Shaping

ARATO stone
Arato is the roughest stone.
Use it only for fresh borne blade or a deep rusted/pitted one to make a good shape.

Hold the blade at the right angle to the stone, and push forward.
For the flat surface (shinogiji), a little slant angle is not so bad.
For the back surface, hold the blade 45 degrees to the stone, and push forward.
The work is same to the next step BINSUI.
This step is the most important for the shaping.
The system is very simple but it is the most difficult in all steps of shaping.
Never grind too much steel.
We have to get the perfect shape with the least grinding.
 
( work for the cutting surface with an artificial ARATO stone: = carborundum#180 )

 

( Working with kissaki )

( The cutting surface )
( Kissaki )


( the back surface )

BINSUI stone

Most of blades are started with this stone.
To remove rust and make a good shape.
Be careful to save the flesh on the cutting surface.
 
 
( working with natural BINSUI stone )
( grinding the stone surface often with another stone to keep its surface even )

KAISEI stone

Use it to remove the marks left by binsui and to make the shape finer.
Hold the blade with 45 degrees to the stone, and push forward.
However do not change the angle while working with kissaki from stone to stone.
 
 
( work with an artificial KAISEI stone )

( the trace with KAISEI )

CHU-NAGURA stone

Use it to remove the marks left by kaisei and to make the shape finer.
From this step we never use artificial stones.
( In some cases the hobby polishers with the expertise in metallography used the artificial stones with varied success. )
Hold the blade 45 degrees to the stone, and move the blade along the blade's length.
The work looks like pushing the blade toward the left hand.
The traces should be parallel to the length or at the a little slant.

( the traces left by CHU-NAGURA )

KOMA-NAGURA stone

Use it to remove the marks left by chu-nagura and to make the shape finer.
This stone is a little finer and harder than chu-nagura stone.
The work process is the same as in chu-nagura step.
But the traces has to be very parallel to the length.

UCHIGUMORI stone

To complete the shape and to make the character of the blade come up.
Hold the blade the same way as in the previous step.
But the working direction is opposite.
This time pull the blade carefully towards yourself with your right hand.
Then every surface is completely shaped, and the characters come up. (hamon, layer pattern and etc.)
 



Here is one example of uchigumori result.
But it is not very good, because the layer pattern is brought up too hard.
This is the result of using too much pressure.
The layers are dug by hard rubbing against the stone.
And the steel surface is not fine.
More tender work should be given to the steel.



Finishing
To study the quality of the blade we make the surfaces clear. Then we can see the details easily.
In the polishing work, there are two kinds of finishing style.
One is the classical polishing style (SASHIKOMI).
The other is the modern polishing style (HADORI).
The big different between them is in the step of NUGUI.

( Before starting the polishing work, we have to prepare the stuff for the work, HAZUYA, JIZUYA and NUGUI. )

HAZUYA

HAZUYA is a very thin Uchigumori stone fixed on the paper.

Polish the blade surface with HAZUYA on the thumb completely, especially in the hamon.
 
Then the surface becomes clean. And all the tempering effects come to be seen.

JIZUYA

JIZUYA is a very thin NARUTAKI stone.
Polish the blade surface with JIZUYA completely except the hamon area.
The steel becomes clear and the steel particles come up.

NUGUI

NUGUI is a very fine stone powder mixed with oil.
Polish the whole surface of the blade with it using cotton ball.
In this step, the work is very different between the classical style and the modern style.
The nugui work in the classical style is the final cleaning for the blade surface.
The work in the modern style is to make up a good contrast for an attractive view.
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With the classical style, natural stones can be used for NUGUI.
There are various kinds of stone for it, for example, NARUTAKI, NAGURA, TSUSHIMA, iron ore.
 
The surface becomes clean and the hamon comes up.
  
 
On the modern style, polishers have their own special material and oil for nugui.
It is far harder than the classical style's to make a black shining surface on the blade.
The work effects whole surface of the blade even on the hamon.
So the hamon is masked by this hard effective polishing.
Then the hamon area has to be polished again with hazuya.
Polisher uses hazuya carefully by their thumb to make a white pattern along the hamon.
This work is called "HADORI".
So this polishing style is called " HADORI style".
Good hadori work makes good contrast between the white pattern and the rest black shining area.
On this work polishers are thinking to get an attractive view.
So the pattern of white area is quite different by each polisher's sense, even if the hamon would be the same.
And the real hamon can be seen in the white pattern when you use good lighting.

HAMON)

The nugui and hadori on the modern style.
The same part of the above blade by the classical style nugui.

One more example of classical style polishing.

The hamon of the same part of above blade.

MIGAKI

Rubbing Shinogiji and the back surface with a steel needle to get mirror finish.

In the modern style polishing, a mirror finished shinogiji is very common.
But on the classical style, the result of migaki should be mild.
Some old classical style polishings have no migaki effect.
Such a blade has same view on the cutting surface and on the shinogiji, and is good for study the blade.

NARUME

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