How common are gunto blades repurposed as knives/shortswords/machetes?

Pitt1999 · 24th August 2022, 06:23 PM

On the Nihonto Message Board forum I see in some threads posts mentioning that alot of gunto after the second world war were cut up or shortened and remade into knives or shortswords and sold to the occupying soldiers. A thread that I was a part of had a post talking about farmers after the war making crude and simple mounts for gunto blades to use them as working blades. I have a picture from an old ebay auction that I think is the top third of a gunto blade remounted as a wakizashi, but other than this photo I have trouble finding examples of knives and swords like these. Anyone here have any examples of something like I'm describing?

Lee · 24th August 2022, 07:38 PM

I imagine enterprising GIs could get three of these out of a katana. This is probably coming from the forte, the grip is stacked plexiglass washers. It has a nice hamon with very tight grain and we can only hope it was a gunto.

Pitt1999 · 24th August 2022, 08:31 PM

I was just reminded of a piece that a seller on eBay (and member of the forum) showed me from his personal collection, a full length signed blade furnished with a "theater" style handle with plexiglass washers. The tang was reshaped and the signature was essentially destroyed. A nightmare for nihonto collectors but a jackpot for theater knife collectors. Is that piece in your reply yours?

Lee · 24th August 2022, 09:05 PM

Yes, acquired decades ago through - you guessed it - eBay.

Actually, I was a bit optimistic about the yield, as with the blade measuring 14 3/4 inches not including the tang, the best that could be expected would be two .

24th August 2022, 06:23 PM	#1
Pitt1999 Member Join Date: Sep 2021 Posts: 105	How common are gunto blades repurposed as knives/shortswords/machetes? On the Nihonto Message Board forum I see in some threads posts mentioning that alot of gunto after the second world war were cut up or shortened and remade into knives or shortswords and sold to the occupying soldiers. A thread that I was a part of had a post talking about farmers after the war making crude and simple mounts for gunto blades to use them as working blades. I have a picture from an old ebay auction that I think is the top third of a gunto blade remounted as a wakizashi, but other than this photo I have trouble finding examples of knives and swords like these. Anyone here have any examples of something like I'm describing? Attached Images

24th August 2022, 07:38 PM	#2
Lee EAAF Staff Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Upstate New York, USA Posts: 913	Nihonto collector's nightmare I imagine enterprising GIs could get three of these out of a katana. This is probably coming from the forte, the grip is stacked plexiglass washers. It has a nice hamon with very tight grain and we can only hope it was a gunto. Attached Images

24th August 2022, 08:31 PM	#3
Pitt1999 Member Join Date: Sep 2021 Posts: 105	I was just reminded of a piece that a seller on eBay (and member of the forum) showed me from his personal collection, a full length signed blade furnished with a "theater" style handle with plexiglass washers. The tang was reshaped and the signature was essentially destroyed. A nightmare for nihonto collectors but a jackpot for theater knife collectors. Is that piece in your reply yours?

24th August 2022, 09:05 PM	#4
Lee EAAF Staff Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Upstate New York, USA Posts: 913	Yes, acquired decades ago through - you guessed it - eBay. Actually, I was a bit optimistic about the yield, as with the blade measuring 14 3/4 inches not including the tang, the best that could be expected would be two .