Jump to content

amature polishers the good bad and the ugly...or is it?


joe424

Recommended Posts

these are my thoughts on armatures and some so called professional polishers....ive ben studying polishing for 10 years...im 33 years old and I still don't know anything in the grand scheme of things. After all its only 900 or so years of history you need to know to be good at it.so I don't polish anything that's not junk...I have to say that I have made some good tanto and wakazashi out of blades that would have ben thrown away. and I have done fine polish on some newer stuff as a hobby....but wen it comes to a healthy old blade be very cautious of who you let polish it...it could be a nightmare, and don't believe some of these pro polishers that claim to have don a full apprenticeship...very few in the usa have ....if any one is interested I've got some picks of some stuff I cleaned up for fun....I guess my point is it is a terrible idea for an amateur to put any healthy sword to a stone. but a cracked katana or wahazashi or any low level blade with multiple fatal flaws.....could be made in to something really cool.... unless you are a total idiot,than stay away from sharp stuff all together

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This has been discussed countless times here, just search this Forum. We do not endorse amateur polishing here, on the contrary, we condemn it as an activity which destroys swords. You won't see a sympathetic reaction to what you have written here, and if anybody reacts, it will be in pretty harsh words.

 

Your "I only polish junk"- excuse will not be accepted, as only a properly trained polisher is able to determine what is junk and what is not. We have heard it many times from amateur "polishers".

 

Nothing personal, it is just that we care about the preservation of Japanese art swords.

 

BTW, you are an AMATEUR polisher, and not A_MATURE polisher... (despite your ten years of "experience")

Link to comment
Share on other sites

im not a polisher at all sry im new at this forum...I don't condone any one polish a real Japanese sword on their own, that was my point even good polishers can ruin a blade by mistake, wen I said I've ben studying it for ten years what I meant is in that amount of time I have learned 1 tenth of one percent of what a real polishe knows,and I am well aware of that. have a very good sword teacher who has over 50 years of being a sword expert who looks at all the junk blades first befor I do any thing to them......I would never harm a peace of history.....but I look forward to any input you can give me

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't polish anything that's not junk...

 

That's what you said, right? How do you know a sword is junk if it takes a polish to find that out?

 

I am just curious, so please don't take this as an attack on your person.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ill give you an example I took three junk blade to show my teacher and he would clean them up with some water an beaking soda maby clean a small spot with a powder fine hazuya powder nugui two of the three wer two far gone to do anything with ,than we would count the hagari this on waki had 4 bad hagari they went all the way threw the hamon but after he looked over for an hour or so would tell me I could make my selph a nice tanto out of the 8 inches of good blade,so I did....and im a real mellow guy so I take no offence, infact I think we bolt belive the same opinion of people who ruin great swords

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Joe

Just another point and with no disrespect to your teacher who I obviously dont know. We have had a number of occassions over the years when new people present something they have shown to their martial arts teacher who has advised them as to what it is and what to do with it. On many occassions they have been wrong. Being an expert in using a sword doesnt qualify someone to assess the blades history or merit, anymore than me studying the structure of sword for 30+ years qualifies me to tell someone how to use it.

As I said I do not know your teacher or his background but decisions as to how to treat an old blade should be taken by qualified polishers or experts in the subjetc of Art Swords not by martial arts prationers.

It could be of course that your teacher is both, as are other contributors here.

Regards

Paul

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But also a Japanese trained togishi, right?

 

If not, there is no point in a further discussion. Whoever polishes swords without having been properly trained is an amateur "polisher" with the potential to screw up valuable pieces of art.

 

I don't think we are going anywhere here. I told you, nobody here will sympathise with what we view as an activity which destroys nihonto.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ok I seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot with this, I don't polish swords,i don't want sympathy, the pics I mentioned are of a knife I made. a 5 year old knife that the tip broke off so I did a Japanese temper on it and thought someone may want to see, thats the kind of stuff im referring to wen I say i polished ,except for a tanto I made for my selph that a real togi was going to throw away, and some plane blades from blades that wer fubar in evry way...im a kind man that loves the art of the Japanese sword and feel the same as you as far as amature polishers wrecking swords so why so hostile, I came hear to talk about the thing we all love nihonto,ive ben a member hear for all of 29 and already pissed people off,agian I am sorry and will never bring up the topic of untrained polishing again...joe decius

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a Koto tachi which is covered in old rust and nicks and looks like junk that has two very large hagire that I took to Japan a couple of years back. It belonged to my father so I wanted to get some opinions on it although I knew it was beyond repair.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11123&p=95090&hilit=koto+tachi#p95090

 

I showed it to a very respected trained polisher and he asked if he could open a window as he liked the look of the blade.

After opening the window, he reckoned it was late Kamakura/Nambokucho jidai and probably Enju school and that it looked like a significant blade. He wanted to polish it so I left it with him.

Unfortunately, life happens and it doesn't look like I'll ever be able to afford to polish it.

It's still with him and I'm currently in the process of trying to give it to him; if I can't afford to polish it then hopefully he can and the sword might see some respect.

 

Had I known I could just chop it up and make a tanto...

;)

 

Just saying, Joe...not all junk looking blades are junk.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...