Put-together kai-gunto.

[Nazar]

First, I have to say that I created this topic solely for educational purposes  and to share some information (to give you an idea of what one encounters in our neck of the woods).  I am not about to buy this sword as I already could see why I should pass on it.  

 

So a few days ago I was offered to buy this kai gunto by the seller who had it on commision. The seller sent some photos. I like its koshirae a lot, especially ray skin saya. Hope one day I'll buy a decent kai gunto with such saya. However, a couple of things instantly striked me as weird. For one thing, the blade looks to be buffed, yet the line of hamon is clearly visible. For another, the koshirae looks more or less untouched, yet the habaki have signs to be heavily sandpapered.

Some photos of koshirae:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nazar]

The general photos of the sword:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nazar]

This part of hamon line made me especially suspicious:

 

 

This part of the blade also added some weight to my suspicions.

 

 

Yet couple of photos.

 

 

[Nazar]

So I asked the seller to shoot photos of nakago with habaki removed. Only yesterday I received his answer that he tried, but he failed to remove habaki. He also sent some photos of nakago. One look at those photos was enough to lose all interest in this particular kai-gunto. It became obvious that the blade has nothing to do with the koshirae. And those person or persons who decided to put them together did next:

First, they decided to drill a new mekugi-ana. The markings left on nakago clearly state that. I believe that the reason they didn't drill it was that tsuka at that position may have too extensive freeplay.

So instead of trying to make some inner liners for tsuka, they just moved munemachi and hamachi forward, ruining the blade completely.  To accommodate tsuka, they also cut off nakago-jiri. All these are clearly visible from the photos and it explains why the seller failed ro remove habaki.

What has been done to the nakago is clear. I think the hamon  also may be artificial. I am very  interested in your opinion on the hamon, the balde and my observations.