hiraniku

[jezah81]

Hi guys,

 

How can one tell if a blade has ample hiraniku just by looking at the blade?

 

 

Kind Regards and Happy New year.

 

Jeremy Hagop

[Mark]

sometimes you can see that the blade has niku ( a clam shape), if you can't see it you can usually check by placing a buisness card or another straight edge on the blade, line up the staright edge from the shinogi to the ha )edge, compare the outline of the blade to the staright edge, does the staright edge lay evenly on the blade from the shinogi to the edge? if so there is no niku (rounded clam shape), if the straight edge "rocks" back and forth because the middle of the blade is higher then there is niku. Hope this helps

 

Mark Jones

[jezah81]

Thanks Mark. Thats exactly the type of information i wanted to know. By the way, i used my credit card to test it out on my blade, and it did rock back and forth a little, so it seems that my blade might have some niku afterall!

 

Kind Regards,

 

Jeremy Hagop

[John A Stuart]

Hi Jeremy, We are having a discussion about niku on another board and it has raised some interesting points. One member who is a polisher had brought up this point and it may be pertinent to your question. All blades polished in the traditional way will have niku,[ not just because it is desirable (my point)], because the shape of the polishing stones are such that a perfectly flat plane does not develop. Even hirazukuri blades will show some niku. John

[jezah81]

Thanks for the replies. So, in that case, a hiraniku sukunai blade isnt possible to forge?? Or does this just mean that a blade doesnt have much niku? And how can you tell if the blade has enough hiraniku for cutting hard targets?

 

 

Kind Regards,

 

 

Jeremy Hagop

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

And how can you tell if the blade has enough hiraniku for cutting hard targets?

 

trying to cut, at your own risk...

[John A Stuart]

Hi Jeremy, The only way to determine how well a blade cuts is cut with it, just as Carlo says. There are so many factors that need to be taken in to account and niku is just one. The point that was being made before relates to the polishing not the forging, and that is traditional polishing lends itself to having some amount of niku because of the way the stones are shaped. Some swords will have more or less niku but all will have some and that could be traced back to the forging of the sword as to the larger degree of niku in some cases. High shinogi, low shinogi, hirazukuri and kasane. John