The need to polish

[Stephen]

Recently on a 1911 forum I showed a new pickup from the 40s, Remington Rand 1911a1 from 1943 to be exact. 

Part of its history it had been blued.

I was just asking about the barrel,  I got more that a few response to have it sandblasted and re Parkeized. They say you can get kits and do it yourself.  Lol

 

I told them it's part of its history and I'm leaving it as is.

No response after that. lol

 

You all see where I'm going here, more than often "you should have it polished" is the response to newbies. 

 

I'm making the case unless it's a highly important Smith and really out of polish blades should be left as is,  oiled and cared for.

Just MPOV.

[Bruce Pennington]

I'll join in.

 

Out of my 21 swords, I only had 1 polished.  It was my dad's Mantetsu and I spent 3 years getting it returned to its original glory (probably better than original).  The rest, like you say, are as they came to me.  Well, I take every one apart that I get and clean it of dirt, debris, active rust, etc, and oil all the parts.  One could argue that leaving the dirt and grime is preserving their history.  But the "preserving" part is important to me and dirt and grime aren't preservative.

 

Now, to play devil's advocate - for someone to receive my dad's Mantetsu several decades from now, my restoration job and polish, to them, WILL be part of the blade's path.  Even Bubba, badly done, becomes the "life of the blade."

[Stephen]

7 hours ago, Stephen said:

oiled and cared for.

Cleaning  is cared for. You did right on your Mantetsu @Bruce Pennington

[Bruce Pennington]

It was a tough decision, because like you, I could see the marks of time and use all over it.  It looked like it had quite a life.  I knew I would lose that be renovating it.  Maybe for balance, I've left my star-stamped Rinji untouched.  They both can be appreciated, but for different reasons.