Moro sharpening method
 

Does anyone know what the sharping method used by the Moro's was? The Moro blades I have seen are very sharp. When you look at the edge under magnification there are no signs of scratches. This leads me to believe that whatever method is used it has a polishing component. I have seen sellers on ebay selling moro water stones and was wondering if this is legitimate or just someone trying to make a buck?

I will tell you this ; I recently had Phil Tom polish a kris for me; it came back sharper as a result of his polish. Phil mentioned that the sword would be sharper afterward ; he uses stones ; exactly what kind I don't know but would suspect that they are Japanese .

That is what I suspected. The Japanese polish method results in a slurry from the water stones which polishes the sword. This is how the Japanese swords where sharpened. Based on the Moro blades I have seen this makes the most sense. The absence of scratches on the edge tell a tale. Some may call me crazy but I do see a great deal of similiarites between Moro swords and Nihonto. While Nihonto are more refined I think they are both Art. Thanks Rick. So who is Phil Tom? Does he have a web site or read the forum?

Philip checks in occasionally ; if you have some work for him PM me for his email . :)
He does extremely good work .
He used to be associated with Scott Rodell's site Seven Stars Trading but Scott has revamped his site recently and Philip's services are not mentioned any more .

Although I don't pretend to do half the quality job that Phil does, I do use the stone (and careful grades of sand paper) in my polishing when I etch or do inlay on Moro swords. I agree with you that I think the Moros did a similar method to those of the Japanese.

I too have wondered about these "Moro sharpening stones".