My kai-gunto: some photos & questions.

[Nazar]

 

Hi all.

 

So I ended up buying the sword you guys helped me to identify as real kai-gunto. I took some pause to cool off and think. Then I contacted the seller and negotiated the price down to USD 1500. Still sounds  like a high price for such a sword, but I had reasons of my own to buy it. The main thing in a situation like this is to be happy with what you get. And so far I am happy. I believe I already mentioned that after three years of war I grew tired beyond measure and in the last months I feel myself completely burned out. Yet I still have work to do.  Luckily, these days I have some time (not much though) I could spend on myself.  And since I found out that Japanese blades have a magic in them that switches my mind in no time, I am in it. After the first failure (though I don't consider it as such) I decided to switch on simpler things like Navy dirks. And since for me the best way to study a subject is to have some objects of study at hand I acciered a pair of them. But I believe it may be a separate story, so let's return to the kai-gunto.

 

Sword arrived and as expected: the blade had some corrosion dotting and it barely had a place free from fingerprints. And as you guys correctly noticed, nagasa was buffed. Fittings looked like they were in dire need of cleaning. At first glance the sword looked like an assembly: tsuba and seppas may be from one set but nakago-ana is too large for this blade. Luckily for me, I have some experience in polishing metals  (though, not swords) so after looking at the blade I had a clear understanding that any kind of improper treatment will do no further good. So since its arrival I was only constantly oiling the blade and the most aggressive tool I used on the nagasa was a toothbrush with shortened bristles. However, I gently cleaned habaki, tsuba, seppas, fuchi, locking mechanism, kabuto-gane and sarute.  I had no time for cleaning the elements of saya yet. Now kai-gunto looks like this.

 

 

Process of cleaning was closely monitored by one of our cats.  She likes to participate in all kinds of human activities. That's why some photos are more hairy than others:-))

 

[Nazar]

I removed superficial red  rust from the nakago. I worked very carefully and slowly.  The only markings I found on the nakago is number 2. No arsenal stamps, no any kind of inscription. The thing that I thought may be an arsenal stamp turned out to be just a play of light on rust. Same number 2 I found on habaki, wooden halves of tsuka and chuso. So, at least these parts belong to the blade. Here are photos nakago before:

 

 

And after:

 

[Nazar]

Sorry for overloading you with photos.

 

In this particular photo as I believe, the file marks could be seen.

 

 

[Nazar]

The Nagasa length is 67cm which is pretty standard for a gunto. Photo shooting the blade that was buffed is quite an issue. I did my best though.

 

[Nazar]

 

[Nazar]

The hamon of this blade looks beautiful (at least for me). Its waves caught my eye from the starter. But I noticed that the hamon line is too close to the edge of the blade. At the extremes it is as close as 1.5mm according to my caliper. Now, as I understand, such a thing is typical for older blades that have seen a lot of polishing. That's when I started wondering if it could be an older blade in kai-gunto mounts or if it is just another war blade that was polished too frequently. Here is how the hamon looks on both sides of  nagasa . It was simpler to catch it on photos like this.

 

 

[Nazar]

With this kind of buffing it's simply impossible to see if the nagasa has a grain. So I tried to figure out what type of hamon it is: water or oil quenched. If it is water quenched it will confirm the theory of  traditionally made blade. Before I went through a couple of topics here I did my best to catch the gleam of hamon by daylight. It worked on the least buffed space of hamon. 

 

 

[Nazar]

Thanks to the members of this very forum for tips on how to shoot photos of hamon using darkness and source of light. It is much better. Yet, with all that buffing made by some 'restorator' I am rather confused.  What do you guys think about this blade and its hamon?

 

[Nazar]

[Mister Gunto]

That thick kissai (tip) is very common for the wartime Showa blades. Also I don't see much jigane activity in the steel. I have a couple Showato blades in Shin-Gunto mounts that look similar. Looks to be a nicely-made WW2-era arsenal blade using western-type steel. Legit hamon, probably water-tempered rather than oil-quenched. 

