1944 model gunto

[Max C]

I bought this blade recently at a reasonable price, mainly for tameshigiri purpose and would like to know if I am in the presence of a machine made showato or an handmade gendaito. It is signed (Nobumitsu), dated january 1945. The blade is not stamped (The tsuba is the only piece that is), some told me that after 1940, all machine made blades were stamped in an effort to differientiate them from traditional ones (taken from Modern Japanese swords and swordsmiths). It has a large hamon (sugaha), although hardly visible because of the lack of polish, so no hada visible either. The tip is very badly scratched so no boshi to be seen.

 

The koshirae is of rather good quality, there is real same under the ito, not the usual strange cloth associated with later models. An interesting aspect is the saya; it is of a dark bown painted Iron (again, not the tan or green from usual later models) and covered in brown wool with a leather tip. Never seen this before.

 

It is a thick blade (7mm at the machi), with lot of hiraniku, 26in long. I have included some pictures here: http://s234.photobucket.com/albums/ee16 ... to%201944/

 

Thanks in advance.

[Hermes]

My guess is Gunto without a star stamp etc., take a look here on Richard Stein's great site.

 

http://www.geocities.com/alchemyst/showato.htm

[Max C]

Thanks for the link, I already saw the site many times though. I may have spotted a stamp on the nakago, but it is so faint and small that it could be anything, and doesn't look like any stamp on the site. Anyway, polish will tell.