Over polished sword

[bone]

I recently purchased my second sword. There were some pics that came with the auction that showed the hamon very clearly. The sword has what seems to be an old badly done polish. It's a mirror finish though some parts are duller under what looks like a lacquer effect from old uncleaned oil. Under the light I have I can make out the hamon but it's actually brighter than the rest of the blade. (I've compared it to the auction pics. It's the same, just easier to see.) Also I can't make out a hint of hada. Under magnification I can make out bright spots on the line the hamon meets the rest of the blade. I guess my question is, is there some way to lessen the glare and bring out more detail?

Thanks for all I've learned already.

 

Steven Bone

[Jamie]

Pictures will always help.

 

Jamie

[bone]

Ok. I haven't done this in a few years... does this work?

 

 

http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e382/ ... rd%20Pics/

 

Steven Bone

[Jamie]

If you can't make out the hada, maybe it just needs touched up, But that doesn't look over polished to me. Over polished I would think meant a lot of the meat of the blade would be gone, and you would be able to see the core.

Maybe it's just not in a good state of polish.

Do you know how to clean it properly?

 

Also you'll want to wait on other opinions, as I am a novice myself.

 

I remember seeing a sword with an almost identical Hamon on a Wooden rack in the sun(recently). I wonder if that was this sword?

 

Jamie

[bone]

Ah! Over polished is the wrong term. Thank you. It's mirror polished I guess which, as I understand it now, is improper. The few images you see that aren't glaringly bright are from the auction. As for cleaning it I use only microfibre cloth, choji and that powder in the little bag I can't remember the name of. Trying to find a knowledgeable source nearby. No luck yet.

 

Steven Bone

[Jamie]

Uchiko, That is correct.

 

Jamie

[loui]

It looks like someone either polished the whole blade with a polishing paste or diamond paste and then used a fingerstone to whiten the ji and highlight the temper - or the whole blade was fingerstoned and then someone ran over it with a polishing paste of some sort. In any event it is "improper" as you say.

 

regards,

 

Louis

[bone]

Thanks Louis. Ummm, improper was pretty understated,huh? In the collecting of old things over the years I've found the saying "first do no harm" to always be relevant. Or, as a wise old man once told me, if you don't know what you're doing then for God's sake don't do it!

Seriously though, is there some way to increase the contrast without having a professional polisher fix it? I'm just trying to see what's there.

[Nihonto Chicken]

Seriously though, is there some way to increase the contrast without having a professional polisher fix it? I'm just trying to see what's there.

 

Here's a link to a couple of my posts on this topic, may be of use:

 

search.php?keywords=power+uchiko&terms=all&author=Nihonto+Chicken&sc=1&sf=all&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

[bone]

Very helpful, thanks!