sword polishing service

hso

hso

Joined
Dec 16, 1998
Messages
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I need recomendatons on a good appraisal and polishing house for a pair of wakizashis I got at a show. Both have significant "black rust" on the tang and file marks are still visible, good wave temper lines, and undulating layer pattern so I'm relatively comfortable that they are legitimate.
 
What kind of polish do you want ? Just to clean the blade, full polish, or shinsa polish ?

How much $$ are you willing to spend ?
 
How old are they? Why do you need them polished? You may be removing part of its history...
 
Well, there is a 'working' polish, basically it just removes all the rust spot, and will make the blade clean. Hada is not very clear, hamon can be seen. Since I don't know the blade length, I would approximate the cost around $20-$40 /inch.

Full polish, you can see the hada, the hamon is very easily to be seen and it's more beautiful too. Price : $40/inch.

Both polish can be done by American polisher.

Art polish, this is THE polish you want to get for appraising/kantei.
Can only be done by Japanese polisher. There are no American polisher that has the 'certificate' to do this kind of polishing. Price : $100-$200 / inch depending on the polisher.

You may be removing part of its history...
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I agree to that statement, but collectors prefer the blade to be as clean as possible due to appraising reason. From the hada/pattern, hamon, size of kissaki, etc. we can attribute a certain piece to a certain maker regardless it has a signature / no signature. The reason is : a signature is very easy to be forge, but the making technique is very difficult to copy.
 
For an American polisher Beluga, I think I would trust Bob Benson...but that's just me (and he has a LONG waiting list)...but yeah in general for restoration or polish with intention of being submitted for kantei, best bet is to send it to Japan.

Good polishers remove as little metal as they can to bring the real blade out. If there is an unusually deep rust spot or a chip or something, they may decide to leave it there as removing it would remove too much material from the blade. So polishing is no evil when it comes to old swords, so long as it's done right. However, this does NOT mean one can clean rust off the nakago/tang, and doing so can severely depreciate the value of the piece and make identification very hard.

(addendum - I said something about "history" not being as applicable, I deleted that comment since it could be taken the wrong way...it's important, but an accomplished polisher knows what to preserve)
 
However, this does NOT mean one can clean rust off the nakago/tang, and doing so can severely depreciate the value of the piece and make identification very hard.
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That's true. Rust in the tang is one of a good method to decide tbe age of the sword. Polishing it can reduce the value of the blade by half (I'm not exagerrating here).

Well, there are a lot of good American polishers. Keith D. Larman, John Dimesa, Ted Tenold, Fred Lohman (I'm not sure if he does the polishing by himself - but he does accept polishing/restoration services).

I've never heard of Bob Benson though, do you know where I might find some examples of his works ?

BTW, if the wakizashis are not very valuable, you can always polish it yourself =)

Won't be as good as real polisher, but you can learn the basic of polishing :D
 
http://www.bushidojapaneseswords.com

Keith Larman and JohnD are doing well, but they are focusing in western blades since they started with Hanwei blades for practice. I like their work but I don't think they're qualified or comfortable with going after Nihonto on a professional level, and I'm pretty sure they'll admit to that.
 
They are good, and I think their works are worth what you spend. They are amongst the best in the US, but they are not qualified for polishing for the purpose of kantei.

Let's say, if you have a custom katana (gaijinto made like your specs) and you want to have it full polished, they are your men. You are not going to send it Japan and polish it for $100/inch, are you ?

I don't think they handle nihonto, only gaijinto =)
 
Hello !!!

You´re talking about real nice polishing work in real good swords, but I have a doubt (please anyone helps me), I have a Musashi Daito that has some flaws by use, and some others like a Kris Cutlery 29"katana that I am now using in the tameshigiri and iai classes, and with the time I bought some stones (arato, binsui, asashi, suita-do, hazuya - small thin pieces of uchigomori), a real nice nugui (oil to final polish) at Namikawa Heibei - Tokio (http://www.namikawa-ltd.co.jp/ustop.htm) and some metal polishing paste, and after some sword polishing reading I am conservating a good looking in the Kris Cutlery like in the day I bought it, but it´s easy because it´s hamon is not showed, and it never had a great look (I even better it by let a hand made yokote), but in spite of the Musashi from Paul Chen is not very expensive neither a great sword (like a nihon-to) I found it very nice and beatifull and I love mine, the point is that I wanted to retire it, and to that I want to let it with a real nice look, but I am afraid to harm it because it has a hamon and a hada (if it is a real hada????), so I found this site that garantee they polish swords like Paul Chen swords at a price of about $200,00 (http://www.dreadnaught-industries.com/swords.htm), but talking to them they said that they stopped to do this kind of work, so do you know other person that work on this kind of sword, or should I buy another one, because I and no one is going to pay $100 inch on this kind of sword, because we all know that that prices are paid only for great hand made swords and not to that kind of pieces done in great scale in factories like Hanwei.
 
Nope, the Musashi does not have hada.

Also, I'm not aware of more polishers doing the production blades, but you might want to ask on SFI or someplace...Polishers like Keith Larman and JohnD started out working on Hanwei pieces, and odds are there is someone just starting out who might take on a challenge.

In addition, I'm not certain of the damage you did to it, but actually the fingerstones alone can improve the look of the Musashi by removing the oxidation and whitening the hamon nicely. A more full polish would be if you want reshaping too. If you have serious damage, early stones may be the necessary way to go.

Also, for modern swords like Hanwei and even some customs, sandpaper and blocks offers an inexpensive (material-wise) and effective means of polish if done right. You don't necessarily need to go all-out, though the hazuya/jizuya/nugui may be nice for refining the polish at the end. This is one method that is referred to as "hybrid" polish (though there are a few different "hybrid" methods).

I wish I could help you find a polisher to do your blade for low-cost, and I'm sorry that I can't at the moment.
 
Thank you Robert, you like always gave great informations, but anyone else know any guy that do this kind of work?

If not I´ll try what Robert suggest...
 
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