Question on Sword Polishers

[bullpuppy]

know that truly qualified sword polishers are few and far between. Has anyone had direct experience with Harunaka Hoshino. I found information on a website that pretty much gives him a slashing.

 

http://www.hizento.net/warning.htm

 

I am getting estimates from the recommended people from this board.

 

 

How about Louis Skebo, Christopher Lau, Kenji Mishina, David Hofhine, Fred Lohman etc.

 

If you could share personal experiences, costs and turnaround time it would be most appreciated.

[Guest Nanshoku-Samurai]

Hello Tim,

 

I'm giving you my cheap oppinion. My oppinion is of course argueable and everybody else may well have a different oppinion and his / hers prefered polisher. But this is my oppinion:

 

First of all you have to determine how much your sword is worth and then choose a reasonable polisher. It is e.g. no good idea to send bad blade to a high class polisher. You might be buried afterwards. But if teh polisher is a honest person . which I would say is true for any of the high class polishers - he will also shout you his oppinion and and not recommend or even refuse polishing a bad quality blade.

 

You said:

 

How about Louis Skebo, Christopher Lau, Kenji Mishina, David Hofhine, Fred Lohman etc.

 

 

I can't comment on Christopher Lau as I haven't seen any of his work yet.

 

Mishina is a top polisher. You can tell this by his long waiting list. Very good work. However also chance that not the master himself might polish your blade but a student.

 

Hofhine is in my oppinion a very eager and well self taught Togi. Recommendable for mid quality blades.

 

I do not know whom Lohman is using. I think this polisher might be okay for Showato blades but I personaly think the polish is not of good quality.

 

Skebo is to new to the market in my oppinion and still needs to learn from an expirienced, non self-taught polisher before moving up to better quality blades.

 

Very recommendable in the US is also Bob Benson and Moses Beccera whom you can both find on the web. The is a third polihser in the US whose last name ist startingh with a Y I think. Unfortunately I can't remember his name right now. He also does an excellent job and has learned in Japan for many years like Benson did.

 

In Canada you might also use Don Myra or Martin White.

 

Just my cheap oppinions but choose your polisher wisely. Once a blade gets ruined by a bad polisher there is not much left you can do about it.

[bullpuppy]

I forgot to ask about Doug Blain

[Bungo]

one truely needs a slashing and I have personally seen what he and his disciples did to my friend's sword.

 

Chris. Lau is in Heaven.....................

 

the others mentioned I can't say, I send swords to Big Mo.

[DavidF]

I have met Moses Beccera and seen his work. His work is VERY nice.

If my wak passes shinsa, I will have him do the polishing.

 

 

DaveF.

[bullpuppy]

Just the type of feed back I needed. Any good polishers in the UK?

[pcfarrar]

We don't have anyone at the same level as Moses Beccera in the UK.

 

The only polisher I've ever used in the UK is John Bolton so I can't really comment on the others. If you have a good blade here people generally ship them to Japan for polish.

[Brian]

Can't comment on most of the names, since I haven't seen their work, but the most highly regarded "Westerner" that I commonly see recommended is Bob Benson in Hawaii. He is used by many of the advanced collectors that I have had the pleasure of communicating with.

Some of the less advanced polishers have the good sense to only polish non-Nihonto, and this is the way it should be.

 

Brian

[paulb]

The most well known polisher in the UK is A.V. Norman. I beleive he was trained by or worked with Kenji Mishina when he lived in the UK. I have seen examples of his work which is of a very high standard. This is confirmed by his backlog which is not too different from that of the better Japanese polishers.

[Grey Doffin]

has a teacher who knows nothing. It's not enough that the sword looks pretty when the polish is done; the shape, cross section, color, and so much more have to be right for the smith. And how much of the blade was left on the stones? If a sword is worth polishing it is worth being done right by someone with the proper training. Please don't let the self taught and under trained ruin good swords. Grey

[David Flynn]

What about Francis Boyd in San Francisco. I've seen some of his work and think that it is very good.

Also I believe his rates are very reasonable. Check his website

 

David