Welcome to Bluestar's Sword Polishing. My name is Chris Osborne and I’ve been a Japanese sword enthusiast since my early teens. I have had the pleasure of owning one Nihonto so far in my life, a tired old Koto blade that I could kick myself for parting with some years ago. Unfortunately, due to the ever increasing cost of decent Nihonto, my collecting has primarily been restricted to modern and WWII era blades.

Fortunately there are a growing number of companies today who are making very acceptable reproductions of Japanese swords for the martial arts community and general collectors. Many of these blades are far better than the WWII swords that I collected in my teens and early twenties that fell into their same price bracket.

The one area however with which I’ve been most displeased on the majority of production blades is unfortunately the most important for a person who’s purchasing a sword for collecting – THE POLISH. After searching the internet in vain for someone who could produce the kind of polish I was after and do it affordably, my dissatisfaction led me into learning how to solve this problem myself as I most certainly was not going to pay more for a polish than my whole sword cost.

After several years I’ve developed a hybrid approach that produces beautiful results on newly made blades that aren’t pitted or damaged. The result is a polish that’s less in your face than the acid etched mess these blades sport from the factory with a more transparent hamon that makes the activity much more visible on the folded blades. My method also keeps the geometry and lines on the blade crisp instead of rounding them off as I’ve seen done on many “do it yourself” jobs. I also counter polish the kissaki and create a nice clean yakote to give the blade a more traditional and enjoyable appearance.

If you’re after in-your-face, anime, ferric chloride bliss then my polish probably isn’t for you, but if not, then it may be just what you’ve been looking for. And yes I know, many Japanese swords in traditional polish have quite frosty hamon, however the effect is much different than the dead, dull, opaque look created by ferric chloride and the other harsh acids. I would rather have a polish that has an old sashikomi type appearance and be able to view much more of the activity and I think most other collectors would as well.

I’ve also done quite a few WWII blades with great results and I would consider polishing them as long as they’re in good shape, i.e. don’t send me a rusted, pitted sword and expect to get back a blade that looks new. Also, many of these blades have been put on buffing wheels, gone through fires, etc., and as a consequence the hamon and other activity has been ruined. Many times you can’t tell this until the polish is done and the etching process is started. A professional togishi might be able to, but I can’t, so know what you have before hand.

In the services section I have pictures of two new production blades that I’ve done recently; I’ll let the pics speak for themselves.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by and check out my new site, and if I can help you please feel free to give me a call or drop me an email.

Thanks,
Chris Osborne