Dear Forumites, you know from my previous thread that I have a shin-gunto Type 98 officer's katana. I have been going through a lot of effort to address the few shortcomings of that war relic and will continue with that project as far as necessary.
At one stage of the work I was confronted with the decision if I should withdraw the wooden scabbard from the leather combat cover. Some opinions held that one should leave well enough alone. To cut the story short, I gingerly executed the task and it came out unscathed. The tip of the scabbard looked a bit weird, as it seemed there was some kind of blockage sitting there and forcing the two halves at the tip to gape open. When I removed the kurikata (is that right? the band and ring for attachment to the wearer's belt), the full length of the two halves of the scabbard came apart. The type of glue used seemed to have disappeared over the years. But this coming apart allowed me to remove the blockage I had seen at the tip.
Please see the pic of the tip of the scabbard, with something like a dirty extrusion peeping out.
Jan.
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