 

I haven't seen a IJN sword with the light tuski-wrap before. Nice! 

[Nazar]

Thank you Bradley,

 

That's why I got confused. From one side the sword has typical features for war blades, from another, there is this hamon and  wear of the blade. And so much for my limited knowledge: somehow I got myself under the impression that a non traditionally made blade wouldn't have water quenched hamon. 

 

And yes, yet one feature that gave me an idea of a non-standard sword was tsuka with ito of light colours and non-painted ray skin panels. I studied it mostly closely trying to figure out if it was refurbished.  The facts are as follows:

 

- Tsukamaki style is tsumami-maki whis is one of the correct styles for Kai-gunto. Like it very much, by the way. 

 

 

 

- Condition of Ito corresponds to its age, so I believe it wasn't rewrapped.

- Hishi-gamis  look to be made of black washi paper

 

 

Have to use contraption with additional lense and light to shoot this photo:-)

 

[Nazar]

- Side panels made of rayskin and it seems they have never been painted in black. The dark stuff between scales is of brown colour and I believe it is natural for old rayskin. At least I could see the same thing on the handle of one of my Navy dirks.

 

 

The only thing that may be typical for kai-gunto tsuka is remnants of black paint on the fushi end of tsuka wooden core. However, there is no paint in crevices between rayskeen and wood. 

 

 

 

So either  tsuka was completely refurbished: stripped to the wooden core, then new panels were installed and new wrapping made or it was like this from the very start. The second possibility gave me my silly idea that tsuka was custom ordered like this from a fitting workshop  and was made for the blade that was provided by the owner.

 

The overall condition of tsuka is great. I liked it so much that I was thricely careful when I was cleaning kabuto-gune. Nothing remained of its gilding, if there was such. only copper plating remained. And copper started to develop a green patina, which according to my beliefs has no place on elements of sword. So I carefully removed it. It still remains in some small  nooks, but later on I'll get rid of it too.

 

 

[Nazar]

The only remnants of gilding that may be found on tsuka are on menukies.

 

 

Fuchi looked even slightly worse. Worked on it too. Discovered it has the number 315 on the inner side.

 

 

 

[Nazar]

However, even as nakago and tsuka stamped with number 2, I still think fuchi may belong to this blade and its tsuka. If you take a look at the fuchi end of tsuka you may notice that it has quite deep markings on it.

 

 

These markings correspond to the shape of fuchi' nakago-ana.

 

 

It seems that this carved shape was used for general centering. In this photo one may notice additional markings made with paint (or pencil) by which the actual cut-out for the blade was made. so it looks like fuchi actually belongs to this tsuka.

 

[Nazar]

The chuso didn't look great. Luckily, the corrosion wasn't too deep.

 

 

I cleaned it gently up to remnants of copper plating. Then I oiled it. Note the same number 2 as on nakago and tsuka.

 

 

Fuchi after some cleaning. Copper plating is intact, but still has some small amount of green goo on it.

 

[lonely panet]

The tsuka imho has been modified to fit the blade and re bound 

[Nazar]

I inspected tsuka from inside using a small light. There is only one hole for mekugi. There are no signs of a "doctored" hole. Also tsuka fits nakago perfectly. I have no doubts that it belongs to this very blade.

[lonely panet]

is that shims on the mune and ha of the nakago?? 

[Mister Gunto]

To me, that wrap and samegawa looks like it's original. Probably a custom order by the officer. He wanted some bling to his blade! 

[Nazar]

If you mean wooden liners inside of tsuka on mune and ha sides, then no, there are no liners. To make sure I used a contraption like this:

 

 

It's a combination of a lens and two small LEDs. The guy from my crew made it and  uses it to examine  electronic components and some other things on equipment we are working with. So I borrowed it to study the sword. Very useful.

