Nihonto Club

This is potentially a very nice blade. In my opinion, you should work with one of the "brokers" to have it polished in Japan. It will be expensive, and it will take a long time (perhaps a year before the blade is returned to you). Stay FAR AWAY from any self-taught 'polishers', which includes almost all polishers outside of Japan.
But first, consider carefully why you want to restore it. Just to increase the re-sale value? Does that mean you will sell it? If not, is it worth restoring it?
You should have it studied (in person) by someone with enough experience to say if polishing is a good idea for the health of the blade. If the blade is "tired", another polish may expose flaws that were hidden. Or if the blade has fire damage, or any sort of crack, or large chips...
Be sure you understand all of the costs and risks of polishing.

Pete

Thanks Pete!

What I mean is;
The blade is worth W.
Costs X to restore. (plus time)
But purchasing one already restored cost Y.
And Y is half or double the cost of X.
Or after restoration the value becomes Z instead of the original W and there is or is not a significant difference between W and Z.

Then, that becomes a choice of how much this particular blade means to my wife.

How is that?

What do "you" think we should do? Or where should we start?

The first step is to have it examined by an experienced collector, to evaluate the quality and condition. The goal is to identify any problems that would say that a polish is a bad investment.
Another consideration: How good (condition and quality) is the existing polish? If the features of the hamon and hada are fairly well visible now, then there may not be any point in spending the time and money for a new polish. That is, after the new polish, will you see things that you can't see now? Of course, a new polish will make it look "like new", but does that really matter?
Considering the cost of a proper polish, you should NOT count on a polish as being a good investment. For example, if the blade is worth $5000 now, and the restoration costs $2500, I would not expect the blade to be worth more than $7500 after polish.

Pete

Another thought: If you send it Japan for polish, you could also submit it for shinsa (professional evaluation). If you're lucky, and you get "tokubetsu hozon", then the value goes up. But there is a risk that it is gimei (false signature), in which case the value just went down considerably. Just like a polish, submitting to shinsa is a risk, unless you are highly confident of the outcome.

Pete

Shinsa sounds good, I did a quick Interwebs search and came up with zip.

We live on the East coast (NC) is shinsa certified only in Japan, or are there any here in the U.S.?

Do you or Stan appraise or polish? You both know your swords.

Can you recommend an appraiser shinsa?

Can you recommend a polisher?

Thank you again for all the information,

Andre

Here is an example of someone who can help you with the polish and shinsa process (Chris Bowen):
http://ejapaneseswords.com/

I am not qualified to do appraisals or restoration.

I believe that a shinsa is sometimes done at sword shows in the U.S., but you would have to travel there with your blade.

Pete

Thank you Pete

I will try and find a sword show as well...

Rex,
If you are near Jacksonville, I'd be happy to look at it. While no expert I would be able to discern any flaws/tireness and charactertics of the blade.

Bob