Gunto 98 or 94?

[Rawa]

This particular koshirae have rust spot and cut markings in area where could be mounted another haikan. Your opinion please. Its shorter sword but distance between haikan should be similar. It have open tsuba but those were used in 94 and early 98s. Chuso isnt centered.

[Bruce Pennington]

Marcin,

I was traveling all yesterday.  I assume John was just as busy, and he's the guy to ask for sure.

 

An off-set chuso, as I understand, would put this into the 98 category.  I've seen 98's with centered chuso, but I don't think I've seen 94's with off-set ones.

John will clear it up for us. @PNSSHOGUN

[Rawa]

There was discussion about chuso location and it was debunked as type indicator.

[PNSSHOGUN]

Original Type 94 can be found with an offset Chuso, the central location is more common but not a determining factor. 

 

[Bruce Pennington]

Ok!  Well, learned something today.  So, what about Marcin's gunto?

Marcin, do you have a width of the tsuba?

[Rawa]

5,5x7.0 cm and 0,75mm thick. Its with "frankenstein" nakago blade fit to mount them all. 

[rebcannonshooter]

Bruce,

I believe John is spot on with his analysis. The location of the chuso is often more a function of the location of the mekugi ana than of model type. If one looks at John's photo, one can see that if you center the chuso on that sword, there would be little or no wood left to support the tsuka. I have a sword in my collection that has a "halfmoon" cut out on the side of the chuso, near where the spring attaches. It was put there to to allow the mekugi to go past it. The wood is understandably very weak there and not something that Japanese craftsmen normally do.

Tom