Non-Traditionally Made Gunto, Is This How They Were Made?

[BenVK]

The question of whether this or that wartime sword is "machine made”, "hand made" or “hand forged” seems to crop up all the time on the internet.

It's one of those topics that causes quite a bit of confusion amongst collectors, myself included because I think it’s safe to say that every sword ever made will involve hand work to some degree.

In an attempt to try and find some clear information about the manufacturing process of non-traditionally made Gunto, I stumbled upon this video on youtube.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmRCCy7Bta8

 

As you will see, the smith uses alternating machine and hand methods to make the blade which seems to be from a single billet of steel and not folded. It's then clay tempered and either water or oil quenched, can’t tell which.

 

So is it accurate to say that wartime blades which aren’t Gendaito were made in a similar way?

Ideally, I love to find a period photo or film footage of a sword workshop during the war to study which machines they had but I’ve had no luck so far.

 

Can anyone help with that?

 

 

 

 

[Dave R]

Ohmura San has some pictures on his site of the Mantetsu Factory, though I think you have to go onto the Japanese language side to see them all. http://ohmura-study.net/900.html. I have some pics of Western sword and bayonet production at the beginning of the 20th century. There is a bit of a contrast, a lot more "plant" in the Western factory. The one pic (second?) is one of the few of  wartime Japanese sword production, note the lack of machinery.

[kissakai]

Great images - thanks Dave

I wonder if there any more images available

[BenVK]

Thanks for posting Dave!

That's a great one of the young ladies polishing the blades..

 

Edit, you mentioned the Mantetsu Factory and that was the key to finding what I was searching for.

 

Check out the images on this page, facinating!

 

https://namu.wiki/w/%EB%A7%8C%EC%B2%A0%EB%8F%84

 

Translated:

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ko&tl=en&u=https%3A//namu.wiki/w/%25EB%25A7%258C%25EC%25B2%25A0%25EB%258F%2584

 

I've attached one image which is of particular interest I think.

Whether hand polishing on this scale was done in other factories/workshops is an interesting question.

[Bruce Pennington]

Thanks for posting Dave!

That's a great one of the young ladies polishing the blades..

 

Edit, you mentioned the Mantetsu Factory and that was the key to finding what I was searching for.

 

Check out the images on this page, facinating!

 

https://namu.wiki/w/만철도

 

Translated:

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ko&tl=en&u=https%3A//namu.wiki/w/%EB%A7%8C%EC%B2%A0%EB%8F%84

 

I've attached one image which is of particular interest I think.

Whether hand polishing on this scale was done in other factories/workshops is an interesting question.

Great article, Ben, thanks!

[Dave R]

I am familiar with the Mantetsu pics, I linked rather than shared the pics because of copyright issues.

[vajo]

Edit: Sorry you wrote it. My fault 

 

Dave on the first picture it looks like none Japanese. It seems to be european saber production befor ww1.

 

what you think?

 

Women with trousers. Some saber on the right side. The women on the machine looks like european. And so on.

[Dave R]

Ohmura San has some pictures on his site of the Mantetsu Factory, though I think you have to go onto the Japanese language side to see them all. http://ohmura-study.net/900.html. I have some pics of Western sword and bayonet production at the beginning of the 20th century. There is a bit of a contrast, a lot more "plant" in the Western factory. The one pic (second?) is one of the few of  wartime Japanese sword production, note the lack of machinery.

 As I wrote, all but one are of western blade production. Relevant though when you consider industrial production of NCO type  32 gunto for example. I suspect that as the war progressed industrial units were devoted more to the production of guns and aeroplanes and such, and that is why there were bottlenecks in sword production. Personally I believe that the hand production of Gunto was less to do with tradition and more to do with best use of available resources. A rifle, bayonet or aero-engine was more in demand than a sword.