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Will a buffing wheel help show a hammon?
Thanks for help.
Thanks for help.
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Buffing wheel?
- Thread starter running bird
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- Oct 20, 2008
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- 5,547
Generally buffing is the opposite of what you want to do, to clearly polish a hamon. What you want is to polish the steel by sanding it with fine, sharp abrasives, so that the surface accurately reveals the properties of the steel. Buffing may develop a high shine, but it does so partly by smearing the surface a bit.
You can hand sand up to a clean 600 grit, and etch a very distinct hamon. The use of ammonia-based deoxidizers such as Flitz will help you to finish bringing it out, as will multiple etch cyles.
If you really want to make a good try of it, I suggest doing some research here are around the forum. This subject has been written about ad nauseum. You will even see some of my ramblings, should you look. The best is to go watch Nick Wheeler's hamon videos on Youtube.
You can hand sand up to a clean 600 grit, and etch a very distinct hamon. The use of ammonia-based deoxidizers such as Flitz will help you to finish bringing it out, as will multiple etch cyles.
If you really want to make a good try of it, I suggest doing some research here are around the forum. This subject has been written about ad nauseum. You will even see some of my ramblings, should you look. The best is to go watch Nick Wheeler's hamon videos on Youtube.
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith
ilmarinen - MODERATOR
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Agreed - never buff a hamon.
The "bag of tricks" for doing shiage togi can be huge, but it boils down to as simple as Salem said. Hand polishing with a variety of fine abrasives and powders and a variety of etchants to get the most definition from the hamon. The most common are high quality wet-or-dry papers from 800 to 2500 grit, powdered iron oxides, chrome oxide, tin oxide, and closely graded silicon carbide powders. The sanding papers are used wet with soapy water, and a light oil ( choji or olive)is used with the powders. Flitz and/or Simmichrome polish are also used to finish the ji and ha. Etchants are usually dilute FC, lemon juice, white vinegar, and dilute nitric acid. You also need a bag of make-up removal pads or soft cotton gun cleaning patches. Other things may be nail polish, small paint brushes, Q-tips, a roll of soft paper towels, etc.
Use the custom BF search engine to search "hamon" , "hamon polishing", and "Togi". That will get a lot of threads on the subject. Online searches for these subjects will also keep you busy for days.
https://cse.google.com/cse/publicurl?cx=012217165931761871935:iqyc7cbzhci
The best book on the subject for readers in English is "The Art of Japanese Sword Polishing" but Takaiwa. It should be on every togishi's book shelf.
The "bag of tricks" for doing shiage togi can be huge, but it boils down to as simple as Salem said. Hand polishing with a variety of fine abrasives and powders and a variety of etchants to get the most definition from the hamon. The most common are high quality wet-or-dry papers from 800 to 2500 grit, powdered iron oxides, chrome oxide, tin oxide, and closely graded silicon carbide powders. The sanding papers are used wet with soapy water, and a light oil ( choji or olive)is used with the powders. Flitz and/or Simmichrome polish are also used to finish the ji and ha. Etchants are usually dilute FC, lemon juice, white vinegar, and dilute nitric acid. You also need a bag of make-up removal pads or soft cotton gun cleaning patches. Other things may be nail polish, small paint brushes, Q-tips, a roll of soft paper towels, etc.
Use the custom BF search engine to search "hamon" , "hamon polishing", and "Togi". That will get a lot of threads on the subject. Online searches for these subjects will also keep you busy for days.
https://cse.google.com/cse/publicurl?cx=012217165931761871935:iqyc7cbzhci
The best book on the subject for readers in English is "The Art of Japanese Sword Polishing" but Takaiwa. It should be on every togishi's book shelf.