My very first..

[twoscoops]

I bought a collection of guns from a lady whose husband had passed. Only backstory I have is that the husband's father was in WW2 and brought this back. She included it in the purchase. If I am correct its a Japanese Navy company grade officers sword. My questions are should I try to find a bamboo pin to replace the bolt and should I (being a complete novice) attempt to remove the handle at all? Thank you in advance. 

Chris

[twoscoops]

[twoscoops]

[Grey Doffin]

Hi Thomas, Chris, whichever,

I don't think the bolt is original; there should be a bamboo pin.  You can whittle one to fit from a good quality chopstick (not the standard Chinese restaurant throw away variety).  Here is a link to a care and handling brochure; you should read it carefully.  It will tell you how to remove and replace the handle.

http://nbthk-ab.org/cleaning-maintenance.php

Cheers,  Grey

[16k]

Hi Thomas, and welcome.

 

Grey is right, the bolt isn’t original. The sword seems to be good quality with Ray skin covered sheath, always a plus. On the other hand, the tassel is an Army tassel, not Navy, so it doesn’t match with the sword.

 

Actually, I’m wondering if it’s not a sword made out of part. Some details bother me a little, like the thick seppa. I wonder if those were used with Kai Gunto. Specialists will dissect it for you!

[Bruce Pennington]

Ohmura has one with the fat seppa.  The only thing wrong with the seppa is the forward one is out of order.

[Shamsy]

Looks awfully like a bolt from a 95. What does the nut look like?

[twoscoops]

[Bruce Pennington]

OUCH!  That definitely needs to go Bye-Bye!

 

Chris, you've got a really nice, quality Type 97 Japanese Officer Gunto.  Do yourself a favor and lose that bolt, and while it's out, slide the handle and seppa, and tsuba (handguard and spacers) off so we can all see who made the blade.  It might even have a date.  Don't be afraid of damaging anything.  These were made to come off easily.  If it resists, it's simply 80 years worth of dust and crud.  Grab both sides of the tsuba and rock it side to side and lever the stuff into motion.  If it's still resisting, wrap the blade tightly with a rag, so you can hold it, and tap the tsuba with a rubber mallet or a block of wood.  It will come off.

 

Let us see good pics of both sides of the nakago (tang) when you're done.

[twoscoops]

Little grungy...could take a wire brush to it. 

 

Just kidding!

[PNSSHOGUN]

Mumei Seki-To, would need clearer pictures of the blade to determine anymore. As for the tassel it's not radically unusual to see company grade tassels on Kai Gunto, whether original is difficult to 100% confirm now. 

[Shamsy]

Yeah, not the bolt I hoped for! Peg replacement needed.

[Dave R]

Have a look and see if you can find a stamp anywhere on the tang.

[vajo]

10 hours ago, Shamsy said:

Yeah, not the bolt I hoped for! Peg replacement needed.

 

[twoscoops]

The two end pieces are different sizes.

[vajo]

This is the way to assambling it. They have different sizes. Many dont know how to assambling it correct.

 

 

 

the smaller ones goes through the tsuka side, the bigger ones to the blade (Starting from the Tsuba with the bigger seppa on each side to the smallest)

[PNSSHOGUN]

Sometimes if you're lucky they are marked with roman numerals to denote the order, I wonder if it was done at the factory or by the officer? I would also recommend ikea chopsticks, the bamboo is of decent quality, already lightly stained and very cheap.

[Bruce Pennington]

I really like that style of the rising sun dai-seppa! 

 

If you haven't found the site already, you'll really learn a lot about these at Ohmura's site.  Here is the link to the beginning of his Kai-gunto pages: Naval Officers Type Tachi.  Once there, you can read through the pages on the Kai-gunto.  Once done, click on the Table of Contents page and you'll see links to all the gunto.  It's quite a treasure trove of pictures and information.