Japanese Militaria at Castle-Thunder.com

[RANDY]

I HAVE A SERIES 40 LAST DITCH RIFLE, REAL NICE SHAPE, BUT I'M WONDERING WHY NO BLUEING ON THE METAL, BUT THERE SEEMS TO BE LACQUER OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT ALL OVER THE WOOD AND METAL. THE RIFLE LOOKS BRAND NEW. ANY INFO WOULD BE A GREAT HELP. RANDY

[gwsiii]

Randy, without seeing it, it would be hard to tell. If you can send me a picture, that would help. The lack of finish on the metal and the lacquer on both the stock and metal tend to indicate that someone 'cleaned' it up to make it look nice (refinished it). Some guys 'clean' differently than others. I have a longtime friend (dealer in milsurp and should know better) that likes to use a buffing wheel to clean the metal. By the time he's through, all the finish is gone! But it looks really clean and nice to him. I'd guess that is what happened to yours. Jinsen last ditch guns have a dark blue-almost black finish, the metal work is very rough, so to get rid of all remaining traces you'd have to work really hard at it, or strip it chemically. There is the chance that rust got to it, but if there's no significant pitting, I wouldn't blame it on rust.

Jinsen stocks are generally pretty rough when compared to the stocks of earlier guns, so that is usually the first thing that gets 'cleaned'. I read somewhere that some troops returning from Korea with their issued 'souvenir' rifles sat around in groups sanding and refinishing the stocks. Quite of few of them broke out in severe rashes, I believe it was in a medical or military publication about the 'poison wood' on Japanese rifles. We've since learned that it's probably not the wood that causes the rash but the original 'urushi' finish used on the stocks. 'Urushi' comes from a plant in the Sumac (Poison Ivy/Oak) family and many humans have adverse reaction when coming in contact with its extracts. Quite a few of the stocks on Jinsen Type 99s that I've seen have been refinished in some way. The majority, I believe, were by the GIs returning home or someone else afterwards. I have seen some possible 'pre-production' pieces that may have been 'smoothed' out a bit for 'presentation' sake. Your stock should have a lazy '7' proof mark between the lower tang and the buttplate. You should probably have a few 'circles' stamped in the wood and metal at various places as well. Thanks for posting! Trey
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I didn't pay to much for that old Arisaka, I just bought it a little bit too soon!