Unusual Japanese swords from my collection.

Hello, welcome back to another video on, well you guessed it, Japanese swords, but this video is going to go over unusual Japanese swords from my collection. These are things, you know, I saw, I saw that they were unique, a little weird, they looked interesting, eh, what the heck, I bought them. So the first one I go over is this one to my left, and again, you know, I have something to, with which to hold the blade so it's not in my bare hands. And this one, I'll admit the scabbard that came with it was destroyed, so I'm in the process of still making this one, in another video I'll show you how far I've gotten on the other scabbard project that I'm working on. That looks a lot better. This one will look a lot better too, soon, I'm working on it. But, you know, the handle, of course, is original, and came with the sword, holding it up so you can see, and there's, uh, this should be viewed like this, like that, I don't know if you can still see too much, I'll try to move the camera here. I think this is something like fifth unit, this might be a um, Meiji to Showa era police sword, that's my guess, although it does hold a traditional blade, that's in really good shape. So, and there's also, uh, this, which is meant to lock it into the original scabbard, I don't know, but the original, you know, the sword that came with this, the blade that came with this, has an unusual hibaki too. I've never seen a hibaki like that, I think it's pretty cool, pretty neat, so, and rather large sepa as well, unusually large sepa, and the blade, like I said, is also in really good shape overall. My guess is kambunshinto because of the tapering and the straightness of the blade. Let me see if I can hold this so you can see it a little bit better, it's not in absolutely perfect condition, but it's still in really good condition. So, I'm trying to hold it so you can see some of the activity, a little bit, hopefully that's better. Again, I'm gonna work on that, I'm gonna work on trying to do that, but there is activity there, and as you can see, it's in good shape, and straight, no flaws, no major flaws, no openings to speak of, so that's another reason why I bought it. The blade was in really good shape, and it was unusual, it was weird, so I hope you find it unusual and weird too. And this is a wooden scabbard that I made, of course, out of the, like I said, again, the poplar wood, no knots, no sap, it's a lot cheaper than importing honoki wood from Japan, which, you know, unless you're gonna take the scabbard apart and, like, evaluate it, you're never gonna know. So, that one aside, the next one, oh, what the heck, I'll go with this one. Now, this sword isn't a shirasaya, but I don't think this is the shirasaya meant for this sword. There is an attribution on here, but I think there's a very low chance that it actually says anything about the blade in here, because the blade in this shirasaya is a stainless steel blade made by Fujiwara Kanenaga, and that's what makes it unusual, that's why I'm showing it here. So, here we have, I mean, I'm still, I know it's stainless steel, but I'm still gonna be really careful. And this one is also in really good shape. A wooden hibaki, though. It's part of the, you know, shirasaya handle. It's not the, it's not a metal hibaki. I wish it was, but what the heck. So, and if you look really closely, it's hard to look from there, but if I look really closely, I can see a temper line, like it's actually tempered, even though it's stainless steel. Probably oil tempered is my guess. I'd have real doubts if it was water tempered, but there's a boshi there of sorts. Again, it's like an oil tempered boshi, so it's not really vibrant, but the whole blade itself is very vibrant, probably because of what it's made of. Stainless steel, it shines almost like a butter knife. And let me see with this one, because this does have a signature, if I can get this out. I can remove the peg fairly easily, and I'll slide this handle off. Again, it's meant to be viewed like this. I think this says Kane, hold on, hold on, Kane Naga, and the smaller writing to the side. I gotta admit, I don't know what the heck that says, but I looked it up at one point, and at one point I knew, but you all can feel free to look it up or comment in. But I know the larger characters say Kane Naga, and the rest probably says made from anti-rust steel or stainless steel. Like I said, it's effectively stainless steel, like what your butter knife or fork in the kitchen cabinet might be made out of. But it's a solid, very straight sword in nearly perfect conditions. You can see I'm having a little bit of trouble putting this thing back in. I gotta make sure I got the wider end. All right, I might take my time to try to do this the right way. So I'll screw this up. All right, so I'll put that aside, put that back in the scabbard for the Shirasaya, really. It'll be interesting to understand what the actual attribution on the Shirasaya is. I try not to touch it with my hands, too, because I don't want to wear it off anymore. It seems like delicately put on there. So maybe at one point, you know, if I ever