Is he Cannon or shad?

If it were anviled, wouldn't it show up as whatever it is, say, a Fruit Knife, under his items since it's under a CS weapon cover? That's how other anviled equips are, my empress hat on my Phantom is anviled to look like a Zombie Hunter Hat, and it appears that way in my item list, however, if I equip a CS hat, the anviled hat shows up as an empress hat.

My anvilled Elemental Staff says Fiery Fox in char info with a CS item (Inari White Fox) equipped.
My anvilled Branch Nose behaves the way you just described though, looks like a nose when I equip transparent face.

I don't have enough examples to figure out what's going on though.