Hi to all.
I recently acquired a very nice wakizashi from Japan. ( my first nihonto..WOO HOO :)
Looked flawless to me. Beautiful polish.
Then, this morning I pulled it out and noticed a tiny black dot on the hamon.
I won't elaborate any further other than to say I tried to remove the dot with metal polish and when that left a bright spot I hit with a piece of scotchbrite. Did look a little better and less shiny but it's still visibly different than the rest of the hamon.
Like I said-newbie ( and all the stupidity that comes with that )

TV Japan (cable channel here in the U.S., with content from NHK) had an interesting program last night about polishing. It featured a togishi (polisher) named Sasaki, and 2 current students and one former student. The 3 students are each polishing a blade to enter into a competition.
It was all in Japanese, so I didn't understand some stuff, but I believe they spent 8 weeks. There were good shots and commentary about how the hamon is brought out, and also about how critical the kissaki (tip) is.

Pete

Hello all! Love the site - great resource. Situation: I recently purchased a very rough late edo era tsuka for parts and to disassemble for research purposes. The menuki are not high quality, they look like cast brass. In fact the whole tsuka was pretty poor quality when it was made. I have been doing some cleaning to remove the surface grime but maintain the ageing & patina etc. but have reached a dilemma...