Non Japanese gunto

[Rivkin]

It is a strange sword in a sense that first it has a lot of honest wear. All copper parts are visibly flattened by repeated contact, leather is also clearly affected where it would have contact. And be default the leather covers the entire surface.

Second, it does not try to imitate gunto but rather being inspired by it. The collars on tsuka and saya have unusual motifs, with war fan but I would say clearly "Namban", continental stylistics.

The nakago is rough finished, but the blade is actually quite good, pardon not the best pictures. Its suguha, there is tight and clear nioi-guchi (its in zero polish), there faint bo utsuri (???), the forging appears to be strongly masame influenced (which is not unusual for the continent).

30 inch nagasa, hira-zukuri with unusual but well done naginata-like thickness transitions which are not exactly Japanese, iori-mune.

 

Any ideas where it comes from?

Edited yesterday at 10:19 AM by Rivkin

[PNSSHOGUN]

It could very well be an Island sword, curious they even tried to replicate the shop stamp on the Tsuba. 

[Bruce Pennington]

Yes, the all-leather covered wooden tsuka/saya look seems to be common in the island swords.  I don't know S.E. Asian styles, but the fuchi/koiguchi art strikes me as Thailand'ish.

[Rawa]

Both mekugi ana are used for actusl mekugi? Habaki looks longer then usual.

Edited yesterday at 08:29 PM by Rawa

[Rivkin]

10 minutes ago, Rawa said:

Both mekugi ana are used for actusl mekugi? Habaki looks longer then usual.

Yes, though only one mekugi survived. Habaki is definitely local, its stuck unfortunately and I am yet to hammer it off. Its a massive blade, I am surprised they opted for such narrow suguha.

[Rawa]

Gunbai motif at koiguchi? 

It’s more appropriate for comanding Japanese at the end of war then auxiliary unit. Cut off from homeland.

[Rivkin]

18 hours ago, Rawa said:

Gunbai motif at koiguchi? 

It’s more appropriate for comanding Japanese at the end of war then auxiliary unit. Cut off from homeland.

First time seeing this! I had a few "island swords" where the fittings were either plain metal or imitations of gunto, not some bizarre attempt at custom work with nanako and a combination of different motifs on one piece. The leather cover and how's the leather done on saya is more or less typical, but the blade and the fittings are very much not.