Moses Becerra Polish Taikei Naotane

[Sukaira]

Just wanted to share this for anyone looking at Moses for polish - I recently received back a Taikei Naotane that was originally polished by a very elderly togisihi in Japan that had many problems. Finger stone marks left, hazy ji, a very scratchy surface etc. Now it looks incredible to say the least. The pictures do not do it justice, but I would highly recommend Moses. These pictures are very much a blue tone as his camera white balance must have been on the cooler side, but to the naked eye in real life, the hamon has a beautiful shade of light blue to it.

 

 

[Sukaira]

[Sukaira]

[Sukaira]

[Sukaira]

[Sukaira]

[Sukaira]

Here was the original before polish

[Rawa]

Could You tell how long You waited etc. No prices of course. 

Edited May 3 by Rawa

[Hoshi]

Dear Sky,

 

Thank you for sharing the pre/post polish experience. It is a useful exercise and helps train the eye to 'abstract away the state of polish' when assessing a blade, which a difficult but important part of appraisal. 

 

It is a lovely Soshu-den style Naotane. The O-itame and nagare approach with fine nie is well executed and is evocative of Nambokucho Soshu works. 

 

Best,

 

Hoshi

[Rawa]

Just now, Hoshi said:

Dear Sky,

 

Thank you for sharing the pre/post polish experience. It is a useful exercise and helps train the eye to 'abstract away the state of polish' when assessing a blade, which a difficult but important part of appraisal. 

 

It is a lovely Soshu-den style Naotane. The O-itame and nagare approach with fine nie is well executed and is evocative of Nambokucho Soshu works. 

 

Best,

 

Hoshi

Pre polish before Mr. Moses looks wastefull and blurred. Hamon is like white paint put on black layer leaving clear hints on original line.

[Lewis B]

24 minutes ago, Rawa said:

Pre polish before Mr. Moses looks wastefull and blurred. Hamon is like white paint put on black layer leaving clear hints on original line.

You also have to consider the lighting. The pre polish photos appear over exposed and this will obscure a lot of subtle detail. To compare, the same light source plus angle, and camera settings/lens should be used. 

[Jussi Ekholm]

Thank you for the pictures it does seem to be a very nice sword. To me judging the polish is extremely difficult. Final result by Moses looks stunning in pictures. I think the old polish seemed good to my eye too. Of course the higher up you go in item quality I believe the higher your standards will get.

[SwordGuyJoe]

Sukaira,

It has been a while since I participated on the NMB so @Brian, please delete if things have changed. 
 

I agree with above where it was said that judging a polish via pictures is challenging. As you have it in hand, I will trust that you are satisfied with the results.
 

That said, this was a risky endeavor. You entrusted the blade of a master artisan - assuming it was done by Taikei Naotane and has or would pass shinsa - to an amateur/unlicensed polisher.
 

When thinking of the unlicensed polishers with the best reputation, Moses and a handful of others come to mind first, which is meant to be said with respect. They have had some level of training and as such, their work is better than untrained “polishers”. Since he is in the camp of one of the better amateur togishi, there is a chance that no damage has been done, but there was a chance that a great deal of damage COULD’VE been done. 
 

That is why I’m speaking up here. For every one example like yours that looks good and shiny, there are others where an untrained/unlicensed polisher destroys a blade. People will read this and think that they can avoid the time and cost of sending to Japan and still get top quality results, when on average, that will not be the case.

 

The other reason I’m speaking up is because of the sword you sent. Taikei Naotane is in the list of the best Shinshinto smiths and if he doesn’t have Juyo work yet, it is simply a matter of time until he does. If you would’ve sent a showato or even a mid-range gendaito (read emura or nagamitsu level), I probably wouldn’t say anything, to avoid the almost certain backlash and conflict. But you didn’t. You sent a Taikei Naotane and in my opinion - even if this worked out well, which it’s impossible to tell via pictures - was a gamble not worth taking with what could prove to be in time a Juyo candidate. 
 

Apologies for providing a more constructive response, but even if your situation worked out well, it’s important for others to understand the risk associated with engaging non-licensed polishers. 

