As I had promised... Lots of work went into this one.

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Wow. I'm not only surprised at the amount of visible hada, but how well you were able to capture it in the photo. Very nice work here, Keith. Out of curiousity, does it show this much contrast in normal lighting conditions?

Yah, it ain't easy photographing them. Under some light its hard to see anything. But that's pretty much true of any well polished blade. But under the right light everything jumps out nicely. The hada is a lot more visible in the photo than you would normally see it under most lighting however. I had to darken my workshop and hook up the lights *just right*. It's been a long hard road figuring out lighting on these things. And I still am hit and miss. I would *kill* to see some of the rigs they use in japan. I've heard they have fully blackened rooms with special lights on rails that sweep the blade at the perfect angle to light everything but to not create any flare. Obviously with a long exposure.

I've been doing it for a while now and I still sometimes have trouble with it.

Wow, look at that grain ..... those Husqvarna polishing stones sure bring out the beauty *g*

Nice work, Keith ! Mac