Buckle rather than a snap button on leather field cover??

dwmc · January 21, 2023

Thought I would share this example of a leather field cover which used a buckle rather than a snap. It was attached by a leather seppa with a belt like appendage which passed through the tsuba into the buckle. The leather seppa was still with the sword, yet the appendage has long been missing for obvious reasons.

However, still a bit interesting. The sword appears to possibly be shinto era. Ubu, mumei, decent polish, well balanced, rather elegant and a sword I'm sure would have been a first choice of a WWll soldier to carry into combat.

Dave M.

dwmc · January 21, 2023

Leather seppa with appendage missing...

John C · January 21, 2023

On 1/21/2023 at 12:14 AM, dwmc said:

leather field cover which used a buckle rather than a snap.

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Dave:

That is interesting. I am sure one of the guys here will know more about its use, however I wonder if it wasn't added later on. It seems like a simple shoe buckle as opposed to the type you would find on a military item. And from a practical standpoint, you couldn't draw the sword in a hurry if you needed to. Maybe a cover for a parade type sword?

John C.

Bruce Pennington · January 21, 2023

The rivet looks old and original. The leather holding the buckle is the same kind of leather as the cover for the saya. I agree with John, it sure would get in the way of a quick draw! Never seen anything like it.

thanks for sharing it!

dwmc · January 21, 2023

I suspect it's original to the cover due to the fact as Bruce pointed out it is the same leather and definitely old. However, as John mentioned, it is a light weight buckle, of which you certainly wouldn't expect to find on a serious field combat cover.

I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time to the leather craftsman, yet the photo of the leather attachment seppa was the end result of the great "buckle" experiment.

Appreciate the comments and hope members enjoy seeing something a bit out of the ordinary.

Dave M.

Dave R · January 21, 2023

I have seen buckles used before on original WWII leather field covers so no problem there.... But neither this nor the cover look right to me. The leather looks of the wrong type and quality, the workmanship poor and the clincher is the lack of a sewn leather chape on the end of the saya cover. I think it's a post war jobby.

dwmc · January 21, 2023

On 1/21/2023 at 9:05 PM, Dave R said:

I have seen buckles used before on original WWII leather field covers so no problem there.... But neither this nor the cover look right to me. The leather looks of the wrong type and quality, the workmanship poor and the clincher is the lack of a sewn leather chape on the end of the saya cover. I think it's a post war jobby.

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I agree with your observation Dave. Typical it isn't. I would go so far as to say it isn't cow leather. Possibly pig, or some other leather type of material.

It is extremely supple, and yet has the appearance (in hand) as having considerable age, at least WWll era? There is however a sewn chape at the end of the saya fashioned out of the same type material. The sword is out of Japan, so it's definitely not a bring back "Bubba job."

Very odd indeed!!!

Dave M.

dwmc · January 24, 2023

I thought I would share a final comment on what I believe this sword is based on the responses above.

As mentioned, I purchased this sword from Japan, so it's definitely not a post war bring back job, although it could have been a post war Japanese creation as Dave R. suggested. True, buckles are not that unusual on leather field covers, however, cheap "tin toy" type buckles are not. When I dismantled the sword there was heavy (verdigris) on the leather fastening seppa, tsuba, and other metal seppa. You may also notice, compared to Dave's field cover examples, the material is different, and the quality is certainly lower. Also, I notice there are no metal eyelets and are tied together with string. The fittings are fairly decent, the tsuka ito is in almost "too good' of condition. The tsuka and saya cover are only moderately damaged and show no evidence as ever being in the field. The blade itself is in excellent condition outside of a couple of small rust areas.

So what does this amount to...I'll be the first to admit, I have a weakness for Gunto which are a bit out of the ordinary even though not particularly significant in any meaningful way.

After looking at the sword upon arrival, taking note of lack of snaps, metal eyelets, the heavy verdigris, string binding, possible pig skin, rusted rivet and buckle, yet fairly decent craftsmanship. It occurred to me this is classic last ditch/late war work? My thinking is this is a very late war, (put together) sword which was assembled by what items were available at the time. I theorize the war ended, the sword was worn very little if at all, was not turned in at wars end, and was hidden away for the 70 + years until a few months ago...

This of course can only be based only on a preponderance of what evidence is available, but at least to me seems to be a fairly reasonable possibility.

Only being able to speculate on what (may) have occurred with many of these WWll era gunto is part of the frustration as well as fun with WWll sword collecting.

Dave M.

Bruce Pennington · October 25, 2023

Since we don't have a dedicated thread to this, maybe we can adopt yours Dave!

Here's an interesting one I found on this ebay sale. It's buckled around the saya, but I bet it was made to go through the tsuba and buckle around the fuchi:

The blade is a large Seki-stamped Kanetsugu

dwmc · November 13, 2023

On 10/25/2023 at 11:49 AM, Bruce Pennington said:

Since we don't have a dedicated thread to this, maybe we can adopt yours Dave!

Here's an interesting one I found on this ebay sale. It's buckled around the saya, but I bet it was made to go through the tsuba and buckle around the fuchi:

The blade is a large Seki-stamped Kanetsugu

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