[Sukaira]

8 hours ago, Hoshi said:

Dear Sky,

 

Thank you for sharing the pre/post polish experience. It is a useful exercise and helps train the eye to 'abstract away the state of polish' when assessing a blade, which a difficult but important part of appraisal. 

 

It is a lovely Soshu-den style Naotane. The O-itame and nagare approach with fine nie is well executed and is evocative of Nambokucho Soshu works. 

 

Best,

 

Hoshi

No problem and thank you  - I imagine people like Tanobe sensei have mastered that ability - 'abstract away the state of polish' as I also had the sayagaki for this blade done by him when it was in the previous state of bad polish and he enumerated all the great qualities in the description.

[Sukaira]

4 hours ago, SwordGuyJoe said:

Sukaira,

It has been a while since I participated on the NMB so @Brian, please delete if things have changed. 
 

I agree with above where it was said that judging a polish via pictures is challenging. As you have it in hand, I will trust that you are satisfied with the results.
 

That said, this was a risky endeavor. You entrusted the blade of a master artisan - assuming it was done by Taikei Naotane and has or would pass shinsa - to an amateur/unlicensed polisher.
 

When thinking of the unlicensed polishers with the best reputation, Moses and a handful of others come to mind first, which is meant to be said with respect. They have had some level of training and as such, their work is better than untrained “polishers”. Since he is in the camp of one of the better amateur togishi, there is a chance that no damage has been done, but there was a chance that a great deal of damage COULD’VE been done. 
 

That is why I’m speaking up here. For every one example like yours that looks good and shiny, there are others where an untrained/unlicensed polisher destroys a blade. People will read this and think that they can avoid the time and cost of sending to Japan and still get top quality results, when on average, that will not be the case.

 

The other reason I’m speaking up is because of the sword you sent. Taikei Naotane is in the list of the best Shinshinto smiths and if he doesn’t have Juyo work yet, it is simply a matter of time until he does. If you would’ve sent a showato or even a mid-range gendaito (read emura or nagamitsu level), I probably wouldn’t say anything, to avoid the almost certain backlash and conflict. But you didn’t. You sent a Taikei Naotane and in my opinion - even if this worked out well, which it’s impossible to tell via pictures - was a gamble not worth taking with what could prove to be in time a Juyo candidate. 
 

Apologies for providing a more constructive response, but even if your situation worked out well, it’s important for others to understand the risk associated with engaging non-licensed polishers. 

As far as I know Moses is not an amateur polisher. Unlicensed does not equal amateur in the same way that an un-papered blade does not mean a fake blade, the paper (or license) simply de-risks it. Amateur is generally a metric of skill, or a word to describe someone who is a hobbyist, a dabbler. That is not Moses as far as I know. I believe he also has sat on the panels of NTHK shinsa in many cases alongside the Yoshikawa family, from whom he studied polishing with and had close relationships. 

 

I totally get the direction of your post though and appreciate the nuances of something like this, but here is the kicker...you can also get bad work from licensed togishi in Japan. In fact, many of them use acid as a shortcut. This sword is actually great proof of that. It was previously polished by a licensed polisher in Japan, but full of hazy jigane, finger stone marks and scratches. I also had the Benson family evaluate the polish before Moses, so I could compare their assessments. They were essentially identical. I am not telling anyone to go to Moses over a licensed polisher, only that based on my experience that his work (at least this one) can be recommended. I have not seen any of his bad work personally so I can't really comment on it.

 

FYI Taikei Naotane has many Juyo already. This blade is certainly a candidate as well, as you can see it was sold previously here: https://eirakudo.shop/683712 

Edited May 3 by Sukaira

[Sukaira]

8 hours ago, Jussi Ekholm said:

Thank you for the pictures it does seem to be a very nice sword. To me judging the polish is extremely difficult. Final result by Moses looks stunning in pictures. I think the old polish seemed good to my eye too. Of course the higher up you go in item quality I believe the higher your standards will get.

Thank you!

