Help with Officer's sword

[Bruce Pennington]

Very clear Nick , so to sum up what do we have here ?
A parts sword , complete post war replica ?

Very clear Nick , so to sum up what do we have here ?
A parts sword , complete post war replica ?

All the fittings look WWII period legit to me. I think the mei on both sides are original from WWII, with the mess-up one scratched recently with a tool. We could use close-ups of the blade tip, one of the mid-section for hamon, and one of the notches (machi) with the habaki removed (brass collar that the tsuba/seppa butt up against before the handle (tsuka) ) to judge the blade. But so far I think it's WWII, but could be gimei. There were gimei blades being made in the early-mid 1930's, that's why the inspection program with stamps was put into law.

[Nick Komiya]

There must be a high quality repro industry in Japan for these as well, as there certainly would have been demand until the late 80s.

In the 70s and 80s, the centerfold for Sunday editions of Asahi newspaper always used to feature Franklin Mint-like color ads for replicas of navy daggers. Those ads were so prevalent they got on your nerves. The only catch was that they could not have steel blades, but in aluminum. Everything else could be identical to the real deal.

I had no interest in Japanese items back then, but there was indeed such a high quality repro industry catering to ex-vets. All you need are steel blades and marry them together in China.

Not my cup of tea, so I never bothered to check, but there just has to be more top notch repros out there, only less profitable to sell than the cheaper Chinese rip-offs.

[DaveR]

Taking it point by point, if he is waiting for the next batch he needs to know what they will cost him, before he can price them for his buyers. In fact he needs to know if his supplier can/will even send him another batch!

He don't look Chinese, it's the internet and Etsy, he could be a Martian and still use that name and profile pic.

Why replicate a Gunto, because there is a demand, legitimate and otherwise. I have seen a few questions on "Sword Buyers Guide" and etc as to where to get a Shin-Gunto as a wall hanger, cutter and backyard-beater, and cost aside who wants to risk using an original... having an 80 year old tsuka fail on a cut would be very very bad indeed.
And then we have the fakes market..... I would love to get my hands on one of these to see where they cut corners, because to make a decent profit, they will have to!