….and another thing that makes the job so much harder than it needs to be is some of the horrendous Hadori polishes that we see all the time. It’s often very difficult to see anything underneath it with the sword actually in hand let alone with a camera.
Many of the swords for sale on Japanese websites look very dramatic in the images with their high contrast polishes but you haven’t got a clue what the hamon or other activity actually is…or even if there is a hamon at all.
It also helps no end if you can have someone else hold or manoeuvre the blade while you look at it through the phone/camera screen. As soon and the light falls on it in a way that reveals the details you simply press the button.