Shin-Gunto Sword from WWII

[keywestbabe]

My father picked this up when he was serving in the pacific in WWII. I finally took it apart to see if it is real. It is made out of steel. It looks exactly like the picture of the Shin-Gunto sword. I even have the tassells on it. There are no stamps or signatures on the blade, only on the spacers. On every spacer it is stamped 79. I need to know if this is a fake sword or not. My father always told me that it was a real Japanese sword.

 

Thank you very much

 

Karen in Big Pine Key, FL

[Stephen]

Karen

 

any pix?

[keywestbabe]

The only picture I have of the sword is the picture I found on the web at geocities military website.

[Grey Doffin]

Hi Karen,

No one here will be able to help you unless we can see some pictures of your sword: the mounts, the blade, and the tang of the blade. Then it should be obvious if it's real or not.

Grey

[keywestbabe]

Ok thank you i will take a pic of it tomorrow. thank you

[loiner1965]

look forward to seeing these pictures too....can you look up greys advice on sword care and handling please as it does preserve them and shows correct handling on these precious items

[keywestbabe]

Well I have tried all day to get the pictures uploaded but I have failed. I get comcast on tuesday, maybe by then I can email the pics somehow to somewhere.

 

[Stephen]

Karen

 

you can email me the pix and ill reduce and post if you like.

[keywestbabe]

Know that I can do. Because when I upload it to this site it is too big and I don't know how to resize the bloomin thing. Brand new computer & printer.

 

Thank you

 

I have 3 different photos of the sword

[Stephen]

most photo shops have a crop and reduce in them, most new PCs have some kind of photo work. if not my email is on the bottom tab on the left.

[loiner1965]

most photo shops have a crop and reduce in them, most new PCs have some kind of photo work. if not my email is on the bottom tab on the left.

or use a free online resizer like i do

[Stephen]

pix of what i can dig out of what Karens sent. still waiting more pix of the nakago and kissaki and sugata.

[mdiddy]

Over-sized tsuka, what looks to me to be a moved up mekugi-ana on the tsuka, and mumei according to Karen could indicate an older blade. Tough to tell if it has the hard spots at the gunome peaks in what looks like a Mino hamon. A suriage nakago would help in making the call. Looking forward to seeing more pics!

[Stephen]

another pix of the hamon, yes its Osuriage and with her next pix well see red rust then turns to darker rust some miss placed holes been fitted more than twice. ill edit as the better nakago shots come it now i have two top and bottom wating for one full shot.

[Gunome]

Hello,

Over-sized tsuka, what looks to me to be a moved up mekugi-ana on the tsuka

I would rather said broken tsuka in the middle ! :?

 

Sebastien

[Stephen]

rest of the pix for now, id not ask for better she had a heck of a time with these

 

edit to add close up of SHUMEI!!! got to love these finds

[Stephen]

more scans to come of the Kissaki....any takes on the shumei?

[Nobody]

I enhanced the shumei(?) part of the picture. But I still cannot read it.

[Stephen]

yes we dont know for sure if its a shumei, Koichi sama i tried as well in photo shop to neg img, gray scal ect nothing helps....im waiting now for more pix....er...scans to see what we have.

[Brian]

Being colour-blind...I don't even really see a shumei

But I also love seeing these finds. Looks like an earlier blade taken to war. Look forward to seeing more.

Funny..going by this forum, you would think that there were more early family swords taken to war than machine made ones. (Not the case by a long shot)

 

Brian

[drbvac]

I tried a hundred ways to clarify the marks and am not sure it is a shumei bit don't know what else it could be. Heres the pics I stared at!

[Stephen]

thanks to all who put in some time on this. Karen was at wits end with trying to get me what i wanted, shes taking a day off at the beach to cool down. Shes in Fla maybe she can make the Tampa show and in hand it may stand out.

looking forward to Kissaki scan and maybe some hamon/hada to see what else we have, as far as the red marks think i see masa in the bottom mark. ???

[nagamaki - Franco]

Hello All,

 

A quick reminder,

 

I found the piece in Tanobe-sans article I referred to in the earlier text. I quote:

"We know during the Edo period The Honami family applied Kinzogan-mei to blades which got mumei after the O-suriage process. When an attribution was done on an ubu but mumei blade, it was inscribed via a Shu-mei (red lacquer signature) From time to time we find blades which show a kind of shu-mei but which can be identified as O-suriage by the way the yakiba goes over the machi. Such attributions were done from the Meiji period onwards, and are not called shu-mei but shu-sho (red lacquer inscriptions). Also Kinpun-mei were not applied during the Edo period but also from the Meiji period onwards"

I hope this may help to clarify and confirm peoples views

 

Regards

Paul

[Stephen]

Kissaki

 

broken tip and yokote looks to be off. Blade would take a major overhal, best keep it lighty oiled and pass it onto the grandkids.

[keywestbabe]

I think I'll give it to my daughter who is 7. I'll let her know what it is, if I can. We still don't know what period it is from I gather.

 

I want to thank everyone who put their time & patience into this for me.

God Bless you all.

 

Karen

 

Hope I wasn't to much of a pain in the neck.

[Stephen]

pretty sure i said about four hundred years old in one email....maybe you were at the beach

[keywestbabe]

You did, but I wasn't sure if that stuck or not because we cannot read the Tang.

 

What a dear you are.

[keywestbabe]

Kissaki

 

broken tip and yokote looks to be off. Blade would take a major overhal, best keep it lighty oiled and pass it onto the grandkids.

 

 

What is a Yokote?

[Stephen]

Yokote: 横手 Line separating the point from the rest of the blade.