 

I can tell you the old polish was bad, for certain. Confirmed by both the Benson family and Moses in their evaluations. If you look in the picture I posted of it you can actually see a finger stone marks left in the hamon (bottom one that has the kissaki, look on the right side, you'll see an arc line in the hamon, top one you will see a semi-circle in the hamon). It was full of surface scratches on the ji and kissaki, finger stone marks left in the bohi and hamon and the habuchi was hazy and shrouded.

Edited May 3 by Sukaira

[Sukaira]

9 hours ago, Rawa said:

Pre polish before Mr. Moses looks wastefull and blurred. Hamon is like white paint put on black layer leaving clear hints on original line.

Exactly, spot on.

[Sukaira]

9 hours ago, Rawa said:

Could You tell how long You waited etc. No prices of course. 

Long time  - I think his waiting list is like a year or two at this point

[Rawa]

@SwordGuyJoe talking about Chounsai Emura We would have to divide blades with mei „Emura” in three groups. 
First group- pre Okayama

(from Tokushima, his birth place to Takanatsu prison in Shikoku;

Second group- Okayama prison factory

Third group- Doshu, post 1942/1943 when he was exhibiting his blades probably as full-time swordsmith.

 

How many latter blades You saw? With

Soshin mei as Slough’s example „F”

https://japaneseswordindex.com/emura.htm

with both- „sai” and „mura”.

 

I don’t want to be tenacious but please wait couple years for me to dig this topic with real examples. For now I can assure You that „Emura-to”, are well balanced even as bare blades and were worthy to be used by highest rank military officers.

But yeah definitely there is too much of these and it can be misleading.

[Sukaira]

10 hours ago, Lewis B said:

You also have to consider the lighting. The pre polish photos appear over exposed and this will obscure a lot of subtle detail. To compare, the same light source plus angle, and camera settings/lens should be used. 

This is the exact analysis from the Bensons:
 

Quote

The kissaki and hadori do not look good. Looks like the narume dai work was not done properly and/or komanagura or uchigumori stone marks were left in.

 

The hadori looks very scratchy and has no definite line. You can see the stop and starts of the hazuya stone marks. Properly done, should have a smooth, uniform, whitish appearance.

 

The ji looks a little scratchy also. Maybe the polisher used too coarse nugui.

 

[SwordGuyJoe]

1 hour ago, Sukaira said:

As far as I know Moses is not an amateur polisher. Unlicensed does not equal amateur in the same way that an un-papered blade does not mean a fake blade, the paper (or license) simply de-risks it. Amateur is generally a metric of skill, or a word to describe someone who is a hobbyist, a dabbler. That is not Moses as far as I know. I believe he also has sat on the panels of NTHK shinsa in many cases alongside the Yoshikawa family, from whom he studied polishing with and had close relationships. 

 

I totally get the direction of your post though and appreciate the nuances of something like this, but here is the kicker...you can also get bad work from licensed togishi in Japan. In fact, many of them use acid as a shortcut. This sword is actually great proof of that. It was previously polished by a licensed polisher in Japan, but full of hazy jigane, finger stone marks and scratches. I also had the Benson family evaluate the polish before Moses, so I could compare their assessments. They were essentially identical. I am not telling anyone to go to Moses over a licensed polisher, only that based on my experience that his work (at least this one) can be recommended. I have not seen any of his bad work personally so I can't really comment on it.

 

FYI Taikei Naotane has many Juyo already. This blade is certainly a candidate as well, as you can see it was sold previously here: https://eirakudo.shop/683712 

 

I define an amateur polisher as one who did not complete an apprenticeship with a qualified master togishi and become a licensed polisher.

[Sukaira]

3 hours ago, SwordGuyJoe said:

 

I define an amateur polisher as one who did not complete an apprenticeship with a qualified master togishi and become a licensed polisher.

That's fair, if somewhat misleading. I do support your general take that keeping things within the network of licensed polishers is on the whole, better for the community and the nihonto. But, the risk it seems paid off this time.

Edited May 3 by Sukaira

[Mark S.]

What did Moses say was ‘wrong’ with the original polish?  Not saying original polish was good or bad (although I ‘prefer’ the new polish based solely on the pics), I’m just interested in his language and what he saw and what he felt he needed to correct.  Just interested in his original evaluation.

