The Secret of Togishi Polishing
Mar 1, 2023 16:29:46 GMT
Post by larason2 on Mar 1, 2023 16:29:46 GMT
Recently I’ve been doing some research into the niage process, and Japanese patinas in general, and came across this web page by Jim Kelso:
www.jimkelso.com/japanpatina.html/tutorial.htm
Probably a lot of those interested in Japanese koshirae have already read that site. What struck me is that he considers an authentic Japanese polish to be essential for good results with patination. Then he goes through his polishing process, using stones, much like a togishi would. I then understood that there really is no secret to how a togishi polishes a katana, you really just need to understand the underlying principles, and then need a lot of elbow grease!
Kelso talks about how when we look at a surface, if it looks flat, we assume it is flat, however our eyes can’t really perceive very fine differences, unless it has been very highly polished. By then, however, it is too late. The small polishing stones then represent the gold standard of a good polish, since only with those can you get a really perfect surface, and therefore a really perfect polish. The problem is that they take a long time!
So, the togishi uses this basic principle when polishing a katana. They use larger sharpening stones in the initial process because it saves time, but the surface they create isn’t perfect, and they know that. The large stones are for the edge, general shaping and processing to save them time later. They go up to high/polishing grits, but they know they are not going to polish perfectly. Then, the real polishing begins (at the end of the shiage). Most of them probably have polishing sticks at all the grits, at all different hardnesses. The reason for this is that sometimes they may find a small spot where they have to go back to basics. Then they will work with the polishing sticks from rough grit all the way back up to polishing grit to rework the area. They also needs stones of different hardnesses, because the martensite on the blade is really hard, harder than the steel on other parts of the sword. If you use a polishing stick that is too soft for the material, you’ll sit there forever and not do much, and wear out the stick. Too hard though, and you might work too fast and ruin the finish by making it uneven. As in koshirae work, the most important is the top layer, since this determines the lustre of the piece, and is determined primarily by the direction of the polishing strokes used with the polishing sticks. The ideal is circular strokes for this layer, though on the foundation layers, you usually try to alternate layers of stroke direction when polishing. Kelso uses a horse hair brush for the last layers of his koshirae, because they have nooks and crannies he has to get into, but a togishi doesn’t need this for a sword.
In Japan, the togishi goes out of their way to get sticks of all kinds of different stones for this, but their main source is the same sources where they get their larger stones. The small sticks are identical to the larger stones except they are smaller. The only difference is that they need a much larger variety of sticks.
In Canada/the US, we also have access to basically the same materials, only they have been developed here primarily for tooling/moldmaking. You can get what are essentially sharpening stones in stick form at all kinds of different grits and hardnesses, which can essentially replicate all of the different stones a togishi would use. It’s not cheap to get them all though! It’s probably not cheap to become a togishi either! Take a look here:
gesswein.ca/collections/finishing-stones
These stones go in grits from 100 to 1200, and have all different kinds of hardnesses, from softest to hardest below:
Ultra Soft
Moldmaker
Diemaker
White
Rough out
General purpose
RA
EDM
Of these, the closer you get to EDM, the more it is probably too hard for katanas, but I include them for completeness. For soft metals, Kelso uses primarily moldmaker and ultra soft, but for a katana edge, I would try diemaker/white/general purpose and see how they fare. The softer ones would probably work well for the soft/medium portions of the katana edge.
If you want to experiment with these, you can get a set of them at different grits at not too bad a price. Just don’t expect it to be a fast process!
Of course, there’s more to it than this, the other stages of shiage are also primarily concerned with colouring, but as far as I know, this is the basic principles behind the actual polish (with the stones forming part of the Migakibo part of the shiage, the final polish). But for me, it was helpful at least to finally understand the underlying principle of why finishing stones are used at all, and I wasn’t able to find this information anywhere else.
Of course, a whole other side of this is the skills to use the materials to create a perfect polish, for which if you wanted to get those, you would have to put in as much work as a togishi! There’s no shortcut to perfection! But for those of us who want to touch up a good polish, or learn a bit more how to polish well, it's nice to know there's local resources to get the basic materials.
