First Time Buyer - Help With Sword Please

[saskcoin]

I just got this sword today from a friend.   It was his uncles, who fought in WW2 and as long as I can and he can remember, his uncle stated he brought it back from overseas, along with a Bolo Machete.  The uncle is long passed away, but I finally managed to buy it off his nephew today, although now, after reading the forum, I am concerned it may be nothing more than a fake?     I believed it was a Kai Gunto, but there is no writing on the tang, although there are two matching numbers on the tsuka and the seppa?   There is an oil substance on the blade that has been there as long as anyone can remember. There is also some age damage to the tsuka where it is cracking, and to the obi tori.   Can anyone please be kind enough to let me know if I made a smart purchase, or if I have been the victim of a 25 year old fable.  I paid  $400 for it, so I either got a great deal? or got supremely taken.   Thank you in advance, and if there is anything further you need for information, please let me know and I will post either pictures of information.  I can tell you the blade is razor sharp, as I cut my finger bad trying to take it apart.  Also,  do I try to clean it up any or leave it as is?  I suspect leaving it as is, if it is authentic, would be the wise choice. 

[lonely panet]

Hi, and congrat's on your new sword.

 

good news its NO fake, tho in poor condition I would say by the look of the nakago, it's suriage. and older then 150years.

 you didn't pay to much, but its not a bargin either. can you clean the balde abit and re-take photos and board members might be able to help ID it for you

[Geraint]

But when he says clean the blade he means only wipe it with a cloth and perhaps some light oil, don't do anything else  and don't clean the tang at all.

 

I'm sure you knew that already but I would hate to see it all shiny from glasspapering.

 

A kaigunto with an older blade and what looks like a sanmai awase tsuba, can't be bad for what you paid.  Well done.

 

 

 

All the best

[Greg F]

Hello and congrats on the sword. I think its an ok price. If you put more/ better pics up you will get more answers and somebody may tell you if its worth getting polished(profesionaly) or not. Its very important to learn how to care for it properly and study about Nihonto as much as you can if you dont already.btw I think its a rule here to leave your name at the bottom of posts. Good luck.

 

Greg

[tokashikibob]

Great deal,  now go and find out more about your buddy's uncle.  Make some copies of his WW2 photo's, find out who he was with and where he probably grabbed this sword came from.    You will add a lot of value to the antique if you keep it's history together.

 

Best Regards,

   Bob

[Grey Doffin]

Here is a link to a care & etiquette site.  You would be doing yourself and the sword a huge favor if you read it twice.

http://www.nbthk-ab.org/Etiquette.htm

As already mentioned, do not try to fix the sword in any way.  Anything you try stands a good chance of doing damage and costing value.

Grey

[Stephen]

Still hanging here untill lose ends get tied up , had to comment on this.

 

get some oopps 

http://www.amazon.com/OOPS-033873007555-Extreme-Stain-Remover/dp/B000DZF2OG

 

it will remove the yellow oil/cosmoline on the blade. Not hard wiping, just repete until gone, then light oil.

[Caleb Mok]

Just got back into trying to monitor Ebay trends and IMHO within the arena of no paper/polish/shirasaya showa-or-later with some kind of a fitting...lots are being bidded for $600 USD or more.  Just so we're on the same page here: a sword with some ~mystery factor~ could potentially fetch shinto/shinshinto or maybe even koto prices i.e. much higher than $400, and once upon a time highly-likely shinto's were in my experience frequently sold within the $600 USD mark, with the implication that swords without any mystery factor i.e. *confirmed* showa/gunto were considerably less...in one case $250.  Those days are years behind us...but that does sort of mean your purchase can be deemed quite "good" when compared with the bids that people with no stars are bidding nowadays on Ebay for gunto in general.  I'm not trying to diss the people starting out, but seriously, it's hard not to note people with many stars have "activity with this seller" being like 5% or less whereas people without is like 25% or even 50%... well, if they throw everything into one or two baskets, they'll get ~something~ i guess... For fun, you could throw it on Ebay and have a "Buy it Now" price for $2000 USD and see what offers you get...just make sure you block out places "like" China and others. (i am Chinese and therefore i am certified not racist in saying this ~_~ )...or even better, put it to FS here and you might be surprised what you'll be offered.

 

In short, i think you got a good deal, and if you don't have huge sentimental attachments to it you should sell it ASAP before the market re-adjusts itself.  Ebay is FLOODED with crap right now IMHO with no shortage of people buying them so the thing to hope for is that this will drive up the price for everything, not just for the crap.  Helps too that at least Canada and Japan are kinda out of the buying picture right now because of their weak dollars: in addition to the $1000 gunto's that are being sold on Ebay right now, some $2000 or $3000 purchases ~would~ have put a "roof" as to how much someone "should" pay for a gunto and therefore conclude that your item "shouldn't" be worth more than $400.  But, especially with the weak yen, on Ebay at least IMHO, that "roof" is gone and people are going nuts for everything (?) ~ $1500 and under IMHO so you might want to take advantage of that asap right now.  When the market, at least for the Ebay market, has more variety again and $3000 purchases are common again people might "rationalise" and pay less for gunto IMHO...but until then, IMHO sky's definitely the limit for anything the first-time buyer is willing to bid

[saskcoin]

THANK YOU  EVERYONE!   for the quick responses and re-assurances.  I am going to work this morning to clean up the blade and get a few better pictures taken of it to post as well as starting to gather the historic information on it.  

[saskcoin]

Thank you Caleb for that information.  If what you say is true, I may just have to sell this one and rebuy when the market corrects itself.  I could then buy three for what I would get for this one right now potentially!  

 

 

 

 

[saskcoin]

Hopefully I am doing this right.  Here are some pictures of the blade after a light cleaning. 

 

http://s1180.photobucket.com/user/saskcoin/library/

[Stephen]

WHAT are you wiping with? woolbright?? soft cloth only u using a cleaning agent??

[saskcoin]

I wiped it with a piece of paper towel and some goop remover(Goof off), then a light jay cloth and water wiping off the remaining crud.  Those scratches were there when I got it.

[Stephen]

Sorry for my crassness im letting another matter influence my politeness, the GI must have given it a "cleaning" they did all kind of strange things.

[saskcoin]

No need to apologize Stephen.  I consider you folks the experts and I am terrified of doing anything to damage it, so I appreciate when I see things like that.  It makes me be even more careful!  Especially as a newcomer. 

[SAS]

damage done already, looks recoverable with a decent polish, is it worth it financially? hard to tell. a $400 buy in is not bad in this game.