I purchased this blade from Scott Rodell at Seven Stars Trading and then shipped it to Philip Tom for restoration. Phil did the polish, mounting and the scabbard. He also had the reproduction hilt fittings cast from a mold that was taken of an antique set and provided me with detailed instructions and contact information for an artisan who can reproduce and fit a set of historically accurate scabbard fittings (The white strips on the scabbard are markers so the artisan will know exactly where to place the fittings).
This blade showed considerable signs of being re-polished and sharpened over the years. The jian also has a couple of curious features:
1) The shoulder area of the blade has a hole drilled thru it (see this thread for more information: http://forums.swordforum.com/showth...;threadid=57074). This seems to indicate that either initially or at some time during it’s service life it was mounted with a riveted guard. Most of these guards (and the jian they are found on) tend to be less refined and more utilitarian in appearance than my blade.
2) The other interesting feature is that the two sides of the blade are quite different. One side has a very active and high-contrast folded steel pattern while the other is much more subdued. Phil suggested that this effect was done intentionally by the smith but for what reason, we may never know.
The sword is late Qing/Early Republican and the blade length is 28" from the point where the guard narrows into a ferrule. The overall length is 34 3/4". PoB is 5.75" in front of guard or roughly 40% of total length as measured from pommel, which is historically accurate for this type of sword.
The pictures are crappy but here they are:
The whole jian:
The hilt:
The subdued side:
The active side:
Another:
A better view of the lamellar structure:
Close-up of guard:
