Advice on restoring or customizing a gunto

[Roger Wildcat]

Yesterday, I made a post asking for translation on the tang. It seems that Kanemune puts his mei on this blade and that it is dated to January 1945.

 

It is missing a saya and at one time the blade had surface rust. I removed the rust when I was a teen back in 92/93 after my family moved back to the US from Frankfurt, Germany (my dad was in the army). The rust was removed with light sanding from a fine grit sandpaper and rubbed some oil on the blade to keep it from rusting again. There doesn't seem to be any pitting on the blade and there is a very, very small chip toward the tip of the blade that is hard to see. The edge along the sword still look good.

 

The handle needs a new wrap and also need to get a new saya made. It obviously going to need some kind of polish done to the blade.

 

What are my option are far as restoring my sword? How does it affect the value of the sword if I customized the handle and saya with a different color like red or white from the original colorwrap of brown? What factor has the biggest impact on the value of the sword?

 

If the restored sword won't be too valuable or if the value between the customized sword and the restored original is about the same, then I would like to customized it with the original fittings on the sword.

 

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Bruno]

Hey Roger,

 

A new wrapping won't cost you too much and if I were you I would not change the tsuka ito.

 

Finding a light brown Type 3 scabbard that fits you sword will probably be the hardest thing to manage.

 

A profesionnal polishing costs around 2000$ and I am not talking about a possible tassel!

 

I do no advise you to customize it.

 

You can possibly remount it in a shirasaya instead of spending money in an hard-to-find saya and new wrapping.

 

I am not sure the sword deserves a pro polishing, but it deserves it if you think it does.

[Rich S]

Likewise, I would not recommend a do-it-yourself customization. However, for a showato blade, Fred Lohman's polishing and remounting might be just what you're looking for:

 

http://www.Japanese-swords.com/

 

Rich S

[Roger Wildcat]

I won't be doing the customization myself, just looking for a pro who could do it.

 

On Fred's website, they offer "level 2" polishing which looks reasonable. Had anyone on this forum had this "level 2" polish done on their blade and how did they like it? Also, interested in the custom made saya that is offered as well. The saya shown looks very nicely done.

[David Flynn]

What do you eventualy want to do with this sword? How much is this sword worth Vs, How much should one invest further?

I'm not trying to talk you out of "Customising" this sword, Only that it's easy to over capitalise. At the end, the only other people that would probably be interested in this sword, once it is customised, are Martial artists.

 

David

[Roger Wildcat]

I plan to keep it as a family heirloom to pass on to my boy. It already been in the family since 1945 when my grandfather got it during his time in Japan, so I don't plan to sell the sword. So it's all sentimental value that is attributed to this ordinary sword. I am sure that it is not worth more then $500 as is and that the money put into restoring it will be more then the final value of the finished sword.

 

Still I am trying to find a reasonable cost and what to set the budget at for this project.

[tagonagy]

I had a gunto bade polished by Fred Lohman.

Here are the before images

 

And the after images

 

 

About $800. Judge for yourself if it's worth it.

[Bruno]

The Type 3 Shin Gunto was also mounted in wood saya semi gloss uneven coating.

 

http://www.h4.dion.ne.jp/~t-ohmura/gunto_062.htm

 

Fred Lohman could probably make this kind of customized saya, but not sure that he has or can make replica of the kuchi gane, ashi, and ishizuke Type3.

 

If possible, it would be the better option with a level 2 polishing. IMHO

 

Regards