Shin Gunto - WWII era

[grapppa]

I recently purchased this sword which was mounted in WWII era military mounts. The fact that the blade was in good condition; there is active hamon present and relatively inexpensive price was too much to pass up. I am unsure of the originality of the tsuka as I believe it was re-wrapped. The samegawa appears newish and the quality of the morohineri-maki style wrapping of the tsuka were unsettling. The samegawa is not tightly wrapped. But I bought it for the blade; although I would like to know if its worth it to finish the restoration or am I putting good money after bad.

 

Sugata (Shape of sword blade): Katana, 34 3/8", shingoi-zukuri, takashi-mune, chu-kissaki. 26" from kissaki to mune machi

 

Sori (curvature of blade) - Torii 13/16"

 

Jihada (Surface pattern of the HADA): muji-hada (none)

 

Yakiba (Hardened, tempered sword edge): midare; yokote is distinct. The final 2" on the mune to the kissaki

is not bright polished as the rest of the mune

 

Boshi (Temper line in kissaki): komaru or omaru style

 

Nakago (Sword tang): futsu gata, one mekugi-ana.

 

Horimono (Carvings on sword blade): None.

 

Yasurime (file markings on nakago): sujikai

[grapppa]

more pics

[SwordGuyJoe]

I'd probably leave this one alone. This is a mumei showato, maybe gendaito but little evidence of such. The muji hada, the poorly formed nakago leads me to think showato. Others may disagree, but keep in mind for polish alone, you are looking at a $2,600+ investment. You also have to keep in mind that a showato blade of this quality may fetch $700 - $1,200 in today's market, so unless someone literally paid you to take it off their hands, you'ld wind up seriously upside down on the deal. Sorry to be straight forward, but I don't see anything that screams 'diamond in the rough.'

[loiner1965]

joe is correct to a degree...you may not see hada as its out of polish and to have it polished costs alot of money.

i have a katana which i had polished and its beautiful.

not saying it increased its value but to me it was worth it and it was signed by a known smith...also they was an identical sword in one of the big Japanese shops online so i knew it was hand made.

even so i sent it to a local polisher here in the uk so was the price was very reasonable.

with a mumei katana showing no hada you are taking a chance to be honest.....does it look oil or water quenched....

[Brian]

Paul,

If by "restoration" you mean putting the whole thing together as a package, without a full polish, then that is perhaps an option. When it comes to military swords, there are a number of people who will do tsukamaki, maybe clean up the same and tsuka, and basically put it back together as a complete military sword. That is something that might be worthwhile, although I wouldn't have it polished as mentioned by others.

 

Brian

[grapppa]

Yes Brian - I meant if its worth the restoration of the shin-gunto mountings. I did not expect the sword to be of the quality that would make a polishing cost justified.

[SwordGuyJoe]

Yes Brian - I meant if its worth the restoration of the shin-gunto mountings. I did not expect the sword to be of the quality that would make a polishing cost justified.

 

Ah, my misunderstanding Sir. I apologize. Then, go ahead and restore away. It should help the piece look much better.