Grey Doffin

You don't have to buy a new pin (mekugi). You can whittle one out of a bamboo chopstick. It'll work fine. NCO Guntos do have value, just not as much as less machine made Japanese swords. Early NCOs with a copper handle can be quite pricey. The highest price I've seen for the more common version, like yours, with the aluminum handle is $800. on ebay for one in absolute pristine condition. Somewhere between $200 and $400 is more reasonable for an NCO, I would guess. Grey

The sword that isn't the NCO Gunto is Gunto as well. It is signed "Yoshiaki" and dated "Showa Ju Roku Nen", 1941. You don't have to spend much money to care for these swords. Just keep an incredibly light coat of good machine oil (sewing machine oil will do) on the polished part (not the tang) of the blades and store them in a non-humid environment. Grey

I just bought an Army Shin-Gunto katana with an unusual leather patch attached to the suspension ring. The patch is about as big as a fingernail and has inscribed on it what could be the Kanji chu or naka, above the letter W. Do any of you know the significance of this? Grey

How about a link to the auction or the auction number? Grey

It isn't necessarily true that only the great names get faked. I've seen more than a few WWII era swords with signatures that purport to be of some obscure smith from earlier in Shinto. If you fake a famous smith you have to do a good job and your customer has only to look at a book to find you out. If you fake someone nobody ever included in a book you might get away with it. Grey

6 1/4 x 8 1/2", 208 pages. I hope to post the book list tomorrow. Grey

Thanks to all of you. It is a sword book and it will be available very soon. Watch the buy, sell, trade section for a list of about 40 sword and kodogu books I have to sell. Grey

Can any of you kindly translate into Romanji the title and author/s of this book? Appreciate it. Thanks Grey

Munehisa, I believe. Now, someone tell us how wrong I am. Grey

If the dealer who sold this on ebay was in Japan, and even with a few dealers in the West, I would expect it to have been repatinated before the sale if any patina was compromised. I don't think repatination of shakudo is that big a deal for a dealer in Japan. Of course, I'm just guessing here. This could be my 1 cents worth. Grey

The extreme wear to the nanako can't be natural. No amount of wearing a sword, fighting with a sword, or any other normal sword usage would erode the nanako that badly, no matter how old it is. Something had to have happened to this; either the nanako wasn't cut fully to begin with or it was removed all at once later. My 2 cents worth. Grey

Looks like Shunga (erotic art). The quality of work (not too great) is on par with much of the Shunga I've seen. What is the thing, by the way? Grey

Where is it that you plan to use the technique after you've learned it? Not on real Nihonto, I hope. Grey

Henry, I suspect that if auto wax and vaseline did a Samurai sword any good, the old masters back in those feudal times would have invented them!! Grey

The proper amount of oil to put on a blade is applied thusly: Use white, unscented, not made from recycled fibers tissue paper or toilet paper, folded into a rectangle that will fold around the blade. Put just 3 or 4 drops of oil on the paper. Starting an inch above the nakago, with the paper wrapped around the back of the blade, wipe up towards the point and then go back to the same spot and wipe that last inch down towards the nakago. This ensures that you won't drag a rust particle from the nakago over the polished blade surface. Next, use a clean pad of the same paper to wipe off the oil you just applied, using the same technique. The tiny amount of oil that remains after wiping is all that is necessary to protect the blade. If you use too much it will bead on the blade and eventually will foul the inside of the scabbard. Grey

Would someone be so kind as to translate the 2 inscriptions for me please? Thanks. Grey

Email is now an option under my posts. If anyone else wants the articles feel free to write. Grey

I wrote a couple articles on oshigata for the JSS/US "Newsletter" a few years back. If you email me (link below) I can send them to you as an attachment on my return mail. Grey

If a sword has been polished so much that the ha-machi has disappeared the nakago can be reshaped; metal can be removed from the nakago ha, to make the sword appear more healthy. It's not possible to know how many old blades have had this done to them. You can't say, if the ha-machi is gone the blade is tired and if it still exists it isn't; it's more complicated than that. Tiredness refers to the condition of the blade's skin: coarse grain, openings, blisters, or core steel showing through. A sword with no ha-machi can be tired or not and a blade with a ha-machi can be tired or not. That said, it's always better to have a ha-machi and I would be leery of an ebay sale if the seller doesn't show the machi. Grey

For those of you who have access to PBS (public TV in the US), tonight on "Nova" the show is titled, "Secrets of the Samurai Sword". Should be worth a watch. Grey

I agree with the last post; this is a nakago that has been ground down. It looks too clumsy to have been done by the smith. Grey

Brian, You need to read the description a bit more carefully. Grey

There are no signed Sadamune. This is one of them. Grey

Should you wish to bid on this katana: http://cgi.ebay.com/Japanese-Hand-Forged-Katana-Gunto-27-Pierced-Tsuba_W0QQitemZ300156591560QQihZ020QQcategoryZ4080QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem you'll find you're up against some very serious competition. Grey

I heard also that one of the blades to come would be the O-Kanehira. Hard to believe that the National Museum and/or the Japanese government would allow it to travel but if it does make sure you get to see it. Even if you have to walk from Texas it will be worth the effort. Grey