|
Post by ranstone on Apr 20, 2024 13:58:17 GMT
I'm curious about satin finishes on modern reproductions.
I'm aware, and have noticed first hand how well it masks imperfections and scratches, but is that where it comes from?
Is it a modern trend? How common was it in history? Why did it suddenly become popular? Was it just because mass production made polished blades mass producible, and as such, we affiliate mirror with low quality?
I'm watching a lot of brands imitate the satin finish, and it's gotten me curious.
Thoughts?
|
|
|
Post by mrstabby on Apr 20, 2024 14:16:39 GMT
I think historically most were highly polished because it's easier to clean and not as easy to get rust spots. Although in the end you can never say "it was always done like this".
I have never heard that the mirror fnished stuff would be equated to lower quality.
In the end tme=money, and polishing=time, I bet that's the main reason, plus you don't need to be as careful because, as you say, lower polish finishes hide scratches better.
Back in history the steel was more costly than the time you would have to invest for a good polish and you get a better rust resistance, protecting your investment. But I bet the swords that were cranked out at high numbers at low cost weren't as highly finished. We only have a glimpse into the past, and it is skewed by selection bias, so low grit finishes could have been more common. Due to how swords were made, I doubt they were true satin, more like all parallel striations from grinding.
|
|
|
Post by ranstone on Apr 20, 2024 15:14:06 GMT
I have never heard that the mirror fnished stuff would be equated to lower quality. Believe it or not, I've heard that quite a bit, strangely. A lot of 100$ SLOs are mirror polished, and I see quite a few people that feel satin looks "Higher quality" despite the fact that in period, it would take more time. I am highly suspicious this rank-superstition. The high end collector/practitioner repeatedly sees the high end swords of the past 15 years are IMHO almost always satin (For European medieval), and the mass produced stuff is almost always mirror and almost never satin. It would be very easy for people to form subconscious biases from this pattern. This is a theory only, but it's further supported when I show swords to my non sword friends. Almost always, they will think the satin finish is the cheaper sword.
|
|
|
Post by mrstabby on Apr 20, 2024 16:36:32 GMT
Stainless steel wallhanger stuff is all mirror polished, maybe it comes from there. Mass produced, usable replicas made from carbon steel are a relatively new thing. (Probably as a consequence of technology and globalisation making it easier to produce and ship to a wider audience) Mirror polished blades were seen as a lot more attractive in the 2000s, and most of the swords back then were crap, also stainless, so I could see this weighing in on the prejudice until now, giving mirror polished swords a bad name.
EDIT: I am pretty sure if I showed some of my friends from the 2000s a Hanwei/Tinker sword they would look at it and turn up their noses at the rough finish, "looks unfinished". They would love the Hanwei Oxtail Dao, it's flashy and polished, something they would have been more accustomed to seeing (in shops and movies). Another thing, carbon steel polishes differently to stainless, it will never look as shiny in my experience.
|
|
|
Post by nddave on Apr 20, 2024 19:51:55 GMT
I think it just depends on who's sword it was and what they wanted in regards to the level of finish on historical swords. I'm sure swords like King Edward the III's or the Sword of Saint Maurice had nice mirror polishes new. We see a lot of bearing and ceremonial swords of the 14th-16th century that were well preserved having mirror level finishes.
It probably was a cost thing similar to how the Japanese swords and their varying levels of polish were. You wouldn't really want to waist a mirror polish on a frequently used man-at-arms sword but something that was like a Riding or Court sword would be applicable based on the owner's wealth. I mean a high polish on a Nihonto can cost as much as the sword these days and probably not far from in the past. So I'd assume satin was a standard or basic polish to smooth the blade but keep things more affordable in the past for the sake of functionality.
As far as today with the capabilities of modern belts and machinery a mirror polish isn't too hard to achieve. Windlass for example have been pretty consistent with mirror polishes and it's definitely a focus on asthetics over any functionality. Of course that was the caveat of 20 years ago when Windlass and other makers like Gen 2 or Deepeeka weren't as focused on strong fit and finish.
|
|
Greg E
Member
little bit of this... and a whole lot of that
Posts: 1,296
|
Post by Greg E on Apr 21, 2024 2:00:17 GMT
Windlass will put a good shine and polish on their blades. The problem with them is that they tend to wash out the edges of fullers and peak lines. I have seen too many advertised pictures of their swords that look to have crip blade lines and defined fullers, to buy one and get the normal very polished and rounded over blade and fuller lines and have wavy fullers. Like they use the high polish to detract from the poor production blade geometry. This is true of even their more expensive swords like the Langeid Viking Sword, who's blade crispness on the outside of the picture laden box does not match what is inside the box. The usual high polish... meh blade of their normal fair. A cheap and fast belt polished smooth blade to me is much worse than having a satin finish and defined features.
|
|
|
Post by nddave on Apr 22, 2024 13:12:58 GMT
Windlass will put a good shine and polish on their blades. The problem with them is that they tend to wash out the edges of fullers and peak lines. I have seen too many advertised pictures of their swords that look to have crip blade lines and defined fullers, to buy one and get the normal very polished and rounded over blade and fuller lines and have wavy fullers. Like they use the high polish to detract from the poor production blade geometry. This is true of even their more expensive swords like the Langeid Viking Sword, who's blade crispness on the outside of the picture laden box does not match what is inside the box. The usual high polish... meh blade of their normal fair. A cheap and fast belt polished smooth blade to me is much worse than having a satin finish and defined features. Yes this is true, kinda works for some blades that aren't meant to be full diamond but overall it does detract a bit.
|
|