Huntman

Anyone have any advice on having these cleaned up or restored? Or really am I doing just fine keeping them oiled once a year when I remove them from the safety deposit box (Well, its a bit larger, but not by much lol they only just fit)

Steve, John and Piers Thank you for that, its much more than I could have asked for, thank you very much. I have one other sword but I did not want to take it apart, it was the wooden one. I will add this, when I was looking at the scabbard for the 1st sword (that has the really bad stitch and leather cover) it has one spot at the bottom where it's cut open (it has been for as long as I could remember) but if you flip up that flap of leather or maybe some type of canvas it has a shiny black sheath under it. Maybe that cover was put on by someone to protect the real scabbard? In any event I am not sure I want to take it off my self maybe I'll find someone locally here in Indiana that can take a look at it. It just looks like it was added to the sword by someone who was not very good at stitching, and all the other swords I've seen like this have some kind of ornate nature to it.

Attached are some of the images of the tang that a few members requested- Anything you can tell me about this would be fantastic. They were rusted, and to my knowlage they have never been removed (in fact one of the pin's that went through the handle turned to dust when I removed it. I had another bamboo pin by chance to put back in, that fit flawlessly (luck) Anyway these characters are hard to see in a photo, so in addition to the whole tang photo I have each one blown up some and will post them in the correct order (top to bottom if your holding the sword with blade pointing up) Sword 1 Whole Tang | X | (Logo I think) | 1 | | 2 | < --- Represents whole tang | 3 | | 4 | ------- Logo (= X) | X | 1st Character (top = 1) | 1 | 2nd Character ( 2nd down from top = 2) | 2 | 3rd Character (3rd down from top = 3) | 3 | 4th Character (4th and last character = 4) | 4 | And another sword - This one is hard to make out, I'll come back latter if needed and add better images, it takes me a while to clean these up. Thanks' Alan

Dwain, Thank you for letting me know the names of the parts. I love that information,

Thank's for the information. I will be getting these out of the safety deposit box early next month, and I'll see if I can get some better photos. I'm very novice at the names, and different sword types. But of these three what did you want to see a photo of in better detail? I can take some better photos when I'm oiling them. I've spoken to a number of people as well at the type of oil to use, and some difference of opinion comes to surface, but I have been using Choji oil. About once per year, my Grandpa lived in a dry area of Colorado and I live in Indiana, so rust bothers me. The blade has some black marks on it, always have but they are very small and honestly look like splatter marks from something. I have a massive amount of respect for these items, both where they came from and how they came to me. I've taken great care to preserve them and ensure they are maintained properly, I don't know much about how to maintain the leather or natural aspects of these, or if anything needs done other than humidity control (I store them in vac bags with oxygen absorbent packets now) and have been thinking of even nitrogen storage. Let me know what kind of photos you want and I'll do my best to get them, anyone can show me a good video on how to take apart the handle I'd appreciate it. I'm grateful for your help in this matter, in return I'm a not a half bad network tech / desktop tech / Active Directory System Admin I'd be glad to offer what advice I can in return. Allan Burchett

I have a few swords my Grandpa got in 1940's when he was serving in World War 2, he told me he was allowed to take them from the ship he was on and the rest were pushed in to the sea before they returned. These two swords have writing on them that I have frequently wondered what they say. One I strongly believe is the name of a solider who owned it. The other, I have no idea it's written on the handle. I will post them both, thanks in advance for translating these. I have one other but it was a hand made sword, lucky pick from the pile the local museum said it was around 170 years old by the name of the sword smith, I forget who it was but next time I have the guts to take the handle appart I'll post it as well. I think I can post a picture of the sword I took a while ago, now it sits in a safety deposit box/cabinet and I only get it out once a year to put choji oil on it. The long katana is the one I was told was hand crafted, has some kind of lizard skin on the scabbard I think they said it was Iguana in the handle and komodo dragon on the scabbard. I don't remember to tell the truth, but it's not leather, nor plastic it's some kind of thin animal hide, its not glued to the body of the scabbard so it can move a little with finger touch. Anyway, I'd love to know more about these swords, the close of of the one with the red scabbard and gold lettering I was thinking of sending to have restored, but not sure if I should or who I can trust with it. These mean a lot to me, my Grandpa is gone now and he gave these to me when I was a child. Allan Burchett