Dragon, with the greatest of respect, we here have no idea who you are.
We don't know what your craft skills are like and we have no idea what your personality is like.
Two posts are not enough to build up a picture of someone to decide whether to give them advice on working with a dangerous object, the provenance of which we are unaware.
Refitting and restoring a sword is not an amateur job. It may well cost you a lot more money than you think to get it done properly but that is the advice I will give you. As an example, the prices on this site are on the cheap side, cheap enough to make me wonder about the quality
http://www.wildroad.com/swords/
A cautionary word is that if this sword is a genuine 'heirloom' shinken rather than a gunto then the Japanese government may well be interested in getting it back. The family also may have such an interest.