Fresh Polish by Jon Bowhay

I thought I would share pictures of a blade I just received back from polishing by Jon Bowhay. The sword was in rough shape with heavy live rust eating at it from the machi up 4-5 inches on the blade and in several spots along the ha and ji. Mr. Bowhay did an outstanding job removing the live rust and shaping and restoring the sword (check out the Before/After pic).

The sword is 26.5in (67cm) Kambun Shinto. The jitetsu is mokume and masame in the shinogiji. The hamon is notare with box-like gunome mixed in, abundant ko-nie along a thick habuchi, and subtle sunagashi close to the ha. The boshi is suguba with kaeri. The nakago is signed 'Chikuzen ju Minamoto Nobukuni Yoshimasa', is suriage, and yasuri are kiri.

Feedback and thoughts are welcome.

Matt

Before/After and Nakago

I hate you Matt, it should not be allowed so early in the morning

Woops, sorry for the wake-up call. :D You can go back to bed now!

Too late Matt, I am already in Office

Drowning my pain/envy in working (on NMB )

It has really come alive. I love seeing this. Congrats. John

I love this hada

Indeed very nice

Nice work!

The habaki has been changed?

Yes, the habaki is new. The old habaki was done. The new one was made by Samuel Rediske and has nice cat scratches on it.

Very well done too!

Outstanding polish and blade.

As its "curator", you have my admiration. Nothing is as fulfilling as resurecting an abused old blade.

Is the shirasaya new too? I mean has it been made at the time than the fresh polish?

Hi,

Nice polishing job !

Sebastien

very nice indeed.

It Looks very nice Matt.

Mark G

Very beautiful...amazing before and after pic.

Congrats,

Missed a spot.

Nah, just jokin'.

It is good that you brought it back to beautiful.

Donald

Wow, what a great transformation. I hope you have a wonderfull time with it.

Thanks for the great comments!

I have a sword by Echizen no kami Sukehiro that I posted on the Nihonto forum. I inherited it from my grandfather and it needs to be polished. There are finger and palm prints that are lightly rusted into the blade and I would really like to find someone to work on it. Is the person you used available for other work or did he do this for you as a favor? I am completely new to Nihonto but I would like to have this sword and another I have which was made by a smith named Nagamitsu polished and cleaned up. Do you have contact info you could share with me so I could find out cost and availability? I would greatly appreciate any help you can offer. Thanks. John P.

I have been updating Jon Bowhay's website and recently came across three swords that he had polished:

Koto period katana by Kanemitsu - http://yakiba.com/Kat_KaneMitsu.htm

c.1750 katana by Aizu Michitoki - http://yakiba.com/Kat_AizuMichitoki.htm

Showa period Gendaito by Yoshihara Kuniie - http://yakiba.com/Kat_Kuniie.htm

I have added these pictures to his website as well and Jon Bowhay now has a Facebook profile:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jon-Bowha ... 7569951135

Enjoy,