get it deciphered, I'll post and let you know. The next sword looks like your standard Type 19 Kyugunto, but it is unusual because it has this. See that? That's a swastika on the back there. But some people might see this and be like, oh, it's like a Nazi affiliate. No, it has nothing to do. It's not a Nazi affiliation. Swastikas were used in cultures all over the world before having anything to do, before the Nazis basically bastardized it and adopted it. Yeah, they ruined a lot of things, including that. So this is a family crest, is what it is. And I had seen this design on family crests for armor, swords, and other things going back hundreds of years, even before this was made. So that's what it is. It's just unusual to see it. It's so unusual to see it. But what is nice about this sword is, it's Wakizashi length, but it is very active. The blade is in really good condition. Even if the mounts are passable for Type 19, they're complete. They're not destroyed. Looks like this was stored in a barn or something, though. But like I said, the blade has a lot of activity, if I could show you. It seems rather old. It's, it's a little, um, it's old. It's got openings, you know. It's not in perfect condition, but I'm trying to hold it so you can see some of the activity. And again, at some point, I'll figure out how to show better close-ups of blade activity. But this is the best I could do for now. And the other side, there's a lot of activity, especially in person, to enjoy on this. This is another one of those, you know, family swords carried into battle in Type 19 mounts. It's Wakizashi length. Maybe it originally started out longer, probably did, but how much longer, I don't really know. So put this one back, and again, put this one back gently. Put them all back gently. There's no reason to slam them back, not in the middle of any fight that I know of. All right, the next unusual sword is in a lot better shape. Again, it's a Type 19 Kugunto, but this is a field officer's rank. So, you know, higher rank officer's rank Kugunto. And I think it originally, so you can see the wear here from three circles, probably had originally a leather combat cover that snapped over there. It didn't come to me with that cover, so maybe that's why the scabbard is really in such great shape. The scythe, you know, it's got all the, like 99% of the chrome complete, and straight, no major dents, like tiny, tiny ones towards the bottom. The original not, but these were like the standard issue not, from my understanding. So it's nothing really, really crazy special. And I do have an, it's interesting that this is polished ray skin, because I do have another field officer's sword that also has polished ray skin. So I'm wondering if it was like a field officer's thing until you get to the general rank. The general ranks had, you know, tortoiseshell grip, but from field officer up to general, I wonder if it was a thing to have polished ray skin. I don't know. But you can see the field officer engravings. And if you're wondering what this is, it's interesting, funny story. My wife told me to, just in the event that I die, to put the descriptions of what these are and how much they're worth, so she could sell them and use the money. So that's a really, a little romantic tidbit. So I did. Think about your family for when you're gone. Very nice. So what makes this one unusual is, well, first of all, the amount of decoration. It is very highly decorated, where other field officer examples I have aren't as decorated. And it's in great shape. And there's no hibaki. And it came like this. I don't think this was a post-Japanese thing. The blade itself is in really good shape, even though it is fairly obviously, at least partly machine made, certainly oil tempered, but it's sharp and functional. And it's a slight temper, as far as I can tell. I think it's mostly the effect of Hadori, you know, polishing stones, for the temper line. But it is tempered. It's probably oil tempered, very lightly oil tempered, and mostly machine made. But there is the absence of a hibaki, which it was meant to be like that. There is another example in Jim Dawson's book of one of these. I think it's a company officer's example that doesn't have a hibaki. This is a field officer's example that doesn't have a hibaki. So, a little weird. But it was obviously meant to be like that, because this large sepa down there, so you can see it, fits into there exactly. It's all original. There's no real, like, scabbard throat that goes over anything. I think it was just meant to be like this. And again, we're going to put this back really carefully, too. Not just because we don't want to touch the blade, but also because you don't want to scrape the sides any more than is absolutely necessary. And this locking mechanism still works. So, I don't know if this thing really saw a lot of use. I doubt it. But it is interesting. And I think that pretty much concludes this video. A little bit of a shorter video on just the more unusual swords that I have. And if and when I come across anything else that's pretty weird that I feel like buying, I'll post that, too. All right. Thanks, everybody.