pleasemx

This is the question I'm concerning a lot. a friend told me that he knew a Japanese sword polisher who can tell you much information about your sword if he had a chance to look at it. I believe most of his words(year, maker, etc.). however, I'm doubting if he can tell you correctly the lamination method used, for instance whether it's Maru or Kobuse. I thought we needed extra equipments to know that... btw, I'm wondering if the Maru method is truely "the poorest" as commented here: http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/laminate.htm because I found in a book another name of Maru method:"無垢鍛" or say "no contamination/contaminant forge", which sounds literally very high-end. thx!

please have a look at the following 2 different swords(not mine). for the 1st, the hada is only obvious near the hamon line; for the 2nd, it looks like the jihada gets/extends into the hamon area. looks a little wired to me... Is this because of the special material(iron/steel/tamahagane) used or some special forging methods performed? Can anybody make some comments? thx!

Hi James, that's very helpful, many thanks!

I think the mei of this showato is "BI SHU JU MASAZANE" “尾州住政真”. but don't who he is. anyone here has any knowledge on him? many thanks!

Not quite sure. My method is to check the nie and nioi around the temper line, the hada as well as those activities in the ha. they're enough evidence for hand forging. But I don't know how to verify whether it's made of Tamahagane or not, without the help of a "showa" stamp. ( I think it's a little difficult since I know a professional shopkeeper who was very confident and sent a showato to the shinsa team for a Hozon paper, but at last it failed to pass since the material is modern steel. )

As I know, Japanese people don't like the number " four " (四) and often write it as 'two two' (二二) in the mei.