Searching for information on WWII Japanese sword

N

Nik.Trin

Joined
Jul 7, 2010
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I'm seaching for information on a sword my g-grandfather brought back from WWII. This is one of two. Any and all information is greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance.

N. Milligan

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(This is baby powder in the etching. It's actually engraved into the metal.)
 
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I believe it's "Mano Masayasu tsukuru kore wo"

Rich S
 
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Thank You. Any idea what kind of sword it is? We've searched around and have found a few swords like it, but the scabbard? is different.
 
Can you describe the (or post pics) more of the blade and the scabbard? From what I can see, it is an officer's sword (the NCO ones don't have proper handle wrap). The second suspension ring is not common (it is removable and many were lost, plus many swords weren't made with two at the first place).

I dunno much about gendai era smith so can't tell you much but at least it should have some degree of hand making unlike the NCO gunto. And some times you get stunning blades too.
 
The blade looks pretty plain. But then again, I don't know what exactly I'm looking for. It's never been polished or anything like that. So, it's very smudged. Though in the pics the main blade looks rusted it's not, but the tang is.
For the last some odd years it's sat in the back of a closet. Most of the damage on it was damaged when my grandmother inherited it from her father. And she says he kept it put up, so maybe some of the damage was already there when it came into his possession (there is a very small nick in the middle of the blade). No one in my family has had much to do with it until recently.

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Also on the back of the tang there are three other Japanese character painted in blue hard enamel. Have no idea what they say or mean.

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The scabbard is almost black but has a red tint to it. Could have been red or mahogany at one time for all I know. It's cracking along the seam. I don't know what it is, but it's got some kind of coating over wood.
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N. Milligan
 
I am not good at id the guntos but there is a site that I found very useful in the past.

http://www.h4.dion.ne.jp/~t-ohmura/gunto_002.htm

The blade you got has a narrow suguha (straight) hamon (harden line on cutting side of blade), not very common in those shin gunto. The small nick retracts from the value, but if not past the hamon, then at least it is not a fatal flaw. At least the boshi (harden part in the tip, and it is one of the first things that gets broken) is there so the sword is not bad.

The painted characters (something-something nine?) in the tang, if I am correct, maybe just to id it with the fittings meant for it during mounting processes. But I could be wrong.

If I were yo, I would leave it as it is but keep it lightly oiled once every 2 to 4 weeks (depends on where you live), don't try to remove the rust or sharpen it, any work not done by professionals will detract its value.
 
Thanks for the info. My grandmother was going to donate it to our local museum, but was advised against it by our local historian. Don't know why, he just said it probably meant more to her (since it came from her father) than it would to the museum.
 
I gotta say, many museums are not so blade friendly. Swords are made from things that rust and must be taken care of (hence oil it once in a while). The shin gunto are fairly common too so they are probably not going to pay much attention to it. Unless they actually want it (say they have a ww2 section and they want a gunto for display), or is a one does is blade orientated then by all means. A friend of mine who is a polisher was recently asked to "fix up" some old that have been lying in the dark corner of a museum and found uber rust on two otherwise lovely old swords, they have not seen a drop of oil in the past 20 yr.

Keep it in dry place (and try to not store it standing up), oil it once a month and pass it onto the next generation.....
 
"Though in the pics the main blade looks rusted it's not, but the tang is"

BTW that is about right, the rust in the tang is not to be remove, even when sent to a polisher, they leave the rust in the tang intact. The only time people should clean the tang is when there is stuff in the handle (salt from sea water, blood, chemical etc) that keeps on rusting the tang unaturally, then you clean the corrosive off, but still, do not remove the rust on the tang.

here is some info in oiling the blade

http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/treatment.html

And using Uchiko powder once a month for a few months you may be surprised how well the blade may look, uchiko is extremely fine polishing stone powder that is almost non abrasive but does does removing a bit of surface darkening so the details MAY show a it more. I know there are people who believe you can only oil the blade with the "proper kit" but if it boils down to oiling with something else or not oiling at all, then go for oiling with sewing machine oil.....
 
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