Sharpening and dulling blades were taken for granted

[Nick Komiya]

This is really important stuff Nick, I can't thank you enough!

I wonder if this explains the course sharpening jobs we often see on Type 32 blades?

Yes, throughout the life of the Model 32, edge filing was the individual soldier's responsibility. Do you really mean that it is not common knowledge among sword collectors that Type 95s were produced in two different blade versions? That should be basic basic stuff as it is also discussed in the official type approval documents. Are all the sword authors writing books without even reading the official announcements? That is unbelievable negligence for an author who wants people to pay for his books.

[Bruce Pennington]

Nick, I must admit I'm not well-read concerning gunto, with only Fuller & Gregory and Dawson under my belt; but I've never heard or read this until your post. DaveR might have more experience with this, regarding his SFI post (as of yet I've been unable to find the discussion in his reference).

[DaveR]

A slight misapprehension about S'forum, there are a number of discussions about sharpening spread all through the forum, rather than a specific article about Shin-Gunto! There is a thread on sharpening on NMB, but it is limited to Nihonto in the Samurai era.
I think the above thread is unique, and very valuable. Gunto have been a bit of a Cinderella compared to Nihonto, a situation not helped by them being counted as a weapon in Japan and so not really collected. In the West the problem is the lack of Japanese speakers/writers looking at the subject.

[DaveR]

IJA cavalry polishing and cleaning their swords.

[AZPhil]

Once again Nick has shared his knowledge and information that I find very educational.

I Thank You Nick.
I also hope that this thread will be pinned and be made into a sticky so that this info will not be lost to the ages.

Semper Fi
Phil

[Bruce Pennington]

Nick,
Someone on another forum commented that an officer had no requirement to dull his blade, since the blade was his personal property. Do you think the dulling requirement only applied to NCO gunto?

[Nick Komiya]

Of course, that is what I meant by "machined blade" in post 1.

[Bruce Pennington]

Ah yes, I missed that, thanks Nick!

[DaveR]

I remember being told the anecdote of a young officer in the British Army , court marshalled for sharpening his sword without permission. It seems a bit harsh 'till you find that he took the ears off the Colonel's favourite horse by accident as a result. So, not all armies tolerated officers with sharp blades out of theatre.

[Nick Komiya]

Acceptable Blade Wear Criteria for Swords and Bayonets

As explained earlier, Type 32 swords and Type 30 bayonets were routinely sharpened in war time or dulled down in peace time by grinding them with files. Thus naturally they wore out through this repeated grinding, so they had to set an acceptable limit on how far a blade could be ground down before they became unsuitable for military use and be scrapped.

This permissible wear limit was defined as follows in the weapons handling regulations.



Type 32 Swords

-Tip of the blade could be broken or worn down until 20 mm shorter than original length

-When 2/3 of the blade length as measured from the tip had lost more than 3 mm of blade width or when the spine had lost more than 1 mm of thickness.

-When the blade had lost weight beyond the minimum weight of 800 grams for the Infantry model and 760 grams for the Cavalry model.

-They also needed to pass a stress test, in which weights were suspended from the blade for 30 seconds to see whether they completely sprung back to shape after removal of weights or whether any noticeable bending remained. The Infantry model had 36 kgs of weight hung 400 mm away from the Seppa and the blade was to be suspended at two points 500 mm apart. For the cavalry model, the weight was 33 kg, hung at a point 315 mm away from away from the Seppa, with suspension points 500 mm apart.



Type 30 Bayonets

- Tip of the blade could be broken or worn down up to 10 mm shorter than original length.

-When 1/2 of the blade length as measured from the tip had lost more than 3 mm of blade width or when the spine had lost more than 1 mm of thickness to wear.

-The 30-second stress test involved a 70 kg weight hung 175 mm away from cross guard, with 250 mm of spacing between supports.

Shown below is the regulation page