Question about fukure

[jeremy]

Hi guys,

 

I have a question that I havent been able to find the answer to anywhere. How does a fukure turn into a fukure yabure? When/how does the blister open up? Does it open up during forging, or does the unopened fukure open up from cutting/using the sword?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Jeremy

[John A Stuart]

Fukure yabure is caused during a new polish. Sometimes repaired with umegane but often not repairable or cost prohibitive. john

[Brian]

The fukure is a flaw formed under the surface during forging. It opens up later once the sword has been polished and the surface steel has been polished away as John said. Sometimes you can see them as blisters before they open up. They can be like an iceberg...small amount showing on the surface, with a large area underneath. Nasty flaw looks-wise.

 

Brian

[Grey Doffin]

Which is yet another reason why you don't want a poorly (or non) trained polisher working on your sword. A good polisher sometimes can see these coming and act accordingly. At the very least he can minimize the damage. A polisher without proper training stumbles on the fukure and tells you, "Too bad."

Grey

[jeremy]

Thanks for the replies guys. I have also read that many shinshinto blades were made with fukure in them, and also many with kitae ware too. My next question is, did many highly rated swordsmiths made swords which had fukure in them, or was it mainly lesser smiths who made works with these flaws in their swords?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Jeremy Hagop

[Darcy]

They can happen through all skill levels. You can't see inside your steel billet, you do what sensei taught and you hope for the best.

 

Swords are handmade. Handmade things have imperfections. If the rest of the piece is wonderful, a fukure is easily overlooked as unimportant.

[Jacques D.]

Hi,

 

They can happen through all skill levels

 

That's true, an exemple with the link below:

 

http://www.nihonto.us/HANKEI%20WAKIZASHI.htm

[Darcy]

Hankei in particular is notorious for the number of flaws he created. He's a good example to bring up. A lot of the time people are extremely concerned with flaws in the work. Of the swords I've owned, only two, possibly three have been flawless (a Norishige and my Kanemitsu and a Taima if I recall right).

 

Hankei worked very hard to emulate Norishige and came as close as anyone did (which was still kind of a mile away). I think the number of flaws he generated was because of this quest to try to reproduce Norishige's hada. He ended up with a lot of kitae ware and other flaws. Must have driven him nuts because of his attention to detail.

 

I hope I get to encounter one for photographing for my book. None so far...