I was going through tons of stuff trying to get my possessions down to something manageable as a Nomad and, looking at one of my Japanese swords, discovered that it had two hidden knives in the Sheath, apparently one was sort of a utility knife for eating or cleaning fingernails and the other for hairdressing? Total surprise to me. The two small knives, one on each side of the saya (scabbbard), one is a kogatana (utility knife), the other is a kogai (hair pin). This is an interesting sword, a well defined hamon, the tsuba is really nice, and the tsuka and tsuka ito are in great condition. I removed the tsuka yesterday and was disappointed to discover that some idiot had rough filed the nakago but there were still patches of black patina that would indicate an older blade that had been refitted at a later date. The Nakago is the tang of the Katana. It is the part that continues from the blade under the handle. This hidden part reveals many things like the signature of the master smith for example. Even if this part is not visible at first sight it is actually very important for the strength so that the steel does not break during a cut.
Cool! Pretty sure mine doesn't have those, as it's a 1938 factory made military issue. But, I am gonna look to make sure.
This particular blade has a nice hamon, the edge is good, the furniture all correct but I removed the tsuka for the first time today and some idiot had taken a file to the tang trying to reshape it, I suppose to fit the older blade to a new tsuka. The small areas of patina left was totally black, denoting an older blade but most had been removed by filing, including whatever signature that had been there.
I have a Kukri made the same way with 2 small knives in the water buffalo covered wooden sheath. I bought it about 50 years go, made in India.
To my eye that appears to be a WWII production sword. I was curious how many mekugi pins are in the Tsuka? Many of the WWII productions only came with one. The older swords typically had two as it added more security and strengthened the Tsuka to the sword for cuts. Can you remove them and take the Tsuka off and get few pictures of both sides of the blade?
