Is This An Utsuri?

[shibeni]

Hello, my question will be, is this an Utsuri? On the specific postion to the light I see some darker still which fills the bottom of the Hamon hills and become narrower on the tops. It hard to see it clear, only on specific angle.

Thank you very much,

Bojan S.

[christianmalterre]

where shall be your´s utsuri?

 

i can not see anything, despite a very average polished blade.

 

- generally speaking- i did never see any utsuri if the sword was not perfectly polished...

and those utsuri i have seen yet-

all do look otherwise indeed.....

 

maybe rather something like a shirake-utsuri....???

 

 

generally speaking-

real utsuri can be found in Koto Bizen blades (not your´s)....( elsewhere sometimes-  this but- is rather a ( well indended) exception by some smiths and does not need to be specified individually in this consense here)

 

 

are you shure to see Utsuri?

???

me not....

 

Christian

[Marius]

You might want to read this:

 

http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/utsuri.html

[shibeni]

Thank you very much, if it's an Utsuri on my sword than is visible like on picture of Soden Bizen Masamitsu http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/14863-utsuri/page-2

Regards,
Bojan S.

[Ken-Hawaii]

No utsuri that I can see, either, Bojan. Sometimes, a polarizing filter will bring it out...if it's there.

 

Ken

 

[shibeni]

Thank you for replay and info, I think that darker part above hamon my be little visible Utsuri..

Bojan S.

[Darcy]

Dark part above the hamon is called the antei. 

 

It's hard to know if you're seeing utsuri as it's extremely hard to photograph utsuri. What you've done there is about as good as you can get unless you know very much what you're doing and even then it's hard. What you're describing, how it is seen only at a certain angle then vanishes is the correct experience. 

 

 

You can see complex utsuri with multiple layers here (Fukuoka Ichimonji). The dark part immediately above the hamon is the antei.

 

 

 

High res:

 

http://nihonto.ca/fukuoka-ichimonji/sh/121.jpg

http://nihonto.ca/fukuoka-ichimonji/sh/150.jpg

http://nihonto.ca/fukuoka-ichimonji/sh/151.jpg

[shibeni]

Thank you very much Darcy, very good lesson for me.

Regards,

Bojan S.

[Darcy]

Also look at the rest of the pictures of the sword (on my site), you will see at most angles and lighting conditions you can't see any of this at all in the jihada. Move back and forth from your light source and you will find that there is a good distance involved that will make it pop up more. 

 

I think it is basically weaker than people may otherwise use in order to properly see utsuri, otherwise the intensity of the light is too overwhelming and you won't see it. It's kind of ghostly but on some swords it will pop pretty strongly (rarely).

[Ken-Hawaii]

Darcy, if you're going to write anything longer than a paragraph, may I suggest doing it in a word-processor, & then copying it into the message? That way, when you lose 90%, you can just recopy. Saves hair-pulling.

 

Ken

 

[Darcy]

I usually start by thinking I'm going to write three lines. Late at night in the dark, time sense falls apart and next thing I know... Long Post Time.