Kuro Ura - ura finishes in general; Preferences? I really like a Kuro finish anything personally. A perfect unblemished Kuro ura makes me very happy. I do see a lot of the older plane blades (by reputable smiths) where the clay mixture wasn't as fine tuned and as a little flakes off in the fire the Kuro finish turns mottled. I quite like this but is this at all acceptable these days? A rougher sen scraped version you see in a few of the older blades where some lines are deeper and the ura is untouched by abrasives ( Abrasives knock off the ridges in sen lines and serve to blend/polish the lines) also really catches my eye these days. I am perfectly happy with the grindstone and scotchbrite finish on most blades. Very clean and logical and decently pretty. A polished sen finish I like more on Nomi. Lots of options in this category but any sort of musings would be very much appreciated.
For those with genuine wrought iron backed stuff, how much softer is it? any problems with cracks or stuff? Cracks as in the variability in the material, those striations and some lines where the material isn’t fused to itself.
Nomi neck to ferrule area; does any have a major preference for how much the neck matches up the the ferrule or how off it is? I see that most are a little off, and some smiths grind to blend that area. I don't like the look of the latter. For those with the higher end chisels, how matched up is that area? Any Kuro-finished necks that matched up very well or perfectly with the ferrule? Jessica if you see this; the Ichihiros you used, do you remember what finish they had? The Kuro-oxide or the super refined and polished steel? Do you remember at all how well the necks blended into the ferrules? I always think that Ichihiro's must have some of the most perfectly mating neck to ferrule examples possible; for the file and polished finished versions that is.
These questions are a bit odd but I have my reasons for them.
Thanks,
Vincent