Dave R

Some years ago when first looking for a Shin-Gunto I found something similar from an online dealer in the US. It was a well made cut down 98 I think, metal saya and all with fittings. It was being sold as a WW2 souvenir, probably made to fit in a GI kit bag.

You have a very strong "black and gold" theme with the F/K, I would stick with that regardless of form. How old are the dragon menuki?

Rough as the proverbial "Bears arse" but looks to be an old O-Suriage blade, which might explain the interest.

Just to say, I wish everyone did the same as you, and haunted the auctions to get an idea of prices and what to look for. All too many buy the first damn thing they see.

First impressions, a militarised civilian blade of interesting form, a very rare suspension chain or hanger, and what looks to be the original send home packaging. A link to the original auction would be nice.

A bit of confusion here between the "barrel" which goes through the kabutogane and the "washer" either side which I think is called a kanemono, Sarute kanemono or possibly za kanemono?

Thanks. The problem with signatures is that they can be faked, and I have even seen a genuine nakago welded on to a fake blade! Also this is an enthusiasts site, we like to see swords, (well I do anyway!) Good quality mounts, and in good shape as well.

Hiya Nathan, you've shown us the model number, can we see the vehicle?

All the evidence is that they did just that. Regarding moulds, the problem was the hand finishing rather than the casting, no vacuum casting in 1940's industry so everything cast had to be finished off Remember though, as far as the Japanese Army & Navy was concerned they were about to enter a long drawn out attrition end game, with the aim of sickening off the allies with high casualties. The Japanese army in China had no intention of surrendering at all.So a stripped down bare bones version of all war equipment made sense.... Thankfully, for everyone's sake that did not happen!

Merry Christmas!

Ashi or Habaki?

If you look at some of the old swords you see a fair bit of evidence for pieces being reused, and made to fit. Fitting Tsuba to a larger blade was done by filing, and fitting to a smaller could be done by using copper inserts, or punching metal round the tang hole. http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/seppadai.html

Hiya Austus, Uchiko is not a polish, it's a clean up. A polish involves stones and removing metal, Uchiko is more like removal of surface crap and the amount of metal removed is infinitesimal, about what a normal metal polish/shine would do... but in a traditional Japanese way. Not to be done on a blade in good polish/condition.

There is a sort of consensus in my collector group, which includes two museum curators, that when a blade is marked but not worth a polish, you Uchiko the hell out of it. I will improve the look, possibly bring up a little more detail, and you are not doing anything that was not done to it during it's working life. Use the word as a search term on this forum and you will find a lot of conversation about the stuff.

Nerdy thing no.2, China also uses Roman letters and numbers, though they have their own system Hanyu Pinyin! The problem with Kanji and other ideographs and ideograms is that they represent ideas and items independent of language. They are also not very flexible, so writing "carburettor" for example would have to wait for an officially recognised character to be invented. One of the main uses for Pinyin is for teaching Chinese to non Mandarin speakers. I suspect that the use in a factory is to do with the ready availability of stamps and dies, and the convenience of only needing 10 numbers and 26 letters, instead of 20,000 characters. The simplicity of form for Romaji and Pinyin would also be a great help in stamp and die making..

I have a funny feeling that this has been discussed before, but alas I cannot remember where.

Just a nerdy comment here... the Japanese refer to "English" numbers and letters as "Romaji" a convenient way of expressing Japanese words in an internationally comprehensible form. It's not English! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Japanese

The problem with chromed blades is that as soon as they are sharpened all the advantages are lost. Breaking the chrome skin opens up the underlying steel to the possibility of corrosion, and not just on the edge, but running under the chrome, damaging the blade and causing the chrome to flake off. The bare steel edge also looks ugly contrasting with the bright chrome. It's something you see a lot with early 20th century Western Military blades, and when I see such on the table at an arms fair, I leave them there. Early chrome plate was not like the current beast, a lot more is now known about the long term effects, and more done to mitigate them.

Have a read through here, not just this page but the previous as well. One of the most informative and tyro friendly sites around on traditional swords. The buzz words here are "Hadori". and "Kesho". http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/togistyles.html

I think this one is a Frankenstein sword.... nakago fitted to western style hilts are normally forged down and then tapped for a nut. This is a welded on tang, to a blade that may very well be a fake itself, and a saya dug out of the spares bin. That habaki never fitted that blade.....

Very interesting indeed. Halving the coin makes sense as well, a full coin is to wide for the job, and would not curve to the tsuka. Thank you.

A nice piece, and fairly typical of the type.

You don't see them for sale now though do you. I wonder if despite the shortcuts and economies they were still too expensive to produce,,, or simply at that price unable to compete with the real thing.

If you go onto here, there are photo's of the Mantetsu workshop,....... Military Swords of Imperial Japan (Guntō) but it takes a bit of searching through the Japanese language section.

A 1946 film clip from the Wilkinson factory. Probably giving a good representation of what a major blade workshop in Seki could be like. https://www.britishpathe.com/video/eisenhowers-sword