Persian Cossack Brigade Saber! (with pictures ;) )

Congratulations on getting the piece in. How far one goes with cleaning, conserving and polishing is really a pretty subjective call.
If you have not had a chance to read it yet, start with the sword conservation article here.
swordforum.com/articles/ams/conservation.php

There are some more general tips and methods shared here and the root of the page has some other great information for collectors.
hometown.aol.com/machood/swordcare.html

Yet another curmudeonly guide is the Ron Ruble school of (more or less) don't f with it conservation.
www.ruble-enterprises.com/restoration.htm


Also check out the OMG Renaissance Wax thread in the General forum, as I have included some links there that relate to polishes and conservation.

The first priorities are always first to deal with active rust and then surface grime. You would be suprised at how much darkness might lift off the blade just with a good gentle cleaning. the guides above share several methods.

When I first approach old blades (specifically talking blades here)
the first thing is to remove surface grime, old oil, etc. I use a lot of paper towels in dealing with swords, they are disposable. Try to buy soft, non chunky ones. there is nothing wrong with soft rags either. I use glass cleaner first (I need more) and apply to cloth or paper, then rub gently until no more dirt/dark is showing on the cloth/towel when wiping. if there is a leather or felt buffer washer at the ricasso, do not saturate it with whatever you are using. Even hot soapy water will work for this step. From there, how far you want to go with the blade is really your call. From the pictures you share, I know I would have to spend many hours with my methods to improve it to much brightness. it's really hard to say without havining it right in front of me but there seems to be a fair amount of oxidation that would not remove without resorting to abrasive papers. Start with the surface grime and let's see what that looks like.

There are indeed many brass polishes. One link that I shared in the thread mentioned above discusses some commonly found here in the states. The thing about polishing things bright is the mismatch you will have between fittings and blade. A uniform bright brass finish can then be aged but this is a whole different set of tricks. I would start with the brass in the same manner as I did the blade. First get it clean.

The wood is going to be trickier to clean and preserve and this is one instance that Ron Ruble's paste wax wipe actually makes a great deal of sense. Not only would wiping until no dirt comes off clean it but the paste wax would preserve it very well. Not having paste wax handy here at the moment woould probably see me using a paper towel or cloth that was slighty damp with something else (like glass cleaner or hot soapy water). Not saturated mind you but damp. once clean, it could be preserved with any number of furniture polishes, oils or waxes. needless to say, if you cleaned the wood with the paste wax wipe method, you would have to then clean that off if you wanted to apply anything else. that's why Ruble's method is really about ideal for wood in general.

Polishing blades brighter than simply cleaning can be approached a lot of different ways. What I have here in my kit at the moment includes a pretty long list of things including pot scrubbers, pencil erasers, an eletric toothbrush, my fingernails, wood/plastic and metal picks. On and on. I have but dislike fine steel wool. it sheds horribly, even when used with light oil and I prefer wadding type polishes like Nevr-Dull, plastic pot scrubbers (both the flat pads and open mesh ball type) and then fine abrasive papers if I am going beyond clean to deal with scratches. Any of the items of an abrasive nature at all ar used with just the amount of force for the desired effect. It is touch to describe but learned through trial and error. Just remember, longwise blade strokes for any of this unless doing a complete hybrid or stone polish on a blade. Always work light to coarse unless you are establishing a base line finish, or have an excellent read on original polish and the damage/oxidation you are trying to remove.

This page is as invaluble as one wishes to make it. There is a lot more there than can be related in any one post and certainly a great deal more than what else I have written here.
www.dmoz.org/Reference/Museums/Museum_Resources/Conservation_and_Preservation/

When you get through with a basic cleanining, take some more shots and we'll try to go from there.

It is amazing what the differences are between period and reproduction sabres once you have them in hand. How thick is the blade at the base vs how thick at the pointy end?

Cheers

Hotspur; I have about five hours into minor polishing on one blade just to remove modern sharpening scratches without destroying the visibility of the original grind. I could have pretty much resurfaced the blade in the same time but no original character would remain

Here is another link I meant to include that is searchable and some interesting exchanges of information come up. It was where I had found some hard information regarding 'what is Never-Dull?" among other topics.

palimpsest.stanford.edu/byform/mailing-lists/cdl/

Cheers

Hotspur; I really need to sort my bookmarks out again