Alighierie

Thank you much everybody, I appreciate your wealth of knowledge. I'm happy to know more about it. Also very helpful to know I should not attempt to remove the blade. I'll give it a light coat of oil and leave it at that. Many thanks!

Thank you - any insight is good at all! I use a product called 'Ballistol' on my firearms that is a combination of mineral oils; I presume that is probably all right on the steel of the sword. I suspected that the blade was likely machine made. I'm not too certain I necessarily want to restore this sword or touch it up at all. While it is not in great condition I, personally, don't like the thought of going in and messing with something this old to make it more presentable to the eye. The condition of it is part of its history, I suppose. I do appreciate the insight however.

Hi everybody, this is my first post here. I was directed to this forum by some others as recently I have come into possession of what I understand is a Type 19 kyu-gunto sword. I'd like to learn more about it, if at all possible, and to learn how to take care of it. My main area of knowledge is in military firearms and definitely NOT swords, so please go easy on me! I've tried to do a bit of research on this type of sword but I keep finding much conflicting information online. What I DO know about it is that I received it from an older gentleman whose father brought it back to the US from Japan in 1946. From there it sat in a closet and collected dust for approximately 80 years. My understanding is that these swords were largely machine-made but not always, and that there is some variation in their construction; they were also in use from the 1880s and so for the first Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese conflict. I understand that often more information about the sword can be gleaned by looking at the nakago (did I get that right?) though I am stumped as to how to get a look at it. I see no pins in the tsuka(?) that can be removed to let the blade slide out, so any instruction or advice on that would be helpful. As I said earlier some help on the care of this sword would also be helpful - I'd like to take proper care of it even though it seems the metal on the blade is damaged in some way. I've attached a link for a google drive folder with photos of the sword. If any more are required I can certainly provide them. Thanks in advance! https://drive.google...4hM_fqvxsb0FPpfeBNwl