SAS

Hard to tell from the photos; I can't see anything fatal, looks to be maybe early Shinto, need better photos.

Too bad the boshi got "messed up"...... nice sword

Holy moly that was a lot of oil!

Possible hagire (crack in hardened edge) which is a fatal flaw, not worth putting money into imo.

That is a tricky conversation....I doubt that too many blades are restored and end up worth the cost; however, as the caretaker of a piece of historical functional art, sometimes it is worth doing something to restore them to their proper condition.

The pitting does look pretty deep, but we are only looking at photos and not the sword; as to who has better judgement as to results, i can't judge yours, and it would be courteous of you not to judge mine. A sword can be loved even with pits; nothing in this world is perfect.

Aren't most of them? And yet polishers stay busy...

That would look nice polished up by a professional.

I agree with what has been said above, worth at least a window polish.

I get stuck behind the paywall, as it says I have exceeded my free articles.

The other possibility that i find plausible is an authentic blade obtained by an enthusiastic but unskilled amateur, who "polished" and mounted the blade badly with junk fittings, and then passed it to the OP.

There is more than one guy in Longquan doing "polishes"....whoever "did" this one is still having geometry challenges, as well as not following stone direction changes to remove hike....I do not think there is enough patina on the nakago to determine that it is an antique nihonto versus a modern repro.....in hand examination by an experienced polisher would assist.

I agree with Ray; at first glance it could be mistaken for an authentic blade with put together fittings, but after more examination it seems obvious that those fittings were made to fit that blade, and not done very well. The tip of the shobu zukuri shape is not proportioned in a traditional way, and the polish is non standard as well. The Chinese are getting better at some things, but the clues are still there that reveal their handiwork.

I am not an expert on this type of sword mounting, but there are enough concerns visually that I would be reluctant to bid on an item similar to this one; I would suspect that it would not be authentic or had been tampered with. I hope you got it cheaply.

http://www.bushidojapaneseswords.com/about-us.html Bob Benson's site; call him to see if he has any to sell.