- Joined
- Jun 9, 2018
- Messages
- 34
Must be senility. Two old collectors, one inactive, the other nearly so, contact me. "That Gunto Katana is indeed reconfigured. In fact, it's an old, rather nice ancestral or 'legacy' blade, almost assuredly reconfigured by some 'smith for service in World War II. The fittings were custom made to adapt it to the new specification, for uniform wear, and regardless of how one feels about the modification and polishing, it's fascinating because a family gave up an ancestor's artifact to deal with emergency."
Another note:
"I believe that is an ancestral blade, which has been refitted. The rust on the tang is fairly dark also. The tsuka fitting next to the tsuba has a Mon, and the habaki is not the standard gunto fitting. The blade does appear to have grain and a faint hamon in your photos, although there were plenty of machine made blades with etched hamons and straight grained steel. "
Strange part: I was told this long ago, I just couldn't relate it to a particular blade. All this was precipitated, long ago, when a supposedly very old blade, almost overnight, acquired a pepper of corrosion despite my then-best efforts. I smeared on petroleum jelly, wrapped the stuff, deployed anti-humidity desiccants, and pretty much forgot about it.
The details of which was what faded, and decades went by.
Now it seems pretty obvious from the beginning. It's almost the only logical conclusion.
Another note:
"I believe that is an ancestral blade, which has been refitted. The rust on the tang is fairly dark also. The tsuka fitting next to the tsuba has a Mon, and the habaki is not the standard gunto fitting. The blade does appear to have grain and a faint hamon in your photos, although there were plenty of machine made blades with etched hamons and straight grained steel. "
Strange part: I was told this long ago, I just couldn't relate it to a particular blade. All this was precipitated, long ago, when a supposedly very old blade, almost overnight, acquired a pepper of corrosion despite my then-best efforts. I smeared on petroleum jelly, wrapped the stuff, deployed anti-humidity desiccants, and pretty much forgot about it.
The details of which was what faded, and decades went by.
Now it seems pretty obvious from the beginning. It's almost the only logical conclusion.
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