Best polishing and certification option for UK?

[Cuirassier]

Hi Guys

I have a blade I want professionally polished and then sent for certification.

Are there any UK options?

Is Tony Norman still going / the best option?

What about certification? I thought I saw a UK based certification option some time back?
RSVP / Thanks

Mark

[Gakusee]

37 minutes ago, Cuirassier said:

Hi Guys

I have a blade I want professionally polished and then sent for certification.

Are there any UK options?

Is Tony Norman still going / the best option?

What about certification? I thought I saw a UK based certification option some time back?
RSVP / Thanks

Mark

“Professionally” = one thing and one thing only for a U.K. based collector. Means sent to Japan and polished by a Japanese togishi. 

There are multiple non-fully-trained European options but we are cautious discussing these. 
 

The same comment applies to “papering”. There is no U.K. option for certification, as no shinsa teams come here, unlike the US. 
 

I recommend you get in touch with a credible intermediary like Eddy Wertheim or Igor Hochmajer or Pablo Kuntz and discuss your options with them. One of them can take your sword to Japan, if it is worth the effort and fees, and can help you. Otherwise, you can also find an agent in Japan (there are plenty - eg Paul Kremers, Bob Hughes / Keichodo) and ship your sword to them, asking them to help with all the details. Again, you had better ensure that the sword merits that. 

[Cuirassier]

1 hour ago, Gakusee said:

“Professionally” = one thing and one thing only for a U.K. based collector. Means sent to Japan and polished by a Japanese togishi. 

There are multiple non-fully-trained European options but we are cautious discussing these. 
 

The same comment applies to “papering”. There is no U.K. option for certification, as no shinsa teams come here, unlike the US. 
 

I recommend you get in touch with a credible intermediary like Eddy Wertheim or Igor Hochmajer or Pablo Kuntz and discuss your options with them. One of them can take your sword to Japan, if it is worth the effort and fees, and can help you. Otherwise, you can also find an agent in Japan (there are plenty - eg Paul Kremers, Bob Hughes / Keichodo) and ship your sword to them, asking them to help with all the details. Again, you had better ensure that the sword merits that. 

Thank you

[Guest Simon R]

5 hours ago, Cuirassier said:

Is Tony Norman still going / the best option?

What about certification? I thought I saw a UK based certification option some time back?

Tony Norman is dead.

 

The NTHK (Yoshikawa group) have held shinsas in the UK in the past - I don't know about now.

[Gakusee]

47 minutes ago, SRDRowson said:

Tony Norman is dead.

 

The NTHK (Yoshikawa group) have held shinsas in the UK in the past - I don't know about now.

Hi Simon

 

i believe this was in the “golden era” in the U.K. when mukansa togishi Kenji Mishina san lived here and helped Graham Curtis and Clive Sinclaire (and others among my tutors and predecessors) bring the shinsa teams over here. 
For the last 15years there has not been a U.K. shinsa. There have been discussions about one but the practicalities and necessary scale (eg several hundred swords necessary, organisation committee willing to collect deposits and hold the swords, and organise the 3-day event,  etc) have thus far prevented one from happening. Add to that the increasingly stringent U.K. legislation about sword ownership and the virtual inability to post these in the U.K. to one another. 
 

I also believe that in the past many collectors were either not able to buy papered swords easily in the U.K. or were afraid of sending swords to Japan. Nowadays, with the widespread prevalence of the Internet and availability of English information, people have realised that there are 30-40 Japanese dealer websites with an English version, from which they can buy already papered swords in better condition than they can find in the U.K. on average. Also, people like Paul Martin, who indefatigably and graciously ferried and papered swords for U.K. collectors, have opened the eyes of U.K. collectors as to the possibility of swords being sent to Japan and shinsa-ed there. 
I am always bewildered when my U.K. brethren complain about the lack of options here. Of course, we do not have the plethora our US colleagues benefit from. However,

 I would say that we do not lack options, but people do not research sufficiently the available avenues to them or do not ask the more experienced collectors here.