Fishscale?

Not quite so fast my Sheeple, while I cannot for the life of me recall the source, I did read a Viscaria topic aways past on why Fishscale was coveted, and several authentic woodworking blade geeks explained/postulated that these most prized Viscarias having the most prominent Fishscale did indeed have the most superior performance beyond mere beauty aesthetics. There was something about how the Koto wood veneer was quartersawn within the heart of the slab that was indicated on the wood grain by the Fishscale evidence, and that the very top players whom had the luxury of selecting their blades would always grab the more Fishscaled samples for the very best quality and performance at the recommendation of the blademakers themselves...so the legend was there apparently birthed... realistically tho I also rather doubt any of us mere mortals never could tell a lick of difference with the hittin' either...but what fun would that be?

Sellers use this schema to charge extra.

Don't believe the hype.

FdT

And I agree once again, the performance aspect is hype, but the point of my first reply was to illuminate how the hype originated, and once hype grows legs it tends to hang around. FWIW the arch-typical collectors of vintage as well as modern-day Viscarias will energetically seek and happily pay a premium price for those rarer pieces with the most prominent Fish-Scalability; few if any are buying it for a performance edge to begin with, the collector mystique for desirability is their driving force, and certainly nothing wrong with allowing them to pursue their right to happiness either, so it's all good.

And you can rationalize all you want about putting a premium on fishscaled blades all you want. It does remind me of that saying"a fool and his money are soon departed".

FdT

Would you and/or anyone else know whether the almond shell-pocked/fishscale effect is unique only to Koto wood? Based on my various blades over the years (Koto, Limba, Hinoki), I've only had Fishscale on 2 of 3 Koto blades but never on any of the assorted Limba or Hinoki,  so would seem specific to Koto from my small sample of 15 or more blades.

Oh my that is really beautiful, Thanks for sharing that! And now that rubber with some different colors will be allowed soon, perhaps some wise marketer could make some sheets in Natural Clear, so everyone could see the pattern and proudly display their mystical wood grains, would be like having the cake while eating it too!

And it plays as well as it looks...like a dream!