Show Us Your High Class Gunto

[Ray Singer]

Beautiful sword, thanks for sharing that one Daniel. Likewise, ours are the only two Akitaka I have seen. A very talented smith. The sarute in mine is very unusual. It is triangular in shape, with wire coiled around the outside. It appears to be original, but I've never seen one like this before.

 

[IJASWORDS]

Ray, there are original triangular sarutes. Few and far between, but out there. 

[Shamsy]

I have a triangular wire sarute I bought from a gentleman selling lots of spare 98 and 95 parts. He thought it was a 95 but it's not the right size or shape, so I assumed a 98. Glad that's confirmed.

[Ray Singer]

Gentlemen, thank you both for the confirmation.

 

Kind regards,

Ray

[PNSSHOGUN]

Don't believe I've ever seen that Sarute before, very unusual.

[IJASWORDS]

An Ichimonji Minamoto Amahide Kitau Kore, no stamps, no date.

[PNSSHOGUN]

Silvered mountings!

[Bruce Pennington]

I've always loved those fat, seppa. Any idea what metal it is made of Neil? Brass seems to get dull over time, this must be something else.

[PNSSHOGUN]

I think they are gold plated brass or copper. They are heavy in the hand.

[IJASWORDS]

These are gilded brass on these, like the gilding on other brass/copper gunto fittings. The "fat seppa" always add a touch of class to a sword especially on those with blackened silver mounts.  

[PNSSHOGUN]

They mostly seem to be on 6/8 seppa swords of generally higher quality.

[IJASWORDS]

Bruce, seeing that you love the "fat ones", here is the seppa set on a 1941, Noshu Seki Ju Kanemichi Kin Saku. It is also an aluminium saya.  

[Bruce Pennington]

Dang, that's gorgeous Neil! Wondering now if they are made by a single manufacturer or shop, implying that gunto fitted with them came through the same shop? Or, if it's simply easily made by multiple koshirae manufacturers. Probably the latter.

[Bryce]

Very nice Neil,

Any chance of some further pics of the blade and nakago?

Cheers,

Bryce

[IJASWORDS]

The type 94 double hanger always a favorite. Old blades with their details to follow later when I get a camera that can do them justice.  

[EdWolf]

Very nice Neil! Can't wait to see the photos of the blades!

Best regards, Ed

[reeder]

Here’s one I posted before but did not originally include a shot of the nakago.

[tbonesullivan]

This is the best one I've been able to look at. Almost managed to slice my arms open with it.  Unfortunately we didn't get to take super detailed pictures. The research we got with it was that it was made by Naminohira Yasu, who made swords from 1394 to 1428.  While the Koshirae definiteley showed some wear, the blade was nicely polished, though I don't know if it was polished more recently than WWII.  This is one of the two swords that really got me interested in learning more than about just Gunto.

[IJASWORDS]

Kanemichi with horimono. 

[vajo]

Wow this is nice Neil. You have so much treasures.

[Bruce Pennington]

Here’s one I posted before but did not originally include a shot of the nakago.

Brandon,

That looks like a kakihan at the end of the nakago. Who was the smith on this? I'd like to add it to the Stamps Document.

[Ed]

Bruce, That is Gassan Sadakatsu and his Kao.  Signed: Gassan Sadakatsu Kin Saku

[Ed]

Hirai Sukemori.  This Gendaito was published on pg. 164 of Slough's.

 

Additional photos here as well: http://yakiba.com/Kat_Sukemori.htm

 

 

[IJASWORDS]

Looking closely at some Kai Gunto, and noticed that on the shark skin saya type, often a feature is made of a large nodule. And usually in the same place on the saya. A couple of examples attached. 

[PNSSHOGUN]

Is it just me or do Kai Gunto tend to have rather poor quality samegawa on the tsuka no matter the quality of the blade? I wonder because it is almost exclusively dyed black they tended to use lower quality samegawa, rather than wasting the good stuff, in comparison to an equally quality Shin Gunto using traditional polished and stained same.

 

It would be interesting to see how the Samegawa changes on higher quality swords throughout the war

[Bruce Pennington]

Wow Neil. Do you think it's man-made? Seems too geometrical to be natural, yet, the dots seem the same as those around them and the dots around them seem to be undisturbed. In both, the dots spiral in toward the center dot.

 

On another note, I always thought this large dotted skin was eel. I have one that I was told was shark, and the way to tell, they said, was shark has diamond-like shape to the dots. But this is something I know nothing about. (hope I don't side-track your point!).

 

[Brian]

That one of yours is shargeen/shark.

[IJASWORDS]

John, pictured are the tsukas of two Minatogawa swords. I guess the Minatogawas were pretty high class at the time. The one on the left with large nodules was an early war example, the one on the right later in the war. There is certainly a difference in quality. 

[Stephen]

Neil

I get a feeling the one on the right is something other than same*.

[IJASWORDS]

Stephen you are correct. That's why I posted it . It looks like a man made imitation same. Many late war Kais have this material.