Blade #2 back from polish

[Mark S.]

So my second blade has come back from polish by Woody.  This Morishige blade was discussed a while back.  Here is the link to that thread.  ‘Before polish’ pics are there.

Please find ‘post polish’ pics in the next several posts.  Once again, I couldn’t be more please with how the blade turned out.  Woody was excellent from start to finish.  I can’t recommend him highly enough.  
 

A couple comments about my horrible pics.  As with the last blade, the bright LED lighting does a good job showing all the activity in hand, but causes a lot of issues with the photos.  It seems scratches and smudges and other anomalies ‘magically’ appear which are not there with blade in hand.  Also, the burnishing of the shinogi-ji and the polisher’s marks in the machi area tend to ‘wash out’.  What I’m trying to say is the polish is excellent… my pics suck.  
 

A couple other points.  The very tip of the kissaki was damaged and needed repair.  The nagasa of the blade went from 51.5cm to 51.26cm after polish.  Original weight of blade was 460g and went to 455g post polish.  
 

Hopefully, the 2022 Shinsa in Chicago will happen and we can determine a little more info about this Morishige.

[Mark S.]

Overall pics

 

[Mark S.]

Boshi

 

[Mark S.]

General pics

[Mark S.]

[Mark S.]

[Mark S.]

So as we know, not everything is always peaches and cream when a blade is polished, and I’m not here to hide anything.  There was an unfortunate fukure on the blade that opened a little more.  It is what it is.  Both these pics are the same fukure. 
 

[Mark S.]

Additionally, there are a few ware and I am trying to determine if the larger spots in the picture are shigane showing through?

[Mark S.]

And finally, a couple comparison pics to show what can be revealed by a trained polisher.

 

[ChrisW]

Flaws and all, it turned out to be a real looker, congrats Mark! If you're ever in Indiana and available, please feel free to show it off at the next ITK meeting!

[Bruce Pennington]

Fabulous!

[Stephen]

Well done!