kiyomitsu update

[loiner1965]

just been on phone to john bolton the sword polisher who has told me the little blade is worthy of a full Japanese polish rather than a commercial one....already he has sharpened up the shinogi lines as someone in the past had worn them away....he also mentioned that he had metal strips inserted near the hamachi as a repair a long long time ago so someone must have thought it was a worthy piece....i never saw this at all....he says it can be quite common on old blades,,,,,has any one else seen this and can they direct me a link so i can see what he means please.....should be back next week so i shall post the new pics.......cannot wait

[pcfarrar]

Hi Steve,

 

John was referring to Umegane. Quite a common repair on older swords. It's very expensive to have done nowadays but I'm not sure about the edo period cost? I have a ubu koto Bizen Munemitsu katana that has 11 (all in the Shinogi) :lol:

 

Peter

[loiner1965]

just seen the umegane from the pics i took whn i first aquired it and never realised it was one of them as i thought they were used more for carbon pockets etc.....hopefully it should be less visible after a polish as its close to the hamon....

[Jacques]

Hi,

 

hopefully it should be less visible after a polish as its close to the hamon....

 

 

Huumm... Polish are never good for umegane, they often fall during the polish process.

[loiner1965]

Hi,

 

hopefully it should be less visible after a polish as its close to the hamon....

 

 

Huumm... Polish are never good for umegane, they often fall during the polish process.

am sure you are correct but john as done the foundation work and corrected the shinogi line already surely it would have fallen by this stage ?.....i will find out by next week but i do like this blade flaws and all

[pcfarrar]

am sure you are correct but john as done the foundation work and corrected the shinogi line already surely it would have fallen by this stage ?.....i will find out by next week but i do like this blade flaws and all

 

They can come out at any time during polishing. But as it survived the foundation your probably ok.

[loiner1965]

am sure you are correct but john as done the foundation work and corrected the shinogi line already surely it would have fallen by this stage ?.....i will find out by next week but i do like this blade flaws and all

 

They can come out at any time during polishing. But as it survived the foundation your probably ok.

just had an update from john and its bad news in a way....the umeganes survived the foundation polish and the re edging of the shinogi but unfortunately john caught the edge of one with a tissue and it pulled out....so now after all the work on the blade with the intended full Japanese polish entails john will now just do a commercial polish instead.....he says it looks really well apart from that fault and he is gutted.....personally i am not upset as i am not in it for the money but the enjoyment of looking at them and learning about them.....it may be a study piece now but to me its a part of Japanese history flaws and all....cannot wait to get it back..top bloke is john and i will not hesitate in using him again

[John A Stuart]

This thread brings up a question. I always assumed that umegane was cold forged into the repair area which had been worked to remove metal and prepare a well to allow the patch to press into the blade in such a way to retain it. When a polish becomes to close to the base metal the overlapping metal becomes too thin or absent to retain the patch. Shiage done lightly OK, but, never a foundation polish used. True? John