Sword polishing cream on ebay?

[RodneyO]

Aloha All,
Has anyone here bought ( seen ) on ebay, “ Japanese WWII Military Sword Nihonto Blade Polish Cream”? I have seen this product coming up for sale on ebay every so often and always wonder how good this product is. Does it work as it claims?
I've seen Mr. Robert Benson polish samurai swords back when he had his shop and I know it's not easy as wiping on polishing cream. I don't expect it to look as good as his or any one that studied sword polishing but will it look alright for a shingunto blade?
Mahalo,
Rodney

[MikeB]

Sword polishing cream...

Aloho Rodney-
I know the auction you are referring to. I have never bought any of this, but I would guess that the cream either is or is like Simichrome(sp) polish. This is a very fine form of metal polish used to remove minor scratches, etc. from metal. I have used it on some minor blemishes on Samurai sword blades. Needless to say, the cream I used required quite a bit of elbow grease over time to work out the marks on the blades. It removes minor rust pits and "stains" from finger prints after quite a bit of work. I don't think I would ever tackle using something like this on a fine blade, however. Shingunto's are about it..... Hopefully someone here can comment on the exact cream you referenced from the auction. Mike

[RodneyO]

Mahalo Mike,
Did you use Simichrome polish to clean your whole blade or just spot clean the areas that needed to be clean? Is Simichrome polish like Flitz ( as seen on TV, all purpose cleaner )? What I’m afraid of doing is ruining my shin-gunto blade, I don’t want to take the short cut way and end up with something I regret doing. I know it’s just a Showa-to blade but it’s part of our WW2 history. Maybe I should just leave it with its original patina, and just use uchiko powder and choji oil to keep it the way it is.
The reason I inquired about this product is that there are some dark spots on some of my blades. One of my gunto looks like it had some kind of oil that dried on the blade, staining the whole blade. If anyone here tried this sword polish from ebay, please let me know what you think of it and would you recommend this to be use on Showa-to period swords.

Rodney

[MikeB]

Sword polishing cream.....

Hi Rodney-
I had 3 swords that I worked on with the Simichrome. I do believe that it would be the same as using Flitz cream. I have used Flitz on guns I own and it works well. Both types of cream are very mild. You have to remember that there are a few "schools of thought" when it comes to this kind of thing. No one will ever argue with you that it might be best to just leave something alone. On the other hand, when I worked in a local museum the collection experts would always try to clean the items that came through our doors. Cleaning removes any harmful debris on the piece that could cause further deterioration. As long as that is all you are doing and not changing the overall state of the item, you are doing a good thing.
My sword blades were not in fine polish. They still had wavy temper, but were slightly darkened with an occasional pit here and there. The dark spots I had sounded similar to yours. I cleaned the entire blade over time with the polish. The dark spots were lightened and in some places removed. The blade regained an overall uniform/shiny appearance and the temper line was more discernable. When I was done, I oiled them. None of the blades ever approached a professional polish, however. I simply made them look nicer again. Take care..... Mike

[RodneyO]

Aloha Mike,
Sounds like you got good results using simichrome. Can’t say how much times I broke something trying to fix it up, clean it or just handling it to often. If I do decide to clean up the blade I’ll post my results.............
Mahalo again,
Rodney

[Bob Coleman]

Simichrome polishing will give a Japanese sword the look of a bumper on 1959 Cadillac. It won't have any resemblance to the steel finish a Japanese sword should have.

[RodneyO]

Aloha Bob,
I’ll just leave it the way it is and periodically use uchiko powder and choji oil. Don’t want it looking like a ‘59 Caddy’s bumper, or disrespect my Japanese ( WWII ) swords.
Mahalo,
Rodney

[MikeB]

Sword polishing cream.....

..."The blade regained an overall uniform/shiny appearance and the temper line was more discernable. When I was done, I oiled them. None of the blades ever approached a professional polish, however. I simply made them look nicer again..." ".....like the bumper on a 1959 Cadillac." Mike

[Steve Flanagan]

Sword polish cream

Yep I bought some,,,rubbed really hard and my tanto started vibrating and getting warmer and warmer then whaddayaknow it grew into a tachi!

[brannow]

I polished this one with the polishing cream and it turned out great!

Bill Rannow
Mpls, MN