Mei removal

[Guest Nagasa31]

Hello all I have a mei that is gimei I would like to have it removed and them submit blade for papers, any idea whom offers this service? What one can expect nakago to look like after mei is removed? Thanks Yitzy

[QuangD]

Hi Nagasa31,

 

There are two polishers in U.S. whom I know can perform this service and there might be others too.

 

Moses Becerra:

http://www.nihontoantiques.com/index.htm

 

 

Robert Benson:

 

http://www.bushidojapaneseswords.com/

[andreas]

It's radical move "just for papers", but if you think it is worht of it and want to own blade with papers...There been lot of issues in this forum about this, but i dont get it at all...need more light i guess.

[Brian]

What one can expect nakago to look like after mei is removed?

 

Although I have not seen one in person, I have been led to believe that a well done mei removal by a qualified person, is almost unnoticeable. The patina is redone to the point that you should not be able to easily see that any work was done on the nakago at all. It just looks mumei.

Can anyone else confirm this?

 

Brian

[Rich S]

Unless your sword has been pink slipped by at least two different

shinsa teams, don't have the mei removed. We all have stories of

swords being pronounced gimei, had the mei removed and then

shinsa attributing them to the same smith as the original mei. IMHO,

it's not something I would do.

 

Rich S

[mike yeon]

Almost always, the act of carving a mei displaces, (not removes) steel. Think of it as writing your name in the sand with your finger. Also, if you look at well preserved mei, you'll notice the raised edges along each stroke. Especially on newer pieces.

 

When done correctly, the mei is "filled in" using the steel around the strokes. If done correctly it looks none worse for the wear. Repatination usually follows to blend the patina. All in all, its a long, expensive, laborious process that should only be attempted by trained professionals.

 

As Rich S mentioned, it is a permenant proccess and even shinsa teams (albeit very rare) can make mistakes in judgement. Sometimes, if your blade is pinked because of gimei, the shinsa team will confirm who the true maker of the blade is. At that point, you can live with it, or if the blade is worth the removal of the gimei, go through with it (more often than not it isn't.)

 

Anything that screws around with the nakago should be avoided unless there's strong reason.

 

mike

[Mark]

also John Tirado could probably do what you need, i think hiswe site is sayashi.com

[Henry Wilson]

If you want to own a papered sword, it may be better to use the money that you would spend on removing the mei and put it towards buying a sword with papers. I got a nice sword with NTHK papers around the 220,000 yen mark as one of my early buys a few years back....

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

Anyway, I've seen on another forum a pics taken from a Nakago that had

the Gimei removed.

Astonishingly near to perfection. The blade belong to a fellow forumite

and I highly regret to have not saved the pic on my HD to have it as a

reference. :|

[bullpuppy]

One polisher suggestted that you mark the across the mei as a gimei. I am not sure how that would look or how he planned on doing it. Too bad the sword ogranization can't issue a stamp (like a showa stamp) that can be applied and be accepted as a sign of gimei