An example of the modern polishing style.
"Hojoji Yoshitsugu"

One more example of the HADORI polishing.
"Is this hamon pattern NOTARE (wave)?"

"No, it is not a wavy hamon. It is choji. But the hadori is wavy pattern."

 
The classical style leaves the colour of the steel more natural. The blade looks dimmer than one polished in the modern style, but when you look at the blade under a proper light, you can see the true colour of the steel and everything is very "honest".
The integrety of this style of polish is a necessity for truely studying the blade.
This type of work can only be done with natural stones.
 
An example of the classical polishing style.
"Kanemoto"



This blade has a fine steel and very bright hamon line.
All the characteristics are brought out in a very natural way.
 
One more example of the classical polishing style.



 
Another example of the classical polishing style.
"Fujiwara Kanemoto"

This blade has a fine steel and a good signature on the tang, but unfortunately, the hamon is a little dark.
The hamon colour is original, as it is wide enough and the blade doesn't look "tired".
 
In the classical polishing style the hamon is not enhanced so we can see its' true colour.
This dark hamon means a little lower edge holding than the bright one. It is this clarity of polish in the classical style that allows us to determine the hardness of the edge.
 
On such blades the modern style polishing may be better for BUSINESS!
 
 
This brings us to an interesting story.
There was an old polisher who was very famous for his modern style polishing work.
A blade polished by him changed dramatically. It had a shining steel surface, visible layer patterns, mirror finished shinogiji and an attractive white hamon.
His thumb made a miracle.
It seemed like the blade had jumped two or three grades up the rankings.
He was always a leader in the fashions of sword polishing.
Even today, many polishers are afraid to re-polish one of his jobs, because its attractive appearance would certain diminish in any polishers hands.
His polishing system included many secret techniques and his modern style polishing was in high demand.

However the masterpieces hidden away in his own collection were all polished in the old classical style.
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I don't know if this story is true or not. But it illustrates the meaning of polishing style clearly.
HADORI polishing is good for business, SASHIKOMI is good for loving.
 
 
=> process of the polishing work
 
The modern age has seen the rise of "Acid" polishing. This form of polishing uses various acidic compounds to artificially expose the blade structures. It is used in both Modern and Classical Style finishing and I cannot stress how deplorable I find this technique.
=> acid polishing.

 
NAGASHI
On shinogi-zukuri blades without grooves, the shinogi-ji is rubbed with needle to get a mirror finish. The rubbing work ends at the lower part of mune-machi. Sometimes we find lines below there. We call it "NAGASHI".
The polisher extends the rubbing work toward the tang as several lines to show his skill. Straight and parallel lines suggests his good skill.
Nagashi is put also on the back of kissaki.
Each crartsman has his own style of nagashi, so it can be a meaning of signature, like bar-code.
Good nagashi is elegant, but difficult to make by poor skill.



 
Such a work is not necessary to make a good polish. Somoetimes it is just a trouble to study blade. So some craftsmen don't make that.