Japanese Type 26 Revolver

[rcmodel]

Buddy brought one by this afternoon, missing a firing pin.

So I made one out of drill rod with no Pattern, or Idea what it was supposed to look like.
FP is round, but curved, and almost tiny (about 1/16") on the working end.
Held in the hammer by a .190" pin.

He called me this evening and said it worked with his homemade 9×22mmR rimmed Japanese reloads!!

WooHoo!!!!!


Strange gun, but very innovative!

Complete take down with no tools at all.
Release a catch and pull down the trigger guard.

Side-plate swings open on a henge.
That releases the left grip.

And then you can take all the lock-work out just by plucking them out with your fingers.
(In the proper order of course!)

Cylinder screws out backwards just by holding down a little catch.

http://www.historicalfirearms.info/post/68204200485/japanese-type-26-revolver-officially-designated

rc

 

[beag_nut]

I seem to remember (?) from a few decades ago an article, in American Rifleman about Japanese firearms in general, that they did not use screw threads very often. Apparently, it was part of their cultural philosophy at the time, which could have had some origin in their isolation from the rest of the world before Commodore Perry showed up.
Of course, said lack of screw threads had no similar origin to the design of Ruger firearms, an entirely different subject.

 

[rcmodel]

I sure don't know about the screw thing.
I did notice a screw or so inside it.
But none of them have to be touched to completely field strip it down.

Designing a DAO revolver like that in 1893, that you can completely field strip without tools?

Sheer Genius, on the level of John Browning.
Whoever designed it?

rc

 

[Jim K]

Around 1890, it became apparent to the world's ordnance departments that with the new smokeless powders, sufficient lethality could be obtained with smaller bullets instead of the huge 10-14mm ones of the black powder era. (The U.S. Army went from the .45 caliber to the .38 in 1892, for example.)

But armies also wanted revolvers that were easily cleaned and maintained in the field, and one response from the manufacturers was the use of a hinged sideplate that, when opened, would allow easy access to the lockwork for cleaning and parts replacement. Many military revolvers of that era were made that way, notably the Russian Nagant, the Austrian Gasser, and revolvers adopted by Switzerland, Italy, and France, as well as Japan. The Type 26 system closely resembles an early Gasser design even though the best known Gasser, the Rast-Gasser, was not adopted by the Austro-Hungarian Emprire until 1898.

Some folks consider that the Type 26 is deficient in having no hammer block, although it does have a rebound lever. Also, it has no means of preventing clockwise cylinder rotation when the hammer is down. But of course, another primitive maker in a backward country had the same problems at about the same time. Colt.

Jim

Edited to add: Ammunition can be made from .38 S&W by trimming the rim down from the front and running the loaded round into a .38 Special sizer die.

Jim

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

How clever.

Thanks for the link - what a pistol!

Are they double action only completely and properly or can a fella fake single action getting his thumb over the top of that hammer like with a bobbed DA revolver?

Todd.

 

[WestKentucky]

Thread
Needs
Pictures

 

[rcmodel]

No, they are DAO.
There is no SA sear.

Pictures?
Unfortunately, I couldn't design the firing pin in my mind, sight unseen, make it, and still take pictures all at the same time!

PS: This one has had the chamber rim recesses deepened at some point in time, so it will work with .38 S&W ammo.

rc

 

[Carl N. Brown]

WHB Smith "Small Arms of the World" 1966 Chapter 39 Imperial Japanese World War II Weapons -- 9mm revolver Type 26 adopted in 1893, uses a top break action like the Smith & Wesson but uses lockwork similar to the Austrian Rast and Gasser, DAO like the later .38 Enfield revolvers. "... it was used in quantity in World War II. The only good feature about the weapon is a hinged sideplate which allows easy exposure of the lock work."

I have a note that the revolvers are more common as war trophies than the ammunition: cartridge collectors were paying $6 a round in the early 1970s and an unopened issue box of ammo was worth more than the revolver to collectors.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_26_revolver

By adamsguns.com (http://www.adamsguns.com) [Attribution], via Wikimedia Commons
Description: English: Japanese Type 26 Revolver caliber 9 mm. Used by Japanese cavalry troops and frequently issed to NCO's.
Source http://www.adamsguns.com
Author: adamsguns.com
Permission: (Reusing this file) "You are welcome to copy images from my site - Please give credit if you use it online. If you publish an image from my site - You must give credit."
(c) Licensing: The copyright holder of this file allows anyone to use it for any purpose, provided that the copyright holder is properly attributed. Redistribution, derivative work, commercial use, and all other use is permitted.

 

[Jim K]

Many of those revolvers have been damaged by attempts to pry open the side plate. FWIW, the original finish was a carbon blue-black with bright blue parts; rust blue, like the gun above, was used in arsenal reworks.

Edited to add: Standard production stopped at about #58900 due to the devastating earthquake on 1 September 1923; production was resumed on a limited basis at Kokura in 1935, with about 325 revolvers made. The best source (Darby and Brown) gives 59227 as the highest number recorded, but the gun shown appears to have a higher number. Those guns, which the cited book calls "limited modified final production", have a rust blue finish. The gun shown is in that late production series, so its rust blue finish is probably original and not due to a rework.

In spite of the lack of power and the fact that they were held in low regard for many years by American collectors, they are very well made guns and (allowing for the deficiencies already mentioned) on a par for quality with the best of the European and American guns of the period.

Jim

 

[rcmodel]

The one I worked on had something almost like a zinc finish on it, by all signs, original.

The gun showed very little signs of use, refinishing, and no rust or corrosion.

It looked almost like old well aged galvanized sheet metal?
Almost like the old WWII GI steel case zinc plated .45 ACP ammo looks now.

Rc

 

[Jim K]

I have never seen anything like that and suspect the gun might have been in some kind of "hostile environment", though I can't imagine what.

Jim

 

[rcmodel]

It looked a lot like this one, only slightly more mottled and grey, like old galvanized sheet metal.

I am pretty confident it was the factory original finish due to the overall excellent condition of the gun.



rc

 

[barnbwt]

I seem to remember (?) from a few decades ago an article, in American Rifleman about Japanese firearms in general, that they did not use screw threads very often. Apparently, it was part of their cultural philosophy at the time, which could have had some origin in their isolation from the rest of the world before Commodore Perry showed up.

I could believe that. Historically, Japanese construction had relied upon wedging of closely-fit interlocking elements, sort of like a more advanced version of Western carpentry (which used plugs and wedges until the advent of steel, after which we went to nails, and later machine tools & screws, although wooden screws existed in a limited capacity all along). Very much like Swiss sensibilities even to this day, in that regard (the STGW57 is a veritable puzzle box, but you don't need any tools to just about fully dismantle the bolt assembly --try that with an HK G3!)

TCB

 

[Jim K]

I had not heard that about the Japanese and screws. In the Japanese guns I have, there are screws where I would expect to see them. The Mauser C96 is often cited as unique because the only screw holds on the grips. But the same is true of the 1911, except that there are four grip screws, and I don't think Browning had any cultural objections to screws.

Jim