WWII swordsmith translation.

[Stewart]

I’ve been given a sword returned from PNG in WWll to look at. It has a signature but the blade Unfortunately seems to have been painted black.

Any help would be appreciated.

Many thanks,

Duncan

 

[Dave R]

Paint of cosmoline, either way it has probably preserved the blade.

[Nobody]

佐藤兼住作 - Sato Kanezumi saku

[Bruce Pennington]

Welcome, Duncan!  I had an NCO with the blade painted gold!  Very odd to see a black one.

 

Can I get a full photo of the tsuba?  Looks to be one of the civil Gunzuko styled tsuba.  Also a shot of the other side of the nakago, which I assume doesn't have a date on it?

[Stewart]

I’ll endeavour to get a photo of tsuba to you tomorrow. There is no date engraved on the other side of the nakago.

[Stewart]

19 hours ago, Dave R said:

Paint of cosmoline, either way it has probably preserved the blade.

I thought the same in regards to preserving the blade. Can you suggest the best approach to remove the paint. I believe it isn’t probably a traditionally tempered made sword too.

[Stewart]

18 hours ago, Nobody said:

佐藤兼住作 - Sato Kanezumi saku

Thank you very much. 
Is there any significant history written in English on this swordsmith?

[Stewart]

3 hours ago, Stewart said:

I’ll endeavour to get a photo of tsuba to you tomorrow. There is no date engraved on the other side of the nakago.

 

[Dave R]

It has the Sho stamp so is non traditional in some way. Is the Tsuba iron, it certainly looks cast.

 

[Stewart]

1 hour ago, Dave R said:

It has the Sho stamp so is non traditional in some way. Is the Tsuba iron, it certainly looks cast.

 

I think it is iron 

[Bruce Pennington]

Thanks Duncan!  Yes, a bamboo pattern tsuba made for Gunzoku, the civilian branch of the Army.  Ohmura mentions them on his site HERE.  You'll notice his examples used civil tsuka, but most of the time, we see military fittings on them.  Your company grade tassel, blue/brown, adds to the confusion of the whole Gunzuko issue.  It is Nick Komiya's arguement that they were to use the all brown tassel (found in a uniform reg revision).  But as we all know, not everyone followed the regs to the letter and many variations in practice are seen.

 

I used acetone to remove the gold paint from my NCO blade.  Didn't have any affect on the steel that I'm aware of.  Others may have some other methods.

 

[Bruce Pennington]

On 9/16/2022 at 4:06 AM, Nobody said:

佐藤兼住作 - Sato Kanezumi saku

Slough's page on this smith used "kanesumi".  Is there a preferred, or better, English spelling of the 2?  Doesn't matter to me, but I'd like to standardize my files, thanks!

 

As an aside - I realized that we have the habit of making plurals, spelled with 's', sounds like a 'z' when we say them.  "Guns" is one of many examples.  I don't really say "guns", it's more like "gunz" when I say it.

 

But back to the question at hand, I'd really like to spell it the way it ought to be, if that is definable.

[Stewart]

8 hours ago, Bruce Pennington said:

Thanks Duncan!  Yes, a bamboo pattern tsuba made for Gunzoku, the civilian branch of the Army.  Ohmura mentions them on his site HERE.  You'll notice his examples used civil tsuka, but most of the time, we see military fittings on them.  Your company grade tassel, blue/brown, adds to the confusion of the whole Gunzuko issue.  It is Nick Komiya's arguement that they were to use the all brown tassel (found in a uniform reg revision).  But as we all know, not everyone followed the regs to the letter and many variations in practice are seen.

 

I used acetone to remove the gold paint from my NCO blade.  Didn't have any affect on the steel that I'm aware of.  Others may have some other methods.

 

Thank you for the information. I will look into it some more. In regards to cleaning the blade, I started with methylated spirits and then with some more research was told that WD40 was good to remove the black coating. I used it yesterday and it worked extremely well with no problems to the blade currently. I’ll post a photo today of the cleaned blade. There is some light surface rusting that could be polished out I feel. I’ve heard that sewing machine oil is sufficient for blade maintenance after this? I’m just thinking of the ease of maintenance for the older person I’m getting this information for. 
in regards to the swordsmith’s name, if below is correct, I’d assume it would be with an ‘S’ not ‘z’?

 

[Stewart]

10 hours ago, Bruce Pennington said:

Thanks Duncan!  Yes, a bamboo pattern tsuba made for Gunzoku, the civilian branch of the Army.  Ohmura mentions them on his site HERE.  You'll notice his examples used civil tsuka, but most of the time, we see military fittings on them.  Your company grade tassel, blue/brown, adds to the confusion of the whole Gunzuko issue.  It is Nick Komiya's arguement that they were to use the all brown tassel (found in a uniform reg revision).  But as we all know, not everyone followed the regs to the letter and many variations in practice are seen.

 

I used acetone to remove the gold paint from my NCO blade.  Didn't have any affect on the steel that I'm aware of.  Others may have some other methods.

 

 

[Bruce Pennington]

Oh man!  That is a gorgeous blade.  Glad it worked out!

[robinalexander]

14 hours ago, Bruce Pennington said:

used acetone to remove the gold paint from my NCO blade.  Didn't have any affect on the steel that I'm aware of.  Others may have some other methods

I'll second that.

 

On plain steel it works fine  Try it first.

 

Rob

[Stewart]

On 9/18/2022 at 11:27 AM, Bruce Pennington said:

Oh man!  That is a gorgeous blade.  Glad it worked out!

Thank you for all your help!

[Xenomorph117]

I know I'm a little late but I recently purchased a nihonto forged by Sato Kanesumi in Shōwa 42 and let me tell you something this thing is gorgeous... won't allow me to post a photo though.