Is this a Gunto?

[Colton]

Bought this the other day thinking it might be cool to restore. The tang looks to have been cut down at some point and has no signature. Scabbard looks like a shin gunto combat cover, but I'm new to this and I could be completely wrong. If it is what tsuba and tsuka would be correct?

[Colton]

[Colton]

[PNSSHOGUN]

Yes it is a Gunto and an older blade. Not sure what you mean by restore but I sincerely hope you don't mean working on the blade yourself. 

[Misconstrued]

Never ever try and restore a sword yourself. Only allow professionals to ever do anything to it, and a professional is not a neighbor who uses sandpaper. Trying to restore swords yourself is a bad idea and it can completely ruin the value of this sword. Keep it as is or send it to a professional. Self-restoring NEVER goes right. Remember, you can never take away what you've done on this blade, and it'll forever be damaged because of it. 

[Colton]

When I say restore I more mean get a new handle and maybe do some care to the leather. I don't plan on touching the blade except to maybe take off what I think is glue on the tang but I'm not entirely sure if that's what it is.

[Seth]

I might have hit the old fashioned's a little hard tonight but it looks like a large portion of the nakago has been snapped off (Not sure why it would have been cut down)? Is this not too far gone? Would it make any logical sense to restore?

[Colton]

So I guess at this point the question is is it restorable and what parts would I need to complete the sword?

[John C]

The real value at this point would be in the leather cover. But to answer the question directly, it probably was not an official gunto. Even family swords purchased at the end of the war by the army had to be at least 21.5 inches in length. 

John C.

[Bridges]

New guy here, in my worthless opinion I don’t think it’d be worth restoring (as in sending it to a professional) as a collector will want an unmolested tang and proper fittings to accompany it and professional polishing would cost a few thousand. Like misconstrued said, it’s forever damaged so if I were you, I’d do whatever you want with it. But for future reference, it’s a general rule of thumb to not clean or repair things yourself but this may be an exception. 

[ROKUJURO]

If the blade was not damaged beyond its innate quality (e.g. by fire, damages like chips and bends or too many polishes in its life), it might be salvaged by a professional polisher. It could receive a "new" NAKAGO (turning it into a WAKIZASHI) and then a new SHIRA-SAYA might work. But at this point I don't know if the value of the restored blade would exceed the cost for a proper restoration. 

Even if it was an older blade, experience shows that not the best blades were taken to war, so I would not expect a positive outcome.

Making a new handle in this stage will probably be dangerous in case you swing the sword. 

Before taking any action, my advice would be to show the sword to (real) experts, be that a member of NMB close to your place or an experienced dealer on a sword-show.

[Dave R]

My two pennyworth. I reckon the tang was cut down to make it "fit" another tsuka, either for sale or display. The remains of glue on what remains of the tang is possibly confirmation of this scenario. (It could even have been cut down to fit a suitcase or a box).

 What I would do is buy in a tsuka and tsuba plus seppa and habaki that are "sort of OK" and similarly bashed about and keep it as a wall hanger. Oil the blade, treat the leather and enjoy it as a WWII relic. Regarding the length, I have seen shin gunto in all sizes, for all sorts of reasons, so I wouldn't sweat it.

 You will never get back what you pay for a proper job, so go cheap and then look for something better..

[Bruce Pennington]

Hi Colton!

You are pretty wide open as to options.  Civil blades re-fitted for the war came in all sorts of fitting combos.  I have seen fully civil tsuba/seppa sets on these; mixed civil tsuba with army kabutogane; and finally fully army tsuba/seppa set.  So it really depends on your vision for the piece, and maybe the availability of parts.  You'll need to buy a variety of seppa to get a good fit.  And ooh, I just realized there is no habaki.  That could be tough to find one with a good fit.  Dave R is a good place to start when looking for pieces.