Hamon on a type 3 blade -machine or hand made- acid test??

[phil reid]

Ive currently listed a type 3 sword on ebay for sale and have a request about the hamon (its very plain -straight ) item number 231009468169. Im guessing this is just a machine made blade but im unsure about how the hamon was applied , any referenced information on this?

A bidder in the US wants me to (quote)

 

"do a chemical etch? You can use lemon juice or white vinegar. If you heat the juice up and rub it on the blade with a cotton ball it will turn black.You can take the black off with a metal polish paste. You should be able to draw the hamon and any activity out more."

 

He wants me to do the whole blade until the blades black and it "draws" the hamon and any other areas of note out on the blade to see if the hamon is real or machine made

 

Not exactly over the moon of putting acid of any strength on the blade (hes requested the whole surface to be done -2-3 times to really bring out the character and then he tells me i can clean all the black off the blade with baking soda and water paste then 0000 steel wool :D )

 

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/231009468169?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1586.l2649

 

your thoughts would be appreciated

[cabowen]

It is almost certainly machine made with either an oil quenched hamon or a chemically made hamon. Either way, I wouldn't mess with any acids or other chemicals. IF the hamon is a chemical one, you will ruin it. If it is an oil quenched hamon, you will have a difficult time remove the oxidation from the acid without doing further harm to the polish. Tell him to buy it and try it himself....

[paulb]

I might be over reacting but dont others find it scary that people are making suggestions like this? You would think that with th increasing amount of information about stupid requests/suggestions would be a thing of the past

Apparently not.

I wonder if the suggestion would have been any different if the person thought it might be an antique blade? I am sad to say I think it would have been excatly the same

God help us :?