Skeezy Bojangle

Oh sweet lord! I knew the whole Gunzoku thing was a can of worms, but boy that does seem more confusing than I originally anticipated. Absolutely fascinating! Thank you for the excellent info Bruce. Indeed, that is good advice. I realize I know just enough to likely get myself into trouble. So I will take you up on that I've done nothing to the blade and only have repaired the saya since it was splitting and I feared the blade would cut into the old leather cover. I shall keep the blade itself to a light oiling with a microfiber cloth then. Choji oil seems to be the generally accepted oil, but I do not have that in my workshop. However, I do have some good quality mineral oil that I have already pre-strained. That should be acceptable, yes? And thank you! I very much appreciate the forum members guidance on this fun new hobby of mine.

Oh okay! So for the ranks for the Gunzoku were a bit different than the regular imperial army. Excellent info! Always love learning more. Have a book or two coming in that really focuses on these times so I can brush up. Definitely will get those pics in for you. Other than some minor rust it's in pretty good condition. No rot on the leather. Had to reglue the wood scabbard as it was seperating but overall it's a beauty. When I first looked it over I checked for the usual stuff, faked patina, a number stamp in the wrong place, like on the habaki, ECT ect. But when I picked it up, felt the balance, looked over the geometry of the blade and even under the little rust the old polish still makes you pause. Hada present, nice grain, beautiful hamon. After I'm back from my trip I'll give it the rust a little attention and see how it cleans up and then take some photos. And don't worry for those of you likely gasped at any mention of cleaning/polishhing! I'll approach a "cleaning" the same way I do antique books or violins that have old metalwork decorations, gold leaf, etc etc. Which, without going detail can be summed up simply as nothing abrasive, check your work constantly, take your time. And personally I like doing it on camera under microscope, but that's just my paranoia built up from violin restoration. (Keyword: ground. Never break the paper thing margin. Will drop a 50k to 5 bucks in two seconds!) Now, question along these lines. I know generally bone is okay for slight rusts on most metals, even most softer metals. However some metals react negatively to certain animal bones. Does traditional Japanese steel have anything like that. Where it has a reaction to certain animal bones or hell, even proteins? I couldn't find anything in particular other than antlers and bone tend to be acceptable in general. But I thought I'd ask while I have the attention of the experts here.

Best I could muster was Mi ? Masahiro. I'm on a trip on the moment so only have those pics on me. But will post again when I get back with pics of the blade and the informal gunto stuff. Update: Also little worries about it being fake. While I understand that is always possible, I'm not new to antiques (though violins are my strong suite) and I purchased it from a reputable seller who specializes on Japanese antiques. My thought process is the owner engraved it and that's why it's so hard to read. Gunto has warrent officer blue and brown tassel. Leather case with wooden saya inside. Has the civilian tsuba (flowers) So it's proabably from a gunzoku I think. I dunno, just having fun digging around about the blade's history.

Hi, recently acquired this old Gunto, blade is traditionally made so "woot" for that. Cannot make hide or tails out of the signature. I'm assuming it's the name of the family who owned it. I'm attaching two pics, one is with three lights on it (the hilt is very dark so it's hard to read otherwise) and second pic I modified to help the signiture pop in different ways. I figured everyones monitor is a different calibration so I thought it might be helpful. Thanks for any information you can share, very much appreciated!

This is litterly my first post as I just joined this forum as I just obtained my first antique Japanese sword. I have a laymans knowlege of this stuff at best, and even I knew immediatedly this was a fake... this guy must be trolling. lol P.S. And a hello to everyone else!