Is this Namazu-Hada?

[mfarrar]

Hi,

 

There are quite a few spotted area's in this sword where the steel looks darker, at first I thought it was core steel but then after reading about Namazu-hada a feature of Aoe school I thought this might be a possibilty.

 

I have tried to get some good picture's but it is difficult.

 

Hope someone can enlighten me!

 

 

 

 

 

[DSweet]

It is hard to tell by looking at these pictures. Photographing hada is elusive at best.

It almost appears that you have similar hada or kizu that i have in my mumei wakizashi. There are 2 or 3 spots within the hada that appear to be either shingane poking through or O-Itame.

Being the novice that i am, i can't make solid judgement... But i fear that it is most likely shingane showing through.

 

-Donovan

[mfarrar]

Think it probably is shingane, I didn't realise until now (I just read an article) that core steel can actually be as well forged as the outer steel. I always thought that core steel didn't have hada and that it stood out as a blank spot in the hada, but I was mistaken! Hopefully it wont hurt it too much at Shinsa!

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

Here you go :

 

http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/sword14.html#Namazu-hada

 

Think it probably is shingane, I didn't realise until now (I just read an article) that core steel can actually be as well forged as the outer steel.

 

So well that it hides with the outer one.

From http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/shingane.html

 

"In 12th century, most of good blades are made of fine steel for both core steel and outer steel.

 

A tachi of "Masatsune" (Ko-Bizen, 12-13c)

The blade is a little tired as the hamon in kissaki worn out.

The hamon is ko-midare pattern made of bright konie (small particles). The steel is very fine all over the surface of the blade.

By careful studying, the brightness of the hamon particles is not even along the blade length. Most of the hamon is bright, but several parts are a little down brightness. The steel changes at the parts of down brightness. Maybe core steel comes up in several parts of the blade, but the quality is almost the same to the outer steel."

[mfarrar]

Hi Carlo,

 

This was actually the article I was reading :lol:

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

:D