Stefan

72 Points at NTHK shinsa fore this blade ? No more questions....

O.K. You are right. hazuya and hadori Stone are both uchigumori. is one finer ? No ! In most cases after the last "big-stone" the Jito all is visible. The restof the process ist cosmetic to produce an pleasing Picture. If been told by a togishi that is a good idea to round of the corners in hazuya in all steps. Jitsuya : A critical stone. it can easily destroy the face of the blade. Darkness is not the desireable Thing. We want colour as Mr. Bohay said so many years ago. Some of the later Mino-bnlades are nearly blid in the surface, owari is dark blue like a sky in summer. Early soshu ? Like an "Marmorkuchen" (i don´t know the englisch word for it ) Here we are at the colour Point of tetsu. Ji-Tetsu ist ot Ji-Hada. Tetsu is the steel where the hada is made of. Take look on Norishige, Hankei, Satsuma-Mono...All are full of colours. Indeed, these are fine points, but essential in kantei. Chinese blades : Yes, folding mono-steel in layers is nonsens. But this is the Thing the chinese mostly do. They fold industrial steel. Therefore no colours. On the other hand the old Japanese : They were forced to work with different qualities of metal, therfore we do have these colours. Same with the hamon It is usefull to produce allways a "crying " hamon : No. By example. Many lesser Sue Seki kaji are known for their mild tempering. So it should be polished in this way, that means not to loud.. Of course there are many things written in the books, but i do strongly believe that the good old "give it a try" system is even in the togi-world still at work. Many, many years ago i did have a talk to Matsumura Sensei. I asked him "is this and that true ?" Well he smiled an showed me some things.. None of which is wiritten in any of those books, neither english or Japanese. But why not ? To say it with the old german Chanceler : "Es zählt was dabei rauskommt ! " ( the result counts, nothing else" ) Regarding Ashi : You are absolut right, they come done from the mume ! But we can see tthem only in the Yakiba. If You take now the sunagahii-system into your account, how brilliant is that ? Nearly perfect in an selctiv hardend blade. Greets Stefan

O.K. Regarding Tampan togi : Just try it out on broken blades. There are pretty eough around, broken pieces with nakago but no kissaki. I use thes pieces for studies the effects of polishing techniques. It is much easier to jugde a polish if You know what is happening. That solves many Problems, in , my humble point of view. Greets Stefan

With tanpan polishing the hamon does not become brighter. That is not my opinion, that is an simple technical fact. I am pretty sure that an expert kenmashi like Setsu Takaiwa knows more about the background than we do. The next thing : It is the goal to make the boandary brighter, the hamon. Th Yakiba is not the hamon. Yakiba = hardend area, hamon borderline between ha an ji. Another joke : In the example blade the blade has been polished in hadori-style. Therefore, if it is only halfways profesionell done, the Brown hue in the area between the Hamon and the Ha-Saki disappears. No brownies there ( I couldn´t resist this joke ). The hatsuya removes the brownisch cast in the yakiba. But hey, stired it all also up in future, You will have much fun here... By the way : If You know all these things : Why You are asking ?

Well..... Hatsuya and Hadori stones are both slices of Uchigumori hato Stones with the same purpose. It is simply the same. The White of the hadori has nothing to do with the colours in the ha and the hardend area. In the hadori process the ha ist roughend a little bit, therefore it does look white in contrast to the ji. That´s all in simple. Your comment about ashi is simply wrong. Aahi are "cutting" through the layerd construction of the blade verticaly. They are mostly visible as whtie lines,nevertheles the Yakiba is blue, black or whatever.

Do you mean "naga-ashi" ? ( Ashi that are nearly reaching the hasaki. Typical in shinshinto blades. ) Thereare no ashii flamening into the ji...Such tips in the hamon are known, far as i know, as togari etc. Ashi are always pointing toward the hasaki. Colours in the Yakiba : They have nothing to do with acid or tampan polish. They are there as the different colours of nie are. By example : Black nie ist a sign of later blades in most cases while brilliant white without clustering is in most cases a sign of an fine Koto or Shinto. Colours in the area of the ha : Why not ? It is also differently forged steel, even hardend. Therefore different colours can appear in the yakiba as a result of tempering and folding the material. Greets Stefan

Don´t think so. Just take a fast look in the book " the art of Japanese sword polishing" by Takaiwa Stetsuo, page 136. "Water with cooper sulfate is applied to the ji wtih a Q -tip or Cotton wool while carefully avoiding wetting the hamon. THE HAMON WILL FADE if the water and cooper sulfate reach it." Well, I tried it out on a brocken blade without kissaki ...it is true. The hamon fades. By the way : Ji-To means Stone for the ji, not ha. The ha is never polished by jito, only by variants of hato. Greets Stefan

