Thanks to the topic regarding bluing and encouraged by TC, Dr. JK and Brihaji I decided to brush up my inherited 150 year old sword. it was just a piece of badly rusted metal but seems light weight and well balanced.
As per the suggestion of @TC I did not use any grinding machine but tried to clean it up manually. Worked for about 1.5 to 2 months to clean out the rust consuming I large can of WD 40 and wearing out emery paper starting with grit 100, 220, 320, 400 and finally 600. Now I am very tired and the results are as follows.
SUGGESTION REQUIRED: Do I clean and polish it further or do I blue the Hilt or the full sword? My idea was to blue the hilt and hilt guard and do a brush on job of gold plating on the hilt top and polish the blade to a mirror finish (but I may loose out on patience and give up the project. Also I have still not been able to source the 'Brush on Gold Plating Solution' in India).
I would really appreciate the members personal suggestions on what would be practical and reasonably good looking.
The sword


The Hilt


Hilt Top


Hilt Guard
