J Reid Posted December 2, 2012 Report Posted December 2, 2012 So I start refinishing a Kai gunto saya yesterday. Someone had painted it fairly recently with a rather crude layer of black paint.. So I decided to strip the whole thing to the bones and start fresh. After about 20 minutes of wiping this thing down with paint thinner, I decide that I could only get the recent paint job to come off and the original lacquer (for whatever reason) wasn't affected by the chemical. So I take this down to the work bench and start sanding the saya. I get through the next layer of paint and it turns out it wasn't paint at all!!!! The black lacquer Kai gunto saya was originally wrapped in a super fine leather underneath the lacquer. The leather had been dyed black and then lacquered over originally. It peeled off like thick paper. Definitely leather though. I know the Japanese wrapped their saya in leather for WW2. But i have never seen this before. It was like a stealth layer- nicely tapered to a thin saya. Did anybody else know this?! I sure didn't.. Quote
J Reid Posted December 2, 2012 Author Report Posted December 2, 2012 Interesting. I was quite intrigued. Quote
kaigunair Posted December 3, 2012 Report Posted December 3, 2012 I didn't know about this. I thought all non-rayskin (same) gunto mounts were just painted. Are you sure it was leather and not rice paper or maybe even Konjac paper (they used this stuff on the ww2 balloon attacks)? Any pics of this? Quote
J Reid Posted December 3, 2012 Author Report Posted December 3, 2012 It was 100% leather. I was suprised too! I have some scraps I'll take pictures of when I have a chance. But yeah, definitely leather and it was glued to the wood, underneath the lacquer, and also dyed black. Quote
kaigunair Posted December 4, 2012 Report Posted December 4, 2012 that is very interesting and neat to know. I only ask because I once had a gunto that had a "leather" cover over the saya. When I took a closer look, it was actually made of some sort of compressed paper. looked like leather, but when you felt it, it was much thinner and lighter. I'm surprised they would use leather and then lacquer over it....sorta takes away the purpose to conserve precious materials IMO.... looking forward to the pics! Quote
Kai-Gunto Posted December 4, 2012 Report Posted December 4, 2012 It looks like pigskin with black laquer on my kaigunto saya. Quote
Hayabusa Posted February 17, 2013 Report Posted February 17, 2013 Josh ... I have found just the same only it's brown leather! Quote
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