Bruce Pennington

There are a number or Army waki posted on NMB over the years. Here's a thread: Short gunto

Some officer gunto: And another with obvious wear and tear:

More gold gunto: Many of these show clear wear and tear. This one is black with gold, whereas mine was gold with black trim: This one is like mine, but the tsuka wasn't painted like mine was:

That is the operative question, Geoff. No one knows. And it wasn't until recently that some of us began believing that some of this strange paint was done during the war. Obviously, none of it was factory. But I'm growing to believe that individual soldiers, officer and NCO, had personalized their gunto with a paint job - black, mottled green, white, gold, and there are some other colors coming that I'm aware of. The blacks, whites, and green seem understandable as a guy would want to reduce his detectability in the field. I believe these are in @Shamsy's collection: But I haven't come up with a reason for gold. But then, who doesn't like gold, right?!

@drb 1643 - Tom, how about a nice pic of the habaki for the Catscratch Habaki thread?

I've been hijacking @Shamsy's Type 95 Black Saya thread for too long, so I'm starting a Gold-painted gunto thread to track the gold ones. I considered labeling it "Painted Gunto" to gather all the colors, but the discussions of each can get quite lengthy, so I'll keep this one just on the gold. But for reference, Steve's thread also has several examples of officer gunto painted black as well. And we have the thread on Mottled Green paint on Type 95s. I've had examples of all 3 colors and regret stripping the 2 gold-painted 95s and the mottled-green 95. I still have one black-painted 95. But back to the gold! My interest started with the acquisition of 2 Type 95s, one totally painted gold (even the blade) and a late-war 95 painted black and gold: I believe this one might have been post war as the paint come off relatively easy using acetone, and the blade, once cleaned, had lots of scratches and marks as if used plenty prior to painting. Also, there was no original paint underneath. It had been completely stripped before re-painting with gold. The late war 95: In hindsight, I now believe this one to be a wartime personalization. The paint was hard to get off with acetone, and the original color was underneath. The following are other examples that I've filed, beginning with a primo one just posted by @Arty A on this thread HERE. The paint is old and abused from use, and is covered with patina inline with the rest of the gunto: (out of time for now. Will update and continue later)

@Arty A - Arthur, could you post a couple of clear shots of the metal parts that seem to be painted gold? I have been loosely tracking gold-painted gunto for quite some time, and yours is obviously not a post-war paint job. In the early stages, everyone wrote them off as post-war Bubba work, and certainly some might be. Some, I have been told, were painted by theater groups for plays (kings didn't use Army green swords!), and that is likely true as well. But I've seen enough of them, like yours that look to have been done during the war.

@Wulfschanze6 - Andrew, John's link is a great one. I'd recommend the whole Ohmura site for a new guy: http://ohmura-study.net/900.html Also, a great discussion of the use of civil swords for the military Here: https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/Japanese-militaria/family-short-blades-gunto-688110/

Anxious to see it. And your sentiment is honorable and heard often on NMB.

Neil, Just seeing the aging of the nakago can often give guys an idea of the era the blade was made. Smith names are often found there, and sometimes dates. It is very uncommon to find a note of whom the blade was made for.

I don't have a big, broad experience with polishers, as I've only had one done, but with mine, the polisher cleaned the nakago as part of the job.

Thanks David! Yoshinao, No date, Showa

Peculiar. And possibly another shop label on the saya?

The mon is the 3-layered pine tree. Don't know the family names associated with it. Discussed on the Mons Forum HERE

So that's a mon at the top! How interesting!

Dave, Please try to contact them! Let them know that thousands of WWII Japanese sword collectors really want to see that nakago!

Thanks Chuck. I appreciate your efforts to finish fitting the bare blade out. If it were me, though, I'd find a good army tsuba/seppa set, as the rest of the gunto fittings are all army. Army had some black colored saya as well. I'm puzzled that the black paint simply comes off with alcohol? I haven't tried alcohol on original paint before, but I've tried acetone, and original paint really resists coming off with acetone. Post-war paint comes off much more easily. Does anyone know if original WWII paint comes off easily with alcohol? The whole thing, like John said, looks like a post-war Bubba slapped a bunch of pieces together. But if there is bare wood under both ashi, that wouldn't seem to be what I'd expect on a Bubba-job, unless Bubba totally stripped an original saya for his re-paint. My leanings are toward a Bubba-job, but with real WWII parts.

Can anyone elucidate on the blue painted kanji. Doesn't seem to be the normal numbering.

And that's one heck'ov a hamon for a showato!

I'd go with Kanenao: http://japaneseswordindex.com/oshigata/kanenao3.jpg

And that would explain the use of a different kanji than I was seeing in the wartime smiths.

Well, that’s a twist in the plot I didn’t see coming! Great observations about the older blade in the RS fittings. You may also be swaying me in your direction of the stamp being a shop logo, as military stamps are not found at that end of the nakago.

Chuck, The saya came just as it is in the picture? And the blade was bare, or had the tsuba and dai-seppa with it? As to the blade, it's near impossible to know if it was made before or just after the war. Those stainless blades can be pretty clean. The post-war blades tend to have unfinished ends on the nakago, but not always. I've seen a few of the souvenir rigs with well shaped jiri. So, no way to know just by the blade. Still need to know more about the saya, though.

So. The plot thickens. I'm fairly certain that is a Matsu stamp: I don't see evidence of a number, although corrosion could have destroyed them. Making this more interesting, if it is a Matsu stamp, is that the majority of Matsu stamps have been found on blades made in the Niigata prefecture. We have 2 recorded from neighboring Nagano, and now this one from either: Aichi, Mino, Dewa province (which back then included Yamagata), Yamagata, or Gifu, which is where the known Kaneyoshi smiths operated from. As you can see, they all neighbor Niigata and Nagano, so I'm starting to think this stamp was an Army stamp used for certain areas, like the katakana stamps we see with numbers. @george trotter - thoughts?

Charles, I think you're right. The nakago is longer than usual, so the hole at the very end must be for the sarute. Still don't understand the hole just below it, though, unless the blade was originally made for RS fittings, then sold to a Navy buyer.