Tones or hues to mirror finishes?

[flatface77]

I came across references to different types of polished finishes to Japanese swords recently. They were using nugui of different sorts to bring out the hamon & talking about this or that nugui giving a "darker", "purplish" or whatever finish. The idea of getting a different hue to a highly polished finish really intrigues me. Is this possible with stainless steels? I've seen pictures of blades with a dark, subdued mirror finish but assumed that it was just the lighting in the picture. Is this a manipulable quality in my homemade mirror finishes?

 

[Jason B.]

It takes special types of blades MATCHED with special types of stones and the understanding of each to create such a finish. It's nothing like a high luster polish you are accustomed to, its a hazy and dull polish that is formed from the mud created on the surface of a waterstone.

 

[pwet]

if i can i'd like to clarify one word. "hazy" is probably the most correct word to describe it, but it's not hazy like a 1200 grit bevel, it's not hazy because the scratch pattern is rough, there is no scratch pattern visible to the naked eye, it's hazy because the steel/iron reacted to the natural stone a certain way.

take a look at the pictures of shigefusa knives on gator's site. shigefusa is a master polisher, he polishes his damascus clad knives like a sword and brings the pattern without chemical etching at all, all you see is how the different layers react to the stone, gator did a stunning job to take it on pictures.

here is the gallery for shigefusa knives, look at every pictures, there are different angles, playing with the light you'll get a good idea f what i mean.

http://zknives.com/cpg14/thumbnails.php?album=129

 

[Jason B.]

Nice pictures on that link, pwet.