Brian Pedersen

I can wholeheartedly confirm what others have said about Takeo Seki! He was my sempai when I studied polishing and he is very, very good!

Brian,You never stop learning, but yes, after spending 91/2 years being an apprentice, i figure i'm so-so qualified ...never did get a first prize in the polishing competition... always 3rd place..but maybe one day. If you want to get in contact with me, here's my mail address: ads32034@nifty.com

Brian, actually I have finished my studies and i have just bought a house and made my own workshop Sorry for the shameless self promoting

If I may be allowed to give my thoughts on this... Today, the majority of swords i polish are finished in hadori. In general, hadori tends to make nearly all swords look good, whereas a sashikomi style finish, in my opinion only suits certain swords. It is best to leave the choice to the polisher, after all he is the professional and knows how to bring the best out of the sword.

The best you can do is to educate yourself..read books, ask questions and if you have the opportunity, look at some real Japanese swords. And when the time comes to spend your hard earned cash, buy from a dealer that has a good reputation, they may be a bit more expensive but it's worth it. One last thing, don't focus too much on the mei!

It is rather boring..especially when you do it for 2-3 months, 8-10 hours a day :D but it does serve a purpose... it "tests" your character, if you can stand this, you are not likely to quit easily. More important though, you learn how to differentiate between hard and soft stones, this knowledge you have to use in the shiage stage, different swords demands different stones. And yes it can be quite painful...

Brian, I am not really aware of any retailers that sell any top quality uchiko, not because they don't exist, they most likely do, but because I make my own. You can say that the uchiko is a result of the polishing process...uchiko is a "by product" of grinding stones down, stones you need in the shiage stage and the remaining "sludge" after being filtered and properly treated is you uchiko.

Sure, he was trained in the Hon'ami school.

Just a quick reply.. As Mr Arnold indeed said, those lines are called nagashi and are basically the signature of the polisher. However it is also a good way to see if the sword was polished by a Hon'ami or a Fujishiro polisher...a Hon'ami polisher will normally "sign" the sword using an odd number like "7, 9, 11,13" and so on, whereas Fujishiro will normally use an even number like "4,6,8,10" and so on Of cause you will find swords that are exceptions to that rule..but if you have a sword that has an odd number of lines, chances are that it was indeed polished by a Hon'ami taught polisher.

First of all, I would like to apologize for being absent for quite some time form this board. Due to personal matters and the buying of a new house (with a bigger work room) I haven't been as active as I would have liked. However to the matter at hand... My sensei (T.Sasaki) always uses uchiko and so do I. If applied properly it will not damage the blade..the keyword here is of cause "properly" It does take time to learn how to do it right so as not to scratch the sword. Also, removal of said uchiko from the sword takes a bit of practice as well..too little pressure won't remove it properly, excessive pressure and you risk damage to the blade. But what is even more important though is the uchiko itself, there are unfortunately a lot of bad quality uchiko out there and good quality tends to be quite expensive. You do usually get what you pay for though, to make good quality takes a lot of time and is back breaking and I mean that literally..I have done it. Good quality uchiko, is filtered through 1 layer of very fine cloth many, many times..when that process is finished, you do it again, this time just with 2 layers of very fine cloth! Does uchiko, reveal any hidden detalis or does it "cloudy" them over time? This IMHO depends on a number of factors, the sword itself, the polish, the application and the removal of uchiko, however I personally do not see danger in using a good quality uchiko. Hope this helps? Regards Brian Pedersen Saitama, Japan

Since i was asked so very nicely :D , i might give my view on this... Fixing a blade that is bent, is not something that polishers like to do...we do it anyway though Many times, you have to not only "fix" the bent spot, but also the area above and below it, in order to correct it completely. Also, every sword is different, some will bend back very easily, others have what we call "koshi" (springlike) and they take a lot of effort to correct. It may look quite easy when you see a professional do it.. but believe me, it is not! Don't try to do it yourself...worst case you can break it! If it is not a lot, then don't worry too much. Regards, Brian

If i my give my thoughts on this subject?.. When i look at that sword, i see a sword that is in need of a good polish.. To me it does not look tired at all!..there are no ware, kizu or shingane showing, on the contrary, it looks like it has a substantial amount of niku left. As for the hamachi, that is not really an indication, weather a sword is tired or not.. When a sword is polished, you have to make sure that you get the ha-saki smooth and even, depending on the sword you might have to take a fair bit of the ha-saki..if you want to do a proper job, this means that you have to pretty much touch the ha-saki all over, other wise you will change the sugata. This of cause means that the ha-saki naturally will get smaller over time. This is why polishers take care not to remove the ubu-ha on gendaito..simply so the sword can be polished a number of times before the ha-saki starts to get smaller. But, it is not an indication weather the sword is tired or not..that is determined by other factors. Hope this helped a bit?

HI Mike It does indeed look like a very good blade!..though i would much prefer to have a hands on experience If it is sharp, sharpish, then it could be that there is an excessive amount of niku right at the ha-saki, making it look roundish..but without a closer look, i am afraid that i can't really tell you. As for the origin of ubu-ha..i would imagine that ubu-ha was present in koto too...but due to polishing it has been lost over time. As you said yourself, in shinto and shin-shinto, you can still see ubu-ha on some well preserved swords.

At the moment, i would think around 6-8 months...give or take.

That very much depends on the polisher doing the work. As other people have said, as a rule, the better the polisher the longer the wait. Figure between 12-18 month on average.