Late war 20.3 Type 94 and holsters from small local gunshow last weekend
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That's a clean 94, nice job.
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2,706 Posts
Nice 94, and even nicer with the extra goodies!
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👍
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2,297 Posts
That’s a variation I haven’t seen before. I’m going to look in my book, Im curious now.
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2,297 Posts
So I looked in Derbys book and there is not one with grips like it, but there are other odd variations with horizontal grooves. Need to see what the real learned ones think.
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3,188 Posts
Nice pick up to say the least. The first holster with the shoulder strap looks to a nice pigskin holster that should clean up nicely. The other pigskin holster shows what appears to be good clean wear. Would love to see the buckle on that waist belt Now, for the pistol. Overall a nice looking 20.3 date with the square bottom side plate change incorporated. As for the grips, the first thing that jumped out at me were the grip screws. They appear to be repros. As for the channels cut into the wood, that is not the way it left the factory but maybe done to help the grip screws set deeper into the wood. One often sees grips that have been "enhanced" by a new owner of the pistol. Maybe I missed it in the write but do any of the magazines match the pistol?
The magazine in the pistol matches.
See attached photos of the grips, screws, and belt buckle. The screws and grips don't appear to be either new or modified. Lots of old grease under, in, and around the screws.grease soaking to the edges of the grips.
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No photos attached. Even if the grip screws are original, we know the grips have been "enhanced" somewhere along the lines
If you say so.
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Nice acquisition. The dress buckle/belt is not seen very often pared with a holster. I have not seen this particular wood grip modification before. Certainly, some Japanese soldiers did customize smooth wood T14 and T94 grips with grooves, cut patterns (diamond, square, …), carvings, and inlays. Just as likely, some grip modifications could have occurred post-war. This grip example is interesting because its lengthwise wide groove aligns with the screw head cut-out. All wood grips have material removed under the screw head for better screw fit (this material removal leaves a notorious weak point in the grip which sometimes breaks causing loose fit). Could the wide groove be a factory experiment for cutting the material under the screw head with a single pass cut verses a spot cut? Maybe, as there were lots of simplifying part production changes implemented during the last year of the war. Could the wide groove be an attempt at fixing a loose grip? Maybe. There is just no way of knowing why or when this grip modification was performed. Regardless, it is an interesting feature which gives this pistol some character not seen in other examples.
Thank you for your insightful and considerate response. We may never know how the grips got grooved.
When I directed the attention to the inlets of the grips the one thing that I noticed is the equal coloring of the wood overall which made me think that this might be a variation for whatever reason but in 50 years I’ve never seen this before. but I never say never
Barry
The other possibility is that the section of Raw wood had some kind of defect in it that they removed at the factory prior to installation Barry
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