Worst polishes you have ever seen?

[jdawg221]

Hi! I am rather new to nihonto, and the first thing I have learned regarding them is that you should never try to polish one yourself. That got me interested: are there any horror stories you veterans know of people that don't know better or are just arrogant polishing their nihonto themselves?

[Alex A]

Not mentioning any names but there are well known sword dealers destroying good quality historic heirlooms with cheap crappy commercial polishes. I hope they read this and i hope it makes them STOP!!!

 

Its all about profit, not a care about what they do. 

 

 

[Rivkin]

2 hours ago, jdawg221 said:

Hi! I am rather new to nihonto, and the first thing I have learned regarding them is that you should never try to polish one yourself. That got me interested: are there any horror stories you veterans know of people that don't know better or are just arrogant polishing their nihonto themselves?

 

You are not going to hear a lot of stories since the community depends on polisher's business, if not for the polish itself then for bringing items to Japan, papering, shirasaya, cleaning up active rust, erasing signatures etc.

"Non professional" polishers are not part of the nihonto community so they are open game, but I've seen very-very many items completely ruined by the professionals. To the point that some could not be papered.

[Brian]

Anyone using Ferric Chloride

[Paz]

On 5/28/2022 at 8:49 AM, Alex A said:

Not mentioning any names but there are well known sword dealers destroying good quality historic heirlooms with cheap crappy commercial polishes. I hope they read this and i hope it makes them STOP!!!

 

Its all about profit, not a care about what they do. 

 

 

Are they UK based at all Alex 

[Alex A]

I cant say say Paz, they know who they are.

 

Some good honest dealers in UK though, real sword dudes, will advise you to do the right thing when it comes to good blades.

[Tensho]

I purchased a Jumonji yari in polish online. Pretty rare to find one in polish. Pictures looked good to me, and I was excited to get it. 

 

I got it, and it was bad... Geometry was screwed up. Lines were sharp in some places and completely rounded in others(you could tell where the polisher couldn't get to with the stones)To top it all off, the hamon was polished in(artificial) absolutely dead. Worst buying experience I had had, and I have bought garbage in the past