Questions About a Curious Kukri

[sirupate]

Hello Tom,

I know two people that are sword polishers, one is English, the other a well known top Japanese sword polisher (Togishi) and neither of them use etching as part of any stage in polishing a Japanese Sword.
However the process of Nugui is done in the last three stages of the polishing, to both polish the hada and to give the metal darker texture (this is not done on the kissaki), it is not a form of etching.
The Togishi will then do hadori to bring out the hamon in a whiteish colour after the Nugui process, it is done slightley differently in sashikomi.
The next two phases are kissaki no narume (polishing the point) and migaki (burnishing).
I have known collecters to do a light etching on a poorly polished sword to see what is in the blade.

A couple of my swords with the final effect below;





Cheers Simon