[Sukaira]

1 hour ago, Mark S. said:

What did Moses say was ‘wrong’ with the original polish?  Not saying original polish was good or bad (although I ‘prefer’ the new polish based solely on the pics), I’m just interested in his language and what he saw and what he felt he needed to correct.  Just interested in his original evaluation.

 

 I can give you both. I quoted the Bensons above, but here it is again, in addition to Moses.

 

Bensons:
 

Quote

The kissaki and hadori do not look good. Looks like the narume dai work was not done properly and/or komanagura or uchigumori stone marks were left in.

 

The hadori looks very scratchy and has no definite line. You can see the stop and starts of the hazuya stone marks. Properly done, should have a smooth, uniform, whitish appearance.

 

The ji looks a little scratchy also. Maybe the polisher used too coarse nugui.

 

Moses:

 

Quote

...The polish is very poor. No high-level polisher would allow a blade to leave their hands in this condition.

 

There are several issues:

- Deep scratches left from earlier stones.

- Fine scratches throughout the blade.

- The hamon appears unusual because it looks like an acid or chemical was used or left on the blade, which stained the surface.

- The blade needs a proper polish to clearly bring out the hada and hamon.

- Even the boshi shows a few problems.

 

So basically the same evaluation

[Sukaira]

For anyone interested in seeing a short video of new polish (sorry it's a large video file) my friend uploaded one to google drive. Don't blame me if you are blinded by the sparkling nie though  https://drive.google.com/file/d/17wvhV0PimNUHtLTkSjSPGG9TMKMQ75fh/view?usp=share_link

 

you can view in the google viewer but its super compressed compared to downloaded.

Edited May 4 by Sukaira

[Rawa]

1 hour ago, Sukaira said:

For anyone interested in seeing a short video of new polish (sorry it's a large video file) my friend uploaded one to google drive. Don't blame me if you are blinded by the sparkling nie though  https://drive.google.com/file/d/17wvhV0PimNUHtLTkSjSPGG9TMKMQ75fh/view?usp=share_link

 

you can view in the google viewer but its super compressed compared to downloaded.

I hope that You save all pictures and documentation made during polishing.

 

I would like to have same tosho works polished by many togishi.

[klee]

Beautiful polish by Moses. I ve never used him but I ve always admired his work. I am a big time lover of negare and any type of O hada and this is brought out in spectacular fashion here.

 

It is the workmanship that confirms the skill of the artisan. Not the background of his training. 

Edited May 5 by klee

[Sukaira]

6 hours ago, klee said:

Beautiful polish by Moses. I ve never used him but I ve always admired his work. I am a big time lover of negare and any type of O hada and this is brought out in spectacular fashion here.

 

It is the workmanship that confirms the skill of the artisan. Not the background of his training. 

Agreed 👍 

[Raiden631]

Moses was my kendo teacher for well over a decade and spent many years visiting his workshop, mostly to see my blades being polished.  His level of polishing skill is on par or better than many “fully apprenticed” togishi I have sent swords to or have seen.  He’s also willing to work on swords that many would turn away.  I had one such sword with deep kizu that he fixed and subsequently received TH.  He’s in no way an “amateur”. Yes, it’s true that he didn’t do a full apprenticeship, but that doesn’t affect his workmanship.  I haven’t spoken to him in some time, but there’s no one else I’d send my swords to.  Just my 2 cents.

[Rawa]

4 hours ago, Raiden631 said:

Moses was my kendo teacher for well over a decade and spent many years visiting his workshop, mostly to see my blades being polished.  His level of polishing skill is on par or better than many “fully apprenticed” togishi I have sent swords to or have seen.  He’s also willing to work on swords that many would turn away.  I had one such sword with deep kizu that he fixed and subsequently received TH.  He’s in no way an “amateur”. Yes, it’s true that he didn’t do a full apprenticeship, but that doesn’t affect his workmanship.  I haven’t spoken to him in some time, but there’s no one else I’d send my swords to.  Just my 2 cents.

Why We even comment togishi whose work was officially evaluated?

Can foreigner get mukansa title?