p><p>I am certainly no expert on these, so please do not take any of this as gospel, but I did collect them many years ago, and maintain a keen interest in them. If you can get the handle off, I can usually read the Japanese signatures too.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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