Hello,
First post. Great site!! A friend found out that I practice Iaido and asked if I would look at a sword that his Grandfather brought back from the war in the Pacific. The Mekugi was rotten and the handle required quite a bit of force to get off. I cleaned the blade with oil and a rag and Isopropyl alcohol. It looked like axle grease had been applied a long time ago. A lot of scratching on the blade but very little rust. The tsuba is currently stuck on there as I cannot get the fuchi off the tang. I will probably just cut it off. Difficult to see in the photos but there is file marks on the tang although I cannot see any Kanji on there. It also looks like the weapon has been shortened at some point in its life. Nagasa is 67 cm and the Nakago is 21 cm. The tsuba has not been cleaned yet and I have just used light 3 in 1 for the moment over the blade. Looks like a shoelace was used on the Tsuka with badly tanned ray skin. But this has not been changed since it was acquired Took as much of the red rust of the tang with cloth and oil. Look forward to hearing peoples opinion on this blade as It looks quite unusual. Thin straight Hamon up the entire blade. The Kisaki looks very well worn!
Thanks in Advance,
Todd