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Any Shin Gunto With "battle Scars"?


PNSSHOGUN

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I'm wondering if any of you have swords in your collection that retain evidence of war time use (or older such as kirikome etc)? The only true example I have seen is in the Australian War Memorial and had been used on an Australian soldier during combat, cut from the shoulder to the hip. The blade was severely chipped and bent in the process. I believe he survived and killed the Japanese officer and took the sword back with him.

 

I'd be very interested to see other examples, especially with provenance, if you have them. Personally I think a Gunto with Kanbun blade I recently bought has evidence of wartime use, mainly a bend near the monouchi, light scuffs/scratches consistent with cutting, spidery rust marks and very fine edge damage in one spot that I can't really capture.

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I see ware and scratches and maybe a hagire on the first pictures.

Not a typicall kirikomi.

 

Btw how you will find out if all that is coming from a battle? Maybe it comes from bad treatment.

 

Regards

 

Chris

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I see ware and scratches and maybe a hagire on the first pictures.

Not a typicall kirikomi.

 

Btw how you will find out if all that is coming from a battle? Maybe it comes from bad treatment.

 

Regards

 

Chris

My photos are not very good, but fairly sure those aren't ware but stabilized spider rust. The marks (to me) don't look like post war abuse such as cutting trees or the like. Of course I don't know for sure, I'm just going with the evidence I have, the mounts have heavy use as well.

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I've got swords that I strongly suspect saw use... But absolutely no concrete evidence to back that up. Chips in the cutting edge, sharpening, wear and stains consistent with use...

 

I used to have a gendaito with a .45ACP impact in the tsuba. It was a good sword, but I moved it on a while back.

 

It's likely we all have swords that saw use, but difficult to verify unless you buy it off a veteran.

 

Waiting for Stegel to share his sword.

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Thats pretty neat! I've seen a few on the web and in the person that could be attributed to bullet strikes.

 

One I saw on the WAF has a .45 lodged between the tsuba and fuchi, wrecking those and lodging it self between those and the mune of the nakago. There was a Mantetsu on sale once that had a strike in the same place, obliterating that area of the tsuba and fuchi, but leaving a moderate dent on the nakago. Guess those blades definitely have a reputation they uphold!

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Hello,

        This one has a bullet strike to the nakago showing the damaged tsuka and the subsequent replacement..Bought of a board member some time ago who I believe obtained the sword from a dealer in the U.S.A ( also uses the board ). A very nice sword signed Emura...

                                                                                                                                                       Regards,

                                                                                                                                                                     Paul..

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  • 3 weeks later...

 is in the Australian War Memorial and had been used on an Australian soldier during combat, cut from the shoulder to the hip. The blade was severely chipped and bent in the process. I believe he survived and killed the Japanese officer and took the sword back with him.

That sounds like a real nasty cut, hard to see anyone surviving that! If the sword was bent and damaged, i suspect it was of a 'poorer' quality to do so, or the soldier was wearing some of his gear which may have helped with the damage.

 

An awkward Knock with not much pressure can cause the edge of a blade to chip (even on wood), so i would discount edge chips as obvious 'battle' damage.

It may just be post war mistreatment and too hard to prove as conclusive battle damage such as a bullet for example.

 

A bit different to World War type damage from bullets/shrapnel and such, I have a sword with what appear to be knicks along the back edge or spine, although the rest of the blade is in fine polish.

i've been told these could be from actual sword to sword combat, as the practice was to preserve the edge and block with the back of the blade if possible.

A polish would fix edge chips, but not really the deeper gouges on the spine of the blade.

The blade is by Ujifusa from 1770.

I havn't got any photo's, but will try to get some and post when i get a chance.

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Here's one for the thread. A Type 95 with two bullet holes. The first has passed through the saya, slightly bent the blade and carved a smooth channel through the steel, to blow a big hole out the other side of the saya. On the tsuka there is a smaller bullet hole passing just by the locking latch and straight through the aluminum and wood without too much mess. This has blown out the bolt screw. Overall pretty worn and stained blade, the old girl earned a quiet retirement.

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Here's one for the thread. A Type 95 with two bullet holes. The first has passed through the saya, slightly bent the blade and carved a smooth channel through the steel, to blow a big hole out the other side of the saya. On the tsuka there is a smaller bullet hole passing just by the locking latch and straight through the aluminum and wood without too much mess. This has blown out the bolt screw. Overall pretty worn and stained blade, the old girl earned a quiet retirement.

My guess is that the soldier wearing this had gotten some much unwanted attention! Wonder if he faired any better than the gunto did?!

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Hello,

        I sold this gunto some time ago to a friend who wanted something interesting as a display piece..It came as part of a consignment from a museum a number of years ago and the dealer who was selling them couldn't move this one because of the damaged blade..I bought an expensive gunto off him and got this one for it's history..The sword looks like it has seen some heavy use and judging by the wear on the heavy duty ashi was carried for a considerable amount of time..The only parts of the sword not original to it are the tsuba,seppa's and sarute...The third party who picked the sword up for me switched them and kept them and the nice pierced tsuba that originally adorned it , he denied it and I couldn't get them back....lesson learned...! That's the only reason I let it go...A sad fate for many gunto..!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Regards,

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Paul...

 

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