PeterCollector

Marco, thank you for your message. No, you are not stealing thread - l want exactly discussion like that. Your opinion is always welcome and l like it. Petet

Hello My friends, thanky you all for your mesages. I didn't know that Mr. Hornak is not official polisher. I know that he was trained in Japan and is still polishing swords there every year. So my ffirst opinions were, that he is good option for this sword - it is wartime produced piece, not a high end old work. And that is also why l want to share all the work which will be done with you. Bruno, thank you for all your messages. When l contacted Mr. Hornak, he told me at the beginning, if he can find me good polisher in Japan, or if l want to do the polish by him directly. I told him that if he can do that, he can polish sword directly. Then he told me that he need to discuss blade with his master too. Anyway, please let me know if you think sword can be seriously damaged, or there is an option that blade can be destroyed. Then l rather decide for someone else, or wait a while with work. Best regards Peter

Hello, dear friends, I want to say big thank you to all members of forum, which help me with identiffing my latest sword. In this thread I decided to post better and sharp photos of this certainly interesting sword. I made a decision to polish sword and buy a shirasaya for it. Papering right now is not possible because of situation in Eurobe and ban on all shipping between Japan and European Union. For polishing I contacted Mr. Martin Hornak, polisher who lives very close to me in Slovakia. Right now is Mr. Hornak in Japan, but he promised me, when he returned home he will polish the sword, so work can be done in summer. When the polishing starts, I will provide you with photos and progress of his work in this thread. I hope you will like photos of sword. Any advice with restoring the sword and advice where I can order shirasaya for sword in Europe are welcome. Thank you Best regards Peter

Hello friends, thank you for all your help. It is nice to hear, that you like the sword and you think it deserve some special care. First I have to count all my money and decide if I can afford to polish it - I mean if the sword is really hard to find and it has some value - bigger than the polishing cost I will do that. Stephen, I will try to do my best and clean the blade tang carefully but for sure I have to clean up saya it is a lot of dirt in it. I also try to take better pictures tommorow and share them in gunto section. Again many, many thanks to you all for help. Peter

Hello, thank you for your help with identifiing sword. Like you can see - sword saw a lot of usage during the war and blade have some oil spots and litle scratches - it is nothing serious, there are no hits on blade or any other flaw. But blade is grey and no hamon is visible. Do you think this sword deserve to be polished? I mean if l can invest some money into it? Or it deserve to be papered? Thank you Best regards Peter

Hello dear friends, few days I bought this poor conditioned officer sword which was not storaged very well. Despite these fact, sword is still nice. Very carefully I removed wooden grip and find markings on both sides of blade tang. I know there is a lot of rust, but I do not decide to clean it, because I don´t want to damage it. Please can anybody help me with translating the markings - I mean blade smith or maybe date, when it was produced. Each part of sword have same number "87" and one seppa is missing - but when I carefully inspect the sword, l think, it was never on sword, or was lost very, very long time ago, because sword fits tight and very well and patination on tsuba is just around other seppas. Mon on pommel is also missing Thank you for your time and help Kind regards Peter, Slovakia

Bruce, Bencld: Thank you for your help! Best regards Peter

Hello Bruce, thank you for your reply. I made few photos of blade and tried my best, but we had very cloudy sky, so the light was not ideal. I hope you can see important details from picutres. Please, are there any more additional information about the swordsmith which are not mentioned in previous Mori Kunitoshi thread? Thank you for your time and help. Best regards Peter

Hi Bruce, thank you very much for your information. I also have one sword, which was attic find and have painted numbers on blade tang and there are no numbers on other fittings, grip or scabbard. Sword fit perfectly to fittings and l do not see any postwar work on each seppa or tsuba, so l think whole set belongs together. I even scaned each detail of sepa on USB microscope for matching patina. So maybe all parts belongs together despite the missmatch number. Bruce do you think the sword can be gendaito? Or it is normal common sword. l can post more pictures if needed. Again thanks for you time and help. Best regards Peter

Hello Ray, thank you for your time and help! Best regards Peter

Hello, dear friends I want to ask for little help with identification of the signature on blade tang. Sword is Shin gunto with aluminum scabard. There are no other markings on tang (no showato, seki or any numbers). On one site of blade is also margings made only by paint, but I hope they are visible. There are also markings on seppa and tsuba and it looks like "IIII II/" - it is number? Same symbol is on handle made of black ink. Thank you very much for your time and help. Best regards Peter

Hello Bruce, here are better closeup photos of seppa and tsuba. Right now I´m not at home, so I can´t do a better pictures Kind regards Peter

Piers, many thanks with translating this symbol! I think it is logic marking and make sense. Best regards Peter

Hello Piers, thank you for your comment. I think you are correct with seppa and tsuba symbol "中" - it is exactly what is on all parts. When I returned home I can take some photos with USB microscope and send them to forum. Please can you translate symbol "中" it is Japanese letter? Or it is udentified symbol? Thank you again for your comment. Best regards Peter

Hello Bruce, thank you for your lesson! It is nice to know that my sword has harkings which are not common. I´m just a begginer with Shin gunto swords collecting so help from advanced collector is welcome! Best regards Peter

Hello Bruce, thank you for your quick response and also for identifiing these markings. I never saw them on any other my sword. Here is link, where are photos of nakago - I was also lost with translation so I asked experts for help Best regards Peter

Hello, dear friends, today I decidet to inspect one of my Shin Gunto sword, which was made by Kojima Kotsumasa. Sword was made in January 1944. If I am corred, sword also have Nagoya stamps on blade tang and other marking which isl similar to "axe" or I don´t know how to name it on tsuba and each seppa. But what is most interesting for me are two markings on Kabuto, I find two markings on Kabuto-gane, which looks like star stam and other symbol which I can´t identify. Please can anybody help me with markings on Kabuto-gane and maybe marking on tsuba and seppa? Thank you for your time and help. Beest regards Peter

Hello, Bruno, mecox: thank you both very much for great help. I already download article on Amahide, I´m very surprised how many interesting informations are on it. Best regards Peter

Hi Bruno, thank you for your help with identifying swordsmith and date. Please can you tell me if there are any basic informations about Kanemune? Best regards Peter

Hello, dear friends, again I´m asking for help with signature translation. Please can you help me to identify bladesmith and date of production? This is late war produced sword so called type 3. Signature is hard to see, but l took few closeup photos, so hope there will be no problem with reading. Thank you for your time and help, I much appreciate it Best regards Peter

Bruce, mecox: thank you friends for help. I find and download article - great work and very informative! Best regards Peter

mecox: please can you tell me exact name of file? I can´t find it in download section

Hello to all, many thanks for helping with identifying blade smith and date. Bruce: There are no numbers on the blade, I also inspected back of the tang and didn´t find any markings, but there is piece of wood glued to the back and I can´t remove it, so maybe below this piece of wood can be some numbers.

Hello, dear friends, please can you help me with signature on blade tang, which is in Shin Gunto sword. I´m totally lost with it. There is probably blade smith on one site and year and month on other? Thank you very much for help. Peter

kissakai, mywei, BaZZA: thank you friend for your help and interest! It is nice to see exact date of production, year 1942 Best regards Peter