Griffin militaria and gunto/nihonto(?) help

[Bruce Pennington]

Hi gents,

There is also one of theese fake Japanese camo body net. In the other hand with thousand references on his website a few mistakes are to be expected. Moreover when you deal with several nation's militaria.

What do you think about the price ? I believe mint textbook kaiguntos fetch more than $1K, if you find them !

So maybe not to bad for a mismatched sword ? Even if we can regret there isn't a more accurate / updated description, I won't call him dishonest. His business won't be near as successful as it is and his name would ring thé same bell than Cupman or Snyder in our heads. He might just have been cheated as well.

I don't believe he's being dishonest. This discovery is quite recent and as of yet, still limited to our world of NMB, Warrelics, and Wehrmacht-awards forums. So, it's going to take time to spread the word on this model sword. As to price - like all things in collector-world, it depends on the buyer's taste. I like these, as they represent something special, and in a sense, are more rare than many wartime gunto. With only 8,000 made, they are in the numbers category with Minatogawa swords! So, if a person wants to promote them as a rarity, that could drive the price up. But, for the most part, these are selling in the $400-500 USD range. Of course, dealers are always at the top end, or even above, market rates, so his price could be accepted with that in mind.

[DaveR]

I quite fancy one of these post war pieces myself, but living in the UK I doubt I will ever see one. Being "rust resistant" I would be unlikely to even be able to import one.

[Mathieu C]

Thank for your answers. I wasn't clear about the price, I wanted to say it would be way underpriced for a legit wartime kaigunto, but not a scam at all for a real japanese made katana (even if not traditional) with only 8K of them around world wide.

I am from the bad side of the pound so prices are higher for such things here. At $500 I would buy them any day.