On a side note, Jim Kelso's tsubas look really nice. That's good of him to take the time to teach others. How much would one of those cost?
www.jimkelso.com/japanpatina.html/tutorial.htm
Probably a lot of those interested in Japanese koshirae have already read that site. What struck me is that he considers an authentic Japanese polish to be essential for good results with patination. Then he goes through his polishing process, using stones, much like a togishi would. I then understood that there really is no secret to how a togishi polishes a katana, you really just need to understand the underlying principles, and then need a lot of elbow grease!
Kelso talks about how when we look at a surface, if it looks flat, we assume it is flat, however our eyes can’t really perceive very fine differences, unless it has been very highly polished. By then, however, it is too late. The small polishing stones then represent the gold standard of a good polish, since only with those can you get a really perfect surface, and therefore a really perfect polish. The problem is that they take a long time!
So, the togishi uses this basic principle when polishing a katana. They use larger sharpening stones in the initial process because it saves time, but the surface they create isn’t perfect, and they know that. The large stones are for the edge, general shaping and processing to save them time later. They go up to high/polishing grits, but they know they are not going to polish perfectly. Then, the real polishing begins (at the end of the shiage). Most of them probably have polishing sticks at all the grits, at all different hardnesses. The reason for this is that sometimes they may find a small spot where they have to go back to basics. Then they will work with the polishing sticks from rough grit all the way back up to polishing grit to rework the area. They also needs stones of different hardnesses, because the martensite on the blade is really hard, harder than the steel on other parts of the sword. If you use a polishing stick that is too soft for the material, you’ll sit there forever and not do much, and wear out the stick. Too hard though, and you might work too fast and ruin the finish by making it uneven. As in koshirae work, the most important is the top layer, since this determines the lustre of the piece, and is determined primarily by the direction of the polishing strokes used with the polishing sticks. The ideal is circular strokes for this layer, though on the foundation layers, you usually try to alternate layers of stroke direction when polishing. Kelso uses a horse hair brush for the last layers of his koshirae, because they have nooks and crannies he has to get into, but a togishi doesn’t need this for a sword.
In Japan, the togishi goes out of their way to get sticks of all kinds of different stones for this, but their main source is the same sources where they get their larger stones. The small sticks are identical to the larger stones except they are smaller. The only difference is that they need a much larger variety of sticks.
In Canada/the US, we also have access to basically the same materials, only they have been developed here primarily for tooling/moldmaking. You can get what are essentially sharpening stones in stick form at all kinds of different grits and hardnesses, which can essentially replicate all of the different stones a togishi would use. It’s not cheap to get them all though! It’s probably not cheap to become a togishi either! Take a look here:
gesswein.ca/collections/finishing-stones
These stones go in grits from 100 to 1200, and have all different kinds of hardnesses, from softest to hardest below:
Ultra Soft
Moldmaker
Diemaker
White
Rough out
General purpose
RA
EDM
Of these, the closer you get to EDM, the more it is probably too hard for katanas, but I include them for completeness. For soft metals, Kelso uses primarily moldmaker and ultra soft, but for a katana edge, I would try diemaker/white/general purpose and see how they fare. The softer ones would probably work well for the soft/medium portions of the katana edge.
If you want to experiment with these, you can get a set of them at different grits at not too bad a price. Just don’t expect it to be a fast process!
Of course, there’s more to it than this, the other stages of shiage are also primarily concerned with colouring, but as far as I know, this is the basic principles behind the actual polish (with the stones forming part of the Migakibo part of the shiage, the final polish). But for me, it was helpful at least to finally understand the underlying principle of why finishing stones are used at all, and I wasn’t able to find this information anywhere else.
Of course, a whole other side of this is the skills to use the materials to create a perfect polish, for which if you wanted to get those, you would have to put in as much work as a togishi! There’s no shortcut to perfection! But for those of us who want to touch up a good polish, or learn a bit more how to polish well, it's nice to know there's local resources to get the basic materials.
On a side note, Jim Kelso's tsubas look really nice. That's good of him to take the time to teach others. How much would one of those cost?