Type 95 Shin Gunto

**Bruce Pennington** · 07-04-2019, 02:18 PM

Carl,

I would go slowly with this idea. I have 2 95s that came to me painted gold. I removed the paint and one of them had the original paint underneath, but the other had been stripped to bare metal. I was left with the choice of leaving the gunto bare, or repainting. So, I repainted. It came out well, but it clearly looks like a repaint (too new, not exact on color). The bare metal is protected from the elements, now, and looks better than the gold, but it took a while, and still isn't the way I'd like it.

In your case, if the picture is coming across correctly, the color is black, correct? There are a couple of discussions on the Nihonto Message Board about these - Mottled Green Paint on Type 95s - Military Swords of Japan - Nihonto Message Board - and - Type 95 Black Saya - Military Swords of Japan - Nihonto Message Board
Steve (Shamsy) is one of the top experts on the Type 95, and believes many of these are wartime paint, not origianl factory, but repainted during the war. There is no way to definitively know if yours is wartime or post-war, so with that in mind, personally, I would leave it alone.

Acetone removes modern paint, but leaves original. If you are certain you want this paint off, I would test a small area on the drag with acetone to see if there is any orignal paint underneath. If not, I would leave it. If so, you can procede.

There are two camps. One says "leave a gunto in the way it comes to you. It tells a story, the life of the blade" and the other likes to restore a gunto to as original condition as possible. I have done both. In one case, the mottled-green one, I dearly regret stripping it now.

**carlitooooo** · 07-04-2019, 06:06 PM

Thank you a lot for sharing your experience. I will definitely try on a small area. Got to find out where I can got acetone. Thanks again
Best regards.