Late war T14 Nambu rig

[Blicero]

My local shops have been chock full of neat stuff as of late, check out the latest plunder. It's a Type 14 from the Nagoya-Torimatsu factory, made February 1944.

First let's see the holster. These are fascinating rigs, incredibly well made. Nambus were originally issued with leather holsters, but as the war marched on and leather became scarce, the Japanese resorted to using a rubberized canvas. This is a canvas example. Some of these holsters, including this one, were made with a pouch for a spare firing pin, a testament to the fragility of Nambu firing pins. You can see housed inside the holster an original Nambu cleaning rod, a nice bonus in the package. The closure strap utilizes leather-wrapped springs, kind of an interesting touch. The small kanji character inside of the flap, as best as I can gather, is the imperial showa signature. Sometimes that character is followed by a date, but that feature was eliminated by the time this holster was made.









Now for the gun. It's nothing considerably rare or desirable, but it is one of the nicest T14s I've ever handled. It's got the enlarged trigger guard and knurled cocking knob, both late war features. The mag is matching. The finish is strikingly comparable to what's found on P38s and High Powers of the same vintage. That rough bluing was not exactly durable, so it's always pleasant to find an example with so much of the finish intact. These guns are ugly but they do exude a certain and strange charm.

[Loose}{Cannon]

You know I wanted one if these weird things....   

[Blicero]

This one's all you if you want it. I'll be parlaying it into something German before long.

[Phosphorus32]

That is a really nice example! 

From the marks on the grips, it looks like it's easy to over-rotate the safety on these pistols...or is that the select-fire switch   

[Blicero]

You're close. The safety marking is on the right. The nearest translation we have for the kanji on the left is "The Burning Man."