Question About Blade Condition

[xcivicdx]

hey guys

you helped me with the signature of this blade and i wanted to see what you thought the condition of this blade was in, if its possible to get a really solid polish out of it and fix it.  Maybe you guys can explain the streaks and cloudiness.

 

[SAS]

Send it to me, i like it fine the way it is!

[nagamaki - Franco]

^{Beginning to look tired to my eyes, thin skin steel, but then you should seek out the advice of a 'qualified polisher' rather than just opinion if you're seriously thinking restoration.}

[xcivicdx]

the issue was was that i had sent the blade to Fred Lohman and he did his "polish job".  it came back like this.  He sent it back not sharp like I sent it to him and it didnt have the streaks.  i just wanted to know peoples opinion on the blade, if it was starting to show wear and if i should send to qualified person this time to fix the damage fred might have done.

[John A Stuart]

You say there wasn't those long delaminations in the shinogiji before the Lohman polish? John

[Grey Doffin]

Hi Bryan,

I don't think those are delaminations in the shinogi ji, just slightly coarse grain.  Always a good idea to ask who would we recommend for the polish before you send the sword for polish.  If you can get to one of the sword shows in the US you can show your sword to Bob Benson (a properly trained polisher, one of 2 in the US, the other isn't Mr. Lohman) and ask his opinion.

Grey

[xcivicdx]

The issue was was that i was recommended to lohman before i really started collecting and didnt know any better. No the sword didnt have the grainy appearance, it had a few spot of finger rust that was very "surface". When i got the blade back i called fred and complained and he told me i got a 2-3k polish job for a much better deal :x. So this was about 3.5 years ago that he did the work, so i was examining the blade to get a grasp on wether or not i could fix it recently.

 

I did find one person so im looking into his history and references. i will never use fred nor would i recommend him to anyone. He also did a new tsuka for me and said he would do a full stingray wrap but only did panels. So much for paying for whats advertised and getting what your supposed to, i got toasted in many ways.

[cabowen]

The "streaks" are visible layers of steel. Sometimes they become visible when there are slightly incomplete welds and voids opens. Sometimes these are there from the beginning, other times, after many polishes. Usually the steel in the shinogi is quite thick so it takes a lot of metal removal to "tire" a blade in the shinogi.

 

Other times, using acids when polishing will etch out the softer layers of steel and make the "grain" more visible.

 

If the blade doesn't appear to have been polished a lot, it may be caused by the latter explanation above.

 

Hate to see people learn this way that amateur polishers are about the worst thing you can do to a sword...

[xcivicdx]

I was concerned it could have been from an acid polish. I hate the fact that i asked Fred Lohman to polish, restore and sharpen and he sent it back duller and i pointed it out and he made up an excuse, promised to fix it and then re negged on the fixing it.

[Stephen]

Fred doesn't do it himself he farms them out, had one done many many moons ago by Fred's togi dejor , it came back with alot of foundation strokes left, a rushed job. Dont beat your self up learn from it and move on. You have a full life of Nihonto ahead of you enjoy the trip.