Acid polishing
Recently we have seen many blades that have acid polishing.
Acid polishing is very bad for study blade and bad for blade itself.
Acid polishing is a kind of polishing style that emphasize
appearances of blade by using acid. Acid erodes steel, so some kinds of
appearances on the blade come up like etching.
Various kinds of acid are used for polishing on both classical style and
modern style. For beginners' eye, acid polishing looks attractive because
of its emphasized appearances on the blade. Many beginners appreciate acid
polishing better than natural stone polishing. Therefore some polishers
go to acid polishing to make their business easier. Sometimes a polisher
who is skilful to use acid is called "Master" (?).
The appearance by acid etching is different to it by natural stone polishing.
We can't
see the quality of the blade because its face is trick by acid effect. Not only that, one more bad point of acid polishing is the acid bites the steel deeply. Sometimes it rusts steel deeply under the steel surface.
We are afraid if acid polishing becomes common in the future, or now already.
We have to hate acid polishing, and have to break its trick. We love honest
blades rather than aesthetic tricky blades.
Honesty is a point that we appreciate on the blade, even if it is not a
masterpiece. Polishing style is very important to study the blade, because
the blade is a mirror of your spirit.
Sample of acid polishing (before) and real sashikomi style polishing (after)
Acid polishing is re-polished within sashikomi style polishing by Mr. Rinzo
Negishi.
Fake hamon
An example of a fake hamon.
This blade "Bishu Osafune Norimitsu" is polished up with the
modern style.
It has an attractive hamon-like white pattern, looking like big waves. But it is not the hamon. It is only a "hadori" that is forged by a polisher. And so is the fine steel colour.
In fact, this blade has no hamon. There is no hardening effect at all.
It is easy to break the trick. We can't see any hamon line in the white
pattern by studying with good lighting.
Another example.
This blade has a excellent modern style polishing and we can see an attractive
hamon line in the white pattern. And it has a genuine signature of a famous
smith on the tang.
In fact, this blade has no hardening effect at all. Probably it had burned
out in the past by fire accident.
This hamon like white pattern is forged by a miracle
polisher. It is not a simple tecnique that we can imagine. It may be very
complicated and exellent method.
It is very difficult to brake the trick. To study the
hamon particles (nie/nioi) is very important.
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