Stefan

It is an sunagashi and it is nie. Sunagashi are lines of nie.

I knew the sword. I do not know what is more exellent. The blade or the polish Kentaro Yoshikawa Sensei. Who ever will purchase this, he will b the proud owner of one of the best pieces of Doi.

Well, the blade is not in pristine polish. So i would say, oil it, wipe and than uchiko. Do this for an long, long time and the rust will mostly disappear. It needs patience.Far as i can see the rust ist superficial and new, should work well.

Ok. The hole is modern, the "yasurime" in this case an type of sensuki is wrong and sluggish, the kanji is more than poorly written. All this is not typical for an real nihonto. If one takes an look on the blade : Oh no,looks not good. This blade does not have anything one would expect in an Kato school sword. Could it be an later copy, well even in showato such sluggish nakago finish is rarely seen.

Nice China-To

Hon`ami Nisshu, one of the relay great appraisers of the Honami school of sword polishers . He has been an living national treasure .Honami judgement is in many cases more reliable than the NBTHK. I said in many cases . Hon ami like Choshiki, oh no....`

Hi Sabiji old friend ! Od course i can see it. Who told You the first time about the secondary hada...Ups has been me. You remember the nice evening in the pub...An good pint and an more than interesting talk. Had been good times. Well one of the most prominent smith for this is Sendai Kunikane. Far as i remember Mishina Sensei got his Mukansa for bringing out just this effect on an Kunikane, the super fine secondary hada in the masame structure.

The first blade which nearly took my breath aways a ko mihara masie, nearly ubu nanbo tachi. Flawless, thick and healthy. An monster. Some times later, an o-suriage waki, oh only ichimonji but the mounting, complete set by hamano noriyuki. Some times later i can not believe my eyes i thought at this time. The same collector who owned the first one came along with another blade. shodai murmasa katana with, which is more important ! Complete , ubu tensho koshirae. At this time i ve been 22 or so. In the following years i have been honored to handle so much great blades. May sound arrogant, but at some point i really thought, not again ichimonji.... But ! one of the impressive blades i ve been honored to handle during the last five years, an ubu ichimonji tachi, so healthy, thick an mighty that at a first short glance one would say "gendei copy" but no, real old solid ichimonji. I stumbeled over super fine rai kunimitsu, an ubu shodai nobukuni tachi and so on. But on my learning journey i learned also that some schools like the bungo are totally underestimated. I ve seen an bungu tadayuki which has been in no way inferrior to hizen to of the top rank. Super fine jiagne with much ji-nie powder ( konuka like ), suguha in best controlled nie, good shape. Oh i am talking to much, sorry for the random thoughts.

Wow. There is good chance that it is Jitsua. But even if not, it is an very fine blade.

O.K. Hadori. First of all. If it is well done even the strongest Hadori will not kill an features in the Yakiba and Habuchi. In spite of that, it will improve their appearance. The Nie will be more brilliant, the Ashi better visible etc. That is only logical, because the stone used in Hadori is the same as to bring them out before Jitsuya and Nugui after the Jibiki. But, to do this it takes patience, and much time. Doing perfect Hadori on an Katana, well two days, three days. This time must be paid. This is the one reason for the effect of Ashi who disappears during Habori Shiage. in order to shorten the process, an slightly other stone is used. it whitens the area much faster and saves time and money. This is done in cheap polishes. Therefore if one orders an cheap polish, well... Another problem, impatient clients. If one does not have the right tone at hand at the moment, well the client must be willed to wait some time. As I said, it depends all on the correct stone and technique. Without, no way to do an good job. Logical, isn it ? So if You force Your Togishi to be faster, "lost" Ashi can be the result. Than the decision Sashikomi or Hadori. I would not say that this is only the customers decision. There are technical requirements in the blade which must be filled up by the blade, otherwise Sashikomi simply does not work well. By example, Sashikomi on an partial tiered blade, please not. The technique uses the different hardness of the steel in the Ji and ha, What do You think would it do with soft Jigane. Exact, super dark ugly patches. These are only technical thoughts about the whole thing, if talk about asthetics, many times Hadori is the best way. there must be a balance between the Toshin and the Ji-Ba. Imagine an small, fine Tanto with an completely hectic Hitatsura. The whole thing should be calmed down slightly in order to give the Toshin and the Jiba an balance. Just my random thougths about Hadori.

Should fill Your need .https://www.japaneseswordbooksandtsuba.com/store/books/b682-Japanese-master-swordsmiths-gassan-tradition Otherwise try Nihonto Koza or the Yamanaka Newsletter.

I do not think that this is umegane. The hada runs through the lines. The pattern is not broken.

Partly total overpriced estimates in the sword and kodogu section. By the way, some of the descriptions are realy fancy... " Sengo Muramasa" ( Lot 121 ). The "Norishige" do not think that this is an Norishige....etc.

B.Hennik : Hadatach means the same as hadatachi. As Jean explained well, it means a strong, releif like hada.

It is hada. Chikei must consist of nie. this is not the case. Beside this hada ji-nie is visible on the blade. The very smal black points. I do not mean the pinholes. I do think that marius is right, that the other thing is simple hada tach. this can be the result of polishing or the combination of two or more sorts of steel. If one polishes a sword with mixed steel to hard, than it will be to strong hada tach. This hada tach can raise problems in meaning of seeing other fine hataraki like ji.nie in the light reflex. Therefore honami said once that a blade like sadamune should never been polished hada tach. Just some random thoughts about hada tach.

An carving is done before the polishing. One should always keep in mind that one slips easly out with an engraving tool and the slightest scratch will ruin the togis work.

Nice little late shinshinto tanto. Such hada is not uncommon during this time. It is a pitty that the polish is in such terrible conditon. It seems that there is intensive ji.nie. Here is another example of such colour games, a little bit bigger pattern. ( Matsukawa style, but the blade is shinshinto ) By the way, there are no waves in the shinogiji, it is an light effect, still learning to photograph.

I am sorry, on one hand an acid accident on the other hand sluggish yakiire. Part of the claycoating has fallen of. Is this a fatal flaw, no it is not. Is there a way to repair the acid desaster without a new polish, sorry again the answer is no.

Is the seal on the picture of the paper. I can not see it. if not, fake paper. Paper for these run out of the mill kodogu, i do not believe in it.

Of coarse the kissaki can polished to the point that all features are visible during an madoake. That does not mean that the whole narume procedure is done. After uchigumori the hamon should be clearly visible, the narume is only for whitening. Here is an example why it is an good idea to open a window. Part of the blade is healthy, the rest is nearly dead. Will be the madoake damaged during the polishing process of the wohle blade. Well, the foundation is there, only the finish will be done again in order to blend with the rest of the balde.

Early Mino, Soshu with Yamto mixed in, I go for Naoe Shizu

A blade with serious flaws and it is not kamakura I do think.

Late green paper, worthless. Kanzan Sayagaki, looks strange. Mei, to many differences. Red Flag. By the way the shape is wrong and the nakago looks to young.

To strong sori, mizu-kage, shinae, all points for sai ha.

Ähm, It has not the shape of the period of Dewa Daijo, the hori is wrong. yasurime does not match. Gimei. Hada and hamon can not be juged with these pictures.