Strange type 95 gunto.

[Pevan]

First time posting but a long term lurker, Here is a very strange type 95 i won at an auction years ago for a rather low price due to how weird it is.

The blade I believe is legit due to the markings seeming to be inline with type 95s i have seen as well as finding the little w stamp on the tang when I disassembled it which I doubt a repro would have, also the leather seems to have quite a bit of age and quality to it with the stitching being well done on the cover.

The Bad would be the aluminium tsuka which is nothing like i have seen before on a gunto even the cheap fakes as it has no cast detail such as menukis other than the wrap texture. (Really should have thought to take a picture before restitching the leather cover.) Also when I originally got it it came with a habaki that did not fit at all (rattled about and actually covered the first few digits of the serial number so the one you are seeing is a replacement i shaped and put on it just to make it solid along with an orignal spare nco seppa I got in a job lot, the habaki is about but i have misplaced it unfortunately) as well as only having a single poor seppa that was soldered on! Also the only screw holding the entire thing together is the top screw as despite the the tang having two holes there is no hole in the tsuka or its wood lining to take one.

Anyhow Does anyone have any ideas what is going on with this sword? I personally am leaning towards a postwar put together due to the mix of decent and utter terrible quality of different parts.

[26Intrepid]

That is an odd one for sure.... I’ll be interested to hear what people say.

[Kiipu]

The blade is real as is the copper ferrule. However, the ferrule is for an earlier sword. Can you post a picture of the scabbard mouth showing the serial number?

[Pevan]

Sorry thought I had included it. numbered 12015 2 so not matching.

[Sporter90]

The blade is original Japanese made. If you're buying a sword, the blade is the most important thing. The habaki is wrong.

It's not a strange sword. It's just been badly reworked.

[Bruce Pennington]

Wow, love this one! Very rare to find a fully leather-wrapped 95. And the Kobe stamp is almost as rare. Your observation of the low quality of the tuska is interesting because Kobe lost their contract for making Type 95s because of their poor quality work. I'm also not bother by the poorly fitting parts. I have an early Nagoya 95 that came with a fat hand-made brass seppa that someone (possibly the original owner) created to tighten the tsuka/tsuba set. Could have been post-war too. I've removed it and replaced it with better seppa, but the whole handle arrangement is slightly crooked, like the thing was made by a hung-over worker that day it came through the factory!

[Pevan]

Thanks for the info, guess I will take it out of the shame corner after all these years lol. Does anyone have any idea about the leather wrap seeing as it is rather unusual to see on an NCO gunto?

[Bruce Pennington]

Well, after getting you all excited, I posted this over at NMB. There are a couple guys there who are, what I consider, the top Type 95 experts in the world. It seems this may be pieced together from various original parts. The Kobe factory only made blades in the 37k to 39k number range. So the blade is legit, but the Kobe fuchi has been added from another sword. The tsuba (hand guard) is not normal, so at best is a late war production.

I think all the parts, including the leather wrap are original, but who knows who assembled this? Either a late-war job, or post war.

Here's the link to our discussion: Japanese Type 95 Sword for NCOs - Page 2 - Military Swords of Japan - Nihonto Message Board

[Sporter90]

Mutt was the word I was looking for.

[Pevan]

Thanks for the information I always suspected it being a put together one, At least its made from some original parts at least so I don't feel too bad about the 180 quid it cost me lol.