robinalexander

Thankyou Uwe S. and John (I dont know where to start)... Firstly, I appreciate your translation. Secondly, I offer a thousand apologies. Somehow the last picture was in fact, mirror reversed and translating is hard enough without 'little' tech gliches like that (cant believe I did that 😯) Finally, anyone like to have a guess why and when an IJA Officer would have painted that message on a saya? Is it possible it was simply a valued family treasure that they wished to draw attention to in order to protect/preserve in the hands of the allies? Gerainte I love your enquiring mind ...it is a pity there is no post war mystery in terms of reversed kanji BUT.... maybe I wont leave you empty handed entirely. When I acquired the sword (much cosmoline, verdegrease dirt/dust) the inside of the tsuka was being padded out with a torn off piece of newspaper which is dated Thursday, January 17 1946 (pic attached). I have since set this aside and replaced it with a sliver of thin cardboard. But the question in my mind is who put that newspaper in there? The date and 'english newspaper' would suggest a member of the allied forces as hostilities/sword surrenders should have occured well before that..but that would be a strange thing to do I would have thought (why bother?)...leave it with you 🤔 Regards Rob

Wakizashi with an old blade brought back from New Guinea and in poor shape but gentle preservtion continuing. I Will post more pics etc in Military Swords of Japan soon for interest/comment, but in the mean time, a translation of 'gold' kanji on saya would be great (Nakago is mumei). I believe a cpuple of kanji are numbers but I cant work out entire writing. Thanks Rob P.S. for context, one pic of complete saya to follow....unable to add it in this post (only taken up 4.1 mb ??)

Thankyou again Koichi san Yes Curran...I went through Slough's twice as I also 'believed' it was 'Hide' but couldn't match anything else ... then decided to put it to the big guns...i'll keep working on it. Hello Bruce, yes I'm thinking it's a badly hit Showa stamp as its only half there..pic attached.

Greetings, Would appreciate assistance with this mei ... thank you in advance. Rob

Tks Rich, happy to accept your HO. Rob

Commiserations to all Aus shooters.... RIP my .22 LR semi-auto Ruger (carbine), 10 round circular and flush mag with 25 curved after market mag. Small Tasco scope. Controlled much of the small introduced vermin and built solid shooting skills for the F88 Austeyr later in life. Now that is a nice personal weapon! Rob

Hi Steve,, Don't wish to digress from thread but are you saying that, as a general rule, a short signature (say two kanji) for any smith is less likely to be gimei than a longer detailed one? Rob

Thanks John will try light wax. Yes Jean C you are quite correct....my description was a little loose. Rob

Greetings, Just wondering if anyone has a solution for 'rejuvenating' or at least, preserving, an ishime (orange peel laquer) finish on a Kai gunto saya? Very early signs of cracking but no loss or lifting. Tks Rob

Many thanks Bruce and George....all clear now. Rob

Another example of Red Bean Colour with a std (worn) olive drab. Thanks Shamsy, I always thought I had a bodgey job. Rob

Hi Bruce, Well as luck would have it, this may answer your question as to who put the numbers/scratchings on it. Seems the fitting shop would be my best guess. There are identical (pencil) markings/numbers on the end of the tsuka and directly under the numbers on the koiguchi. 1435 (tks Dan C.) ....so it appears to me to be assembly numbers as Dan C. said. Pretty crude manner of marking though....maybe they were in a hurry to get them out the door and into the field! ( blade is a Nobumitsu, Showa 20th year, 3rd month (Mar. 1945)). George, The other character (katakana) is still a mystery (albeit a very small one now). I dont quite follow your lead with phonetic 'a' sound in terms of it relationship here...it dosnt appear on Tsuka though. I (nievly) thought it was an arrow with a large tail pointing in a specific direction for mounting purposes???....but unfortunately I can easily see such simple signs in real kanji and that just makes it harder for me :-) Rob SORRY IT WONT LET ME LOAD 1 X PICTURE 2.9 mg SO WILL TRY TO SEND IN ANOTHER FOLLOWING MSG.

Hi Bruce, Now that you mention it, I recall some markings just inside the tsuka and will have another look at those tmoz....apart from that no other markings. Strange though, (in my limited experience) that the above markings were seem to have been crudely scatched into the outside surface. Will get back to you. Rob

Thanks Dan, much appreciated. Rob

Hello, Was maintaining a Type 0 (Type 3) and noticed some scratches on the face of the fuchi. On closer inspection it looks very much like kanji? Strange place to have writing unless some IJA Officer decided to put his own mark or message on the face of the fuchi (unlikely ?) More likely to be something I am just not aware of yet. One particular long line (scratch ?) seems to go from the 'kanji' right around the top of the fuchi and then finish with an arrow head. Really no idea but they just seem too deliberate to be scratches, thus my post. Two angles tk try and get the 'message' across. Any ideas would be appreciated.....and no hurry, I will have it for some time :-) thanks Rob

Hi Dennis, Just to add to Ed's note, I have a Kai Gunto with the same finish on the saya (called Ishime). I asked a very knowledgeable sword guy here is Oz and I'm glad to be able to share the information (below) Ishime is a type of lacquer work which during the war was time consuming and expensive. Perhaps not so much on Kai Gunto as they already had a much higher quality of finish overall than Shin Gunto but this type of lacquer on Army swords is associated with better quality fittings. The downside is it's very fragile, especially after 70+ years of temperature changes, wear and tear etc etc. Rob

Wow Neil....that is so nice....I was looking at the blade and completely forgot what the question was :-)) Rob

Hi Kaz Nice collection. Agree with Bruce and Chris re buffer for blades to 'avoid metal on metal' . I've always had a soft spot for late war NCO's and yours are nice but what catches my eye is the 3rd from the top shin gunto with bohi and maybe pierced tsuba....any story there? Rob

Tks Steve havent heard of that one but looks good on face value and will certainly check out ....love any product that preserves and restores and in that respect it dosn't come much higher than leather bound books. Rob

Sticky to start with...use rubber gloves...apply and leave overnight 'to soak in'...i have tried on at least 3 combat sayas with different smooth finishes and it just disappears by next day. Test on small portion first if yr not sure Rob

Hi Matt, I provided some info on this subject a couple of days ago to Jesse.......earlier response copied below (bit messy cut and paste sri)............... Hi Jesse, I researched the same thing a few years ago and finally came up with a product called 'Renapur' Leather Balsam. I also wanted to give my knots and combat sayas the best and while products like Dubbin are very good, I focused more on a product meant for conservation rather than one used for operational reasons. My recollection is that this product was used by more than one large museum for leather conservation. I hestitate to recommend any product to be used in someone else's collection but I will say that I am very happy with it and will certainly buy it again when I need to. By the way you dont use it on the suede side...its only meant for the smooth/treated side but it will soak in. Apply with cotton buds (knots), or the sponge supplied jn the jar (sayas). Good luck. Rob

PS I agree with John's comment. Rob

Hi Jesse, I researched the same thing a few years ago and finally came up with a product called 'Renapur' Leather Balsam. I also wanted to give my knots and combat sayas the best and while products like Dubbin are very good, I focused more on a product meant for conservation rather than one used for operational reasons. My recollection is that this product was used by more than one large museum for leather conservation. I hestitate to recommend any product to be used in someone else's collection but I will say that I am very happy with it and will certainly buy it again when I need to. By the way you dont use it on the suede side...its only meant for the smooth/treated side but it will soak in. Apply with cotton buds (knots), or the sponge supplied jn the jar (sayas). Good luck. Rob