Fuyu No Tsuki

Well, thank you for your responses everyone. I’m going to just try to polish this thing up. I couldn’t be doing too much of a disservice to the thing, could I?

Thanks for the reply, Grey. I would agree with you, except this was pre-occupation. My grandfather was in the Pacific, Guadalcanal/Solomon Islands for 1-2 years and returned stateside February 1944. He did have a brother who was a Marine who came home after Iwo Jima. I believe he was stateside by August 1945. So neither really had the opportunity to buy it as a souvenir. Both of them were out of the service by the time Japan surrendered, and neither ever went back, wanted nothing to do with the Pacific Ocean ever again. The shirasaya seems to actually be made of magnolia which is even more confusing. I guess I was just wondering if anyone has ever seen anything pop up like this before… Dom

I don’t think it’s a tool. I feel like it’s a broken blade cut down, but it’s in shirasaya for storage, which means whoever repurposed it found it valuable. I was assuming it would be some broken gunto blade, but why would he value it like that then? It’s a very curious object. It also creeps me out a little as it seems much more personal of an item than an original gunto. D

Hi everyone. I found this in my grandfather’s attic earlier in the year. He served in the US Navy during WWII. He was in the Pacific Theater, taking part in the campaigns of Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands. I know it’s Japanese, but not much else. The blade has obviously been machined and cut from a longer blade, but I don’t know what the original could have been? The steel seems lightly pitted and corroded but relatively smooth. I see a niji-mei, “小鍛” kokaji? If anyone has any idea about this blade I’d greatly appreciate your input! I’m assuming it has little value and might try polishing or restoring it myself. Dom