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Interesting thread in Shop Talk forum:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=250488
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=250488
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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
visualizing hamon in 5160
- Thread starter firkin
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firkin - how much do you know about the historical precedence of visible hamon lines? Just curious.
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That would closely approximate the null set.
I can only say that some of the old writings I've seen (many of them posted here) describing serpents in blades and such could refer to, among other things, a visible hamon line. Perhaps it was worth the effort to make them visible as a blade with proof of differential hardening could bring a higher price to the maker. How can one tell if a very old blade was was so etched and polished when new?
What is the historical precedence of differential heat treament? I don't know that either, but I'd think that modern analysis could address that given that samples were available.
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O.K. heres a little secret about me, that I havent before confessed to. I know alot of people think Im all about Philippine swords, and other ethnic knives. And yes, that is pretty much all my collection consists of, these days. However, there was a period of time where I took up a big interest in Japanese Swords. Read everything I could about them, how they were made, history, etc... Was real obsessed, till the day it dawned on me, that for a decent copy of a real one (talking about Paul Chen quality here), I could get at least 5 real Philippine Swords, and antique to boot. So after buying a KC katana blade and mounting up myself (bought the Same, the silk ito, the Paul Chen overpriced fittings:barf: , lacquer to do up the saya, etc...), that ended my obsession with katana. I made a vow to myself then, never to buy a modern made katana again, unless it was a real high ender like a Howard Clark, or other custom smith.
Anyways, the way I learned it, the current polish one finds on Japanese Katana, and the current vogue among collectors, is considered an art polish in which all the little nuances, from hamon coloring to the way the mune is burnished is taken very very seriously to the minute detail. It is during peace time, in which the Japanese sword has evolved as an art-form rather than a weapon (yes heresy to Japanese sword lovers), this being in the past few hundred years after the warring states period, and during the period in which Japan closed its borders. The time of the Meiji reformation (thanks East Asian History class), comes a near death to traditional Japanese culture, and certainly pushes the katana even further into the art realm. Now, it has been said, that while the current polish is much more of an artform, than anything practical, in its original inception the things it highlights, are all the things one would look for in a good blade. If one thinks about it, a traditional polish, basically tells you how a blade was made, and visually allows a potential buyer to judge whether or not it was made properly. However, a few hundred years of peace-time refinement, has caused this practical practice, into becoming much more concerned with minutia. Kinda like pattern welding in Javanese Keris. The keris of the past 100 years have been far more concerned with different pamor patterns, than practicality in use. So keris of the past 100 years, often attain much more complex pamor, more often than older keris, but are often of lesser quality in a practical sense. Anyways, if you want to learn more about Japanese Swords, go to Dr. Rich Stein's website Japanse Sword Index Not only is it the best site on the Web for Japanese Swords, Dr. Stein is one helluva guy to boot.
Anyways, the way I learned it, the current polish one finds on Japanese Katana, and the current vogue among collectors, is considered an art polish in which all the little nuances, from hamon coloring to the way the mune is burnished is taken very very seriously to the minute detail. It is during peace time, in which the Japanese sword has evolved as an art-form rather than a weapon (yes heresy to Japanese sword lovers), this being in the past few hundred years after the warring states period, and during the period in which Japan closed its borders. The time of the Meiji reformation (thanks East Asian History class), comes a near death to traditional Japanese culture, and certainly pushes the katana even further into the art realm. Now, it has been said, that while the current polish is much more of an artform, than anything practical, in its original inception the things it highlights, are all the things one would look for in a good blade. If one thinks about it, a traditional polish, basically tells you how a blade was made, and visually allows a potential buyer to judge whether or not it was made properly. However, a few hundred years of peace-time refinement, has caused this practical practice, into becoming much more concerned with minutia. Kinda like pattern welding in Javanese Keris. The keris of the past 100 years have been far more concerned with different pamor patterns, than practicality in use. So keris of the past 100 years, often attain much more complex pamor, more often than older keris, but are often of lesser quality in a practical sense. Anyways, if you want to learn more about Japanese Swords, go to Dr. Rich Stein's website Japanse Sword Index Not only is it the best site on the Web for Japanese Swords, Dr. Stein is one helluva guy to boot.