Hamon

[Prewar70]

So I'm confused, but what's new.  I was watching the documentaries on the other thread, all of them great.  The one about the sword polishers was truly interesting.  I had to rewind it when they began discussing what type of hamon was going to be polished.  I believed that the hamon was determined by the smith, and how the clay was applied during tempering.  Is it a combination of both the smith and the polisher?

[Brian]

They can't change the hamon. Just change the way it is displayed. The "make-up" of the polish can follow the hamon in different ways. Some hamon and schools are best shown with a different polish. So they have to evaluate the sword, school and hamon, and decide how best to polish it, and how to show it off. This is why polishers study for more than 5 years, and why amateurs just don't get it.

[Taz575]

I saw this in my wakiashi.  The hamon was polished over and the general concept was easy to see, but the activity was much harder to see because of the kesho finish. One of the pieces of the hamon went 1/4" above the remainder of the hamon and whoever polished it seems to have tried to scratch it out?  LOL...there were all sorts of scratches and scuffs like they were trying to hide it because it didn't go with the notare hamon they did as a kesho to hide the choji hamon and bright nioiguchi.  So the polisher can decide what they want the hamon to look like with the hadori and kesho finish.  I would rather see the hamon in it's glory and activity as the smith intended it!

[John A Stuart]

I just wanted to add, that a polisher can change the appearance of the Hamon. I bought a sword that had the Hamon go off the sword, Nioigire, but was polished in such a way as to hide the fact. In other words simulating a hamon not there. There are a few tricksy things that can be done. John