Advice on hada/hamon "washout"on WW2 blade ...

[Scott Gunto]

After a gracious translation here on my Masa Uji Bishu shingunto I have a question. Looking at the following pics, there is an anomaly @2/3 the way down the blade that seems to gap the otherwise perfect hamon and shows a window of lamination. Was this a defect in the quenching process?I know Masauji was a little known Showato smith,but I see no arsenal stamps and lots of activity in the hamon

. The blade and fittings are minty and a surrender tag is attached. Just not sure why the hamon seemed washed out here on both sides.  

 

[Mark S.]

I’m wondering if someone mistakenly tried to acid etch a small section of the hamon thinking they could ‘fix’ an area of the original hamon that was hard to see… and just made it worse?

[Scott Gunto]

I see lamination "itame"in other areas and assume it's Gendai..it was a vet's son walk in at bud's pawn shop many years ago...the rest of the blade is primo war time polish...

 

[Brian]

Judging by the look of the hamon and the style of mei, I would be very surprized if it was a Gendaito.
This looks typically Showato to me, albeit one of the better ones with some activity showing. Could be forged and folded, but oil quenched. I could easily be wrong though.

[Scott Gunto]

There were a couple of Masauji's running around during the Showa era, I'm inclined to believe this one was running an air hammer to manufacture blades like mine and we can call it superior machine made...