Something different! This shows the detail of a Japanese sword blade (Wakizachi)dating from the end of the Edo period, about 1660.The pattern along the blade edge is formed during the tempering stage and is known as the Hamon.
Don't really expect many people to find much interest in this, just doing it for my own amusement really!
Thanks Stewart, I think there well be a few more in the pipeline. Believe it or not this was VERY difficult, the lighting was a nightmare, the blades are supposed to best viewed with the light of a candle from behind, nightmare! LOL Cheers for the comment mate!
>Steve
You don't take a photograph, you make it. - Ansel Adams
Thanks Nigel, the Japanese blades are in a whole differnt league, the iron is folded around 15 times and results in more than 32,000 layers of lamination, and there is usualy a softer grade core in the centre! Impessive huh!
>Steve
You don't take a photograph, you make it. - Ansel Adams
Well Stewart, I have used them for Iai-do and have done Kendo and Karate so I have come face to face with a few blades, it is a very sobering experience! LOL
>Steve
You don't take a photograph, you make it. - Ansel Adams
I used to do martial arts training, too. So we find out yet another common thread amongst the bloggers. We're not only alchies who love fungus, but we're warriors at heart. This picture is interesting, but the explanation helps make it more so. Until I read more, I thought it was a piece of wood, which is just the opposite of its true nature. Perhaps further shots could concentrate more on specularity (metalic reflection of light).
Do you follow the old tradition that if the blade leaves its scabbard, it must taste blood?
Thanks for the comment Chris.It was intersting to read that you thought it was a piece of wood,the surface of the blade displays 'grain' called Hada in Japanese, this is the result of the folding pocess used during the forging of the blade this 'grain' can be either plain or intricate.
I will try and get a shot of the Nie and Noi (coarse and fine crystaline structure within the temper line or Hamon)
I don't follow the blood theory, that is a fallacy but I have managed to cut myself once when stripping a blade for cleaning! LOL
>Steve
You don't take a photograph, you make it. - Ansel Adams
Interesting shot Steve,but i had to comment back to Chris also.Less of the alchies please some of us are tee-total,fungus i will go with.Nikon i can understand but that brown liquid that sends most men back to childhood in a matter of hours sobers me .Lets see some more shots Steve.
Morning Bridget, hope all is well with you, mixing drink and Japanese swords it not advisable...so I am with you on that one! LOL
>Steve
You don't take a photograph, you make it. - Ansel Adams
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Mercifully, I have never been face to face with one of those!