Here's a link to pictures of the sword I took. I can take more, if needed.
http://imgur.com/a/vMJrO
Please excuse my cat. He likes the lanyard on my camera.
History of this piece: I remember it being in my grandfather's basement. I used to play with it as a child. My grandfather has gone into a skilled care facility and his house has been sold. When cleaning his house out, my mom found several old edged weapons; including this sword. When I walked into the room where she's stashed all the pieces, I saw the tang sticking out of the scabbard and immediately recognized it as Japanese in origin. When I pulled the blade out, I knew it was a Japanese "katana-style" sword.
According to my mom, however, there's no way it could be Japanese because the person who gave it to my grandfather kept it in a shack that belonged to his family for generations. Apparently none of these people had ever left the country or participated in any war. But there was a house nearby that the rebels used to store weapons during the American Revolutionary War, therefore, it's an officer's blade from the Revolutionary War. She said "all swords curve like that and all swords have tangs; you're just obsessed with Asian things." SIGH.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure it's a 98 series shin-gunto. Can anyone at least confirm that it is in fact a shin-gunto?
There are no stamps on it anywhere, which I find strange. Someone suggested that it might be a later model, when Japan was running dry, and may in fact have been produced completely by machine from cheap steel. The blade is fairly rusted, but the edge isn't knicked and the point... I forget the name for it... is intact and quite sharp.
This isn't a piece I want to see sold. So my next question is: Since this isn't a traditionally produced Japanese sword, would it be okay to polish, remount, and build a katana-kake for? Most people have told me definitely do not polish it, because (long rant about stuff concerning traditional Japanese swords) - however this is not a traditional Japanese sword, correct? I want to see this sword glow again, but unfortunately the blade itself doesn't justify a professional polish, far less a traditional polish by a skilled toshigi.
So, assuming it's okay to polish (since the sword isn't actually worth anything monetarily speaking and it's value is purely sentimental), how would I go about doing that? I have the very basics down on how this is done, but no idea how to start or get the proper materials.
EDIT: Wanted to add - the blade is 26.5 inches long (from the very tip to the start of the tang) and with the tang included is about 32.5 inches long (I think, measured it the other day).
