Jim Manley

A few mon pix. Jim

One more. jim

I wanted to share these photos. So many collect Gunto swords and so few have them properly polished. Once polished the skill of the smith, at least the better ones, is revealed. So many have hastily done "war time" polishes which along with decades of neglect or abuse, hides their beauty.

Getting better, only missed by two years . Thanks. jim

Can I ask for a bit of help with this mei, please? I think I have the date at Showa 17, 1942. I am struggling with the very faint and sloppy smith's mei. I'm guessing yuki or yoshi masa? It doesn't have any stamps. Jim

A couple more pix of the saya, habaki and tsuka. Jim

Merry Christmas and happy Boxing Day ! First, I mixed up two seppa from another blade, a Takeuchi Kunihiko, that has identical fittings but is a larger blade. All the Kunikane fittings are stamped 79 even the inside of the fuchi. I found no armory acceptance stamps on any of the parts. I'm certain the military fittings were made for this blade. As for its provenance, Don Whitehead discovered it and I subsequently purchased it from a gentleman who said he'd obtained it as part of a payment for a diamond. There was a second blade as well. It was in a D guard obviously old, and I've always wondered if it was the real treasure. As you can see in the photo, the habaki was made with two ears that fit into the groves in the blade. Someone took great care in its construction and must have had the blade in hand. Jim

Detail on the Mon and drag of the saya. There are both Arabic numbers and kanji in the curved indent on both sides of the drag but they are too faint to be legible. Another oddity is that the tsuka shows significant handling wear. There is no damage to the tsuka ito but it appears the blade was carried but seldom removed from the saya. Likewise, the habaki shows no scratches or wear one might expect on a blade in "normal" usage. I'll endeavor to get more / better photos of the kai gunto fittings. All of the seppa, and tsuba are stamped 79 except 2 seppa which are stamped 42.

The cutting test is gold inlay which has been filed flat. I can't do an adiquate job of capturing those details. As for the hada, yes it has a more course look which is most pronounced just above the hamachi. I completely agree with Peter and others that it has the presence of a newer blade. But I've never seen or handled an authentic early generation Kunikane and the photos in my limited resources don't adiquately convey the subtitles. The underlying, if unstated question is, to what lengths would one go to create a "fake" first generation Kunikane? I was hoping the board members would enjoy this, I know I am and certainly appreciate the scholarship and opinions. jim

Yes the lead dots go through the saya and are identical on both sides. jim

I think the dots are a lead filler inserted in drilled holes to hold the saya together. It looks like it was inserted and then filed down. I have no idea why it was done vs. glue. Jim

Thanks to all for the fantastic dialog. If my translation of the cutting test mei was a fumbling mess I apologize and it only makes me more pleased that this has spawned such interest and discussion. A part of my theory was of course that the cutting test was done by Jiro Yoshimune. I simply Google searched that name and up popped "Tokugawa Yoshimune" and the accompanying data. Perhaps a bit of misplaced optimism but it did pull my theory timeline together nicely. Jim

Two, hamon's look real. jim

Apologies for not signing my original post. A couple more photos.

Additional photos