The smith I prefer to work with is Howard Clark of Morgan Valley Forge . He is making some of the highest quality Japanese-style swords in the world today. I polish the blades using a variety of methods. I started with purely traditional methods, but modern steels tend to look best with some modern techniques. So I find that today I use a variety of methods depending on the blade, the steel, the heat treatment, and the look I'm going for.
Some blades end up fully traditionally done.
Others are more of a significantly modified hyrbid in nature. By that I mean that I remain mostly traditional but have found that there are a few things that truly help with modern steels like the 1086M and L6 used by Howard Clark. I do not work on antiques. Please don't ask, I won't do it. Japanese swords are very precise, elegant, and complex blades.