First of all : The coulor of neitehr the ji or ha can be juged by these photos. Is the hamon to clearly visible ? I do not think so, it is not unusual to have a strong boundary and with the usage of the correct stone it is quite easy to produce an clear white line. (I do not talk of the hadori border to the ji ) Regarding this blade : The foundation polish alone seems not to be nice. The lines do have a slightly sluggish, rounded look. Greets Stefan

Shinshinto Jumyo in Point of view. I studied three blades like this in the past years. All attributed to Jumyo

I am sure that Your translation is correct. That rises a question : The maki in Mr. Bucks Book on Page 76 ist wrapped in golden-brown ito. Nevertheless it is called : "Kodai murasaki jabara maki" Why ? I do have an theory, but I can not proof it. Osoraku ist the Name for tanto with extrem extended kissaki. This type is named after an hori on the probalbly first osaraku-tanto by Shimada. Later works does not have any hori, but they are also called "osoraku" So the Name of the hori is ident with this type of tanto. Is it possible that there has been a famous tsuka wrapped purple in this style ? If the answer is "Yes" it could be indeed the same effect as in the osoraku tanto. This would support my thought that there is a technical difference between the two styles which is not only based on the colour of the braid. Greetings to all from Berlin Stefan

Thanks ! Just learned another thing It hought the difference is the style of the upper crossing. Well, nobody is perfect and I am definitly not nobody. :lol: Greetings Stefan

Tsumami .... Yes....My stupid mistake. Greets Stefan

I do not agree. In this style the cross over would be twisted as in the normal nempu -maki style. In this case the visible croosover is in the Tsunami style, therefore I would call it an "Kiodai Murasaki Jabara Maki " If this ist correct, the crossover of the stings underneath this visible crossover in tsunami-maki will be in nempu technique. Greetings from snowy Berlin Stefan

Very nice blade. Juged by jihada, I would say Masahide Group. This Kind of O-Hada at the hamachi is often seen in tanto. The lively hada with ist flowing elements support this. Tetsu seems to be full of colour, another suishinshi trademark. Hamon ? I can´t see enough, but the ( ko ) nie seems to be good. Signature : Masakage is correct. Indeed there was a Smith in the mon of Mashide with this name. However, a beautyful blade. Congratuliations. Greetings from Berlin Stefan

I can only aggree. Greets Stefan

The blade does not have the typical nambokucho shape. It looks like middle to late muromachi jidai The shape of the nakago and the mei are wrong for sadamune. Hamon is not typical. It seems to be an very broad midareba as seen in sue shoshu. In my humble opinion : Gimei.

Sig. : Goto Etsu ( ? ) jo + Kao Gruß Stefan

Tsuba Nr. 1 : I would say late Kaga-Kinko Tsuba.

To be honest : I see nearly nothing clear. O.K. an attempt : A very thin habuchi, suguha and super fine kitae...Lord of Kuwana ? Greets Stefan

Tachi-shi is, far as i do remember, a group of artists, like katsuchi. So a tsuba made by them does ot necessarly has to be a tachi-tsuba. Please correct me if i am wrong. Greets Stefan

Nice tsuba. Nunome all over. slightly worn at the higher Points. (cross ) It is in my point of view an handachi tsuba in kaga-nunome style. It looks a litte bit like kenjo tsuba.

Please look into the kanji. Additonaly look on the shadows of the kanji ... I aggree, it is not easy to judge by photos And no, not all blades do have clear yasurime. But when one Feature ist "overclean" why the other is not ? Many blades of this period do have clear Yasurime.... Only points to think of. Not more, not less. Beeing true : There are exampels, but they are more than Juyo....

In my oppinion :Gimei. Yasurime is not clear, but on the other hand i can see tagane marks inside the kanji...Makura are also there.

I am sorry to say, even with the new pic i can´t change my opinion from my first post that this is not real zogan. With the help of an magnifying glass it is relativ clear visible Greetings Stefan

I do not think that this is an old example in my humble opinion. The zogan does not look correct. it is partial only gilded and not as usual true hirazogan. At a first glance i thought of partial uttori, unusal, but possible in Yoshiro, but this is also not the case. Even the fallen out parts are looking strange. Most probably I am wrong, I am no expert in kodogu. Greetings from Germany Stefan