 

The outline that is carved around actuale hole is deep, but as far as I could see the pattern of wooden grain is the same inside and outside of that outline.  So I believe there is no liner inside of tsuka. Also I noticed that the outline has needle holes on every corner. I think this is the result of using some kind of template tool that was driven into tsuka' fuchi end. I ran a search on this very forum, ebay and google for pictures of tsuka fuchi end. As far as I found out it is not that common when this carved outline could be found and usually they more or less correspond to the actual hole. So the whole situation with it is unusual. Taking into account that the components like samegawa, ito and hishi-gami look to be of correct age, I think it was a job made to client order. 

[lonely panet]

It must be the outline of the nakago ana from the fuchi pressing an outline into the wood then

[Nazar]

So, while cleaning tsuka, I cleaned only metal parts. I was afraid to do any damage to ito, so I barely touched menukies. To clean them I used a narrow nylon brush from one of my weapon cleaning kits and a slightly modified nylon brush for Dremel (used it by hand of course). 

 

 

Like how tsuka looks.

 

[Nazar]

To shoot photos of objects I am working on is an old habit of mine from life before the war. And this habit kicked in back in no time,  that's why I post so many photos. However, at some stage of work I grew annoyed with photos I could get using my phone camera. When I was leaving for the war I left spare keys from my workshop and my apartments to one friend of mine. So I asked him to get my old Canon EOS650D from my workshop and send it to me. It's an old camera and before the war I was thinking of replacing it with a new one. But alas for all old plans. However, even with standard 18-55mm lens this camera still could do things that my phone could not. Also it turned out that even after three years of not using that camera my fingers still remember all buttons and deals. Once I got my camera I re-shoot a big deal of photos. However, some photos couldn't be re-shooted, like photos of parts before cleaning. Some photos taken by phone camera I considered to be good enough.  So what you see here is a mix of phone and camera photos. Also I have to admit that shooting photos of  Japanese swords is kind of a pleasure and challenge at the same time.

 

Other evening I was oiling the blade and some evening sunshine was gettin through half closed roller blinds. And  I was  turning the blade this and that way and hamon was catching light. Sure, I couldn't help myself to shoot some photos.

 

[Kaigunto230]

I really appreciate all the nice photos in this thread. Thanks for sharing your pickup! Some really interesting features for the price. Congratulations.

[Nazar]

Thank you Michael! 

 

So let's continue the story. Little could be said about habaki. It's of plain design and has number 2 stamped on it. It has some scratches and patina. I only removed grim from outside and green stuff from inside.

 

 

 

[Nazar]

As for the tsuba and seppas, they tell the story of why nakago was so rusty. Tsuba, seppas and fuchi, they all have spots on them that are the result of some kind of leakage. I believe the sword was stored improperly for some time, so condensation formed on the nakago. Then moisture started leaking toward habaki. This process continued for some time. Luckily, it didn't kill tsuka. 

 

 

However, nakago got fresh rust and seppas got corroded spots. In these spots zinc from the copper-zinc alloy turned into rust. I gently cleaned all the components.  Alas, red spots are unavoidable things when zinc is eaten from brass by corrosion. I could blacken the spots, but I think I'd better leave them as they are, since they are a part of sword' history. The only place where I let the intrusive thought win is fuchi. As you may see from my previous posts, I blackened the red spot there. Here are some photos of seppas  in "before and after cleaning" style.

 

 

 

 

 

[Nazar]

 

[Nazar]

All seppas have number 10 on their rear sides. Front rising sun seppa apparently was gilded, or coated by some type of golden coating. As for the rear O-seppa, I couldn't say for sure if it was "gilded" or not. 

 

 

Smaller seppas have a king of greyish lacquering on them. It could be seen from a certain angle.

 

[Nazar]

Tsuba took less damage than seppas because of its coating. It  seems to be double coated:  a golden coating could be seen under the black one. Here it is before and after cleaning.

 

 

[Nazar]

The only marking on it is a  "-" in nakago-ana. It may indicate that tsuba and seppas are from different sets, yet, the shape and size of nakago ana in tsuba and seppas are very similar.  So they may be from one set.