Interesting Bizen Chogi

[Lewis B]

Amazing crystal structure in this example. I only remember seeing this in top level honyaki kitchen knives using modern high purity industrial steels. Chogi seems particularly adept at swordmaking and its various manufacture steps. And it was a Den Chogi that had the best application of utsuri I've seen on a blade to date. Click on the images for better resolution or better still see them on the dealers website.

 

https://katanahanbai.com/en/katana/katana-bizen-osahune-chogi/

 

 

[Sukaira]

I wouldn't mind owning a Chogi 

[Lewis B]

Better start saving. That one is 18mil JPY.

[Robert S]

That polish is a crime.

[eternal_newbie]

35 minutes ago, Robert S said:

That polish is a crime.

I may be mistaken but I think the issue is their photography (or post-processing) rather than the polish. You can observe the same weird artifacting in some of the closeup photos of the Norishige they have listed, especially the second-to-last one:

https://katanahanbai.com/en/katana/katana-norishige/

[Robert S]

Just now, eternal_newbie said:

I may be mistaken but I think the issue is their photography (or post-processing) rather than the polish. You can observe the same weird artifacting in some of the closeup photos of the Norishige they have listed, especially the second-to-last one:

https://katanahanbai.com/en/katana/katana-norishige/

It's not that, it's that the hadori work completely obscures and disrespects the actual, rather marvellous, hamon.  For a significant juyo level nihonto, this sort of work is verging on amateur.

[Brano]

Personally, I think that what appears to be a crystalline structure of steel in the photos is actually caused by the software of the hardware (I think the mobile phone) that took the photos
However, I couldn't find any data on the HW. so it's just a guess

[Lewis B]

I think you're right. My bad. Photographic artefact. The penultimate pic shown for the Norishige confirms it, having the same anomaly. Seller should be ashamed especially for what they're asking. 

[Sukaira]

really hard to make an assessment of the polish imo with such horrible photos...but a good hadori should act almost like a frame and backdrop for the hamon and its activity. There does seem to be some weird inconsistency though in that Chogi hadori. In some spots it's like it hugs the tempering closely, almost sashikomi style and then in other areas it takes a much more liberal coverage.