Cool o katana8/19/2023 The sword has no curve during this part of the process. The mekugi serves as an extra safety precaution so that the blade and hilt stay attached. The nakago is left slightly thicker than the rest of the sword and given a rough texture so it can fit snuggly into the tsuka (hilt). For longer blades like the tachi it was usually two holes. Shaping Chokuto blade, pre-7th century, via the MET MuseumĪt the nakago (tang) end of the blade, the munemachi (rear notch) and the hamachi (edge notch) are cut out, and either one or two holes are drilled in the nakago for the mekugi (bamboo retaining peg). The smith begins to create the basic geometry of the blade.ĥ. Now the block can be drawn out to sword length. The shingane fits neatly into the kawagane and the assembly is hammered together. After both parts of the steel block that will become the finished real katana have been made, it’s time to put them together. At this point, the shingane (inner layer) is made using the lower-carbon steel that will become the core of the sword. Once the block has been folded and the smith is satisfied that it is of a pure enough composition, the kawagane (outer layer) gets hammered into a trough-like shape. While a great deal of religious significance is attached to its creation, folding the steel simply turns what was originally poor-quality iron into something that can equal other swords. This is where we should address a popular myth many proponents of the katana believe that folding the steel is a method that heightens the sword’s qualities to nearly mythical levels. Beyond this point, any benefit from folding the steel diminishes. If you know your powers of two, you’ll know that folding something in half 20 times will give it an obscene number of layers. The folding process of a real katana occurs up to 20 times, each time the billet is cut along a different axis. The force of the hammer blow, along with the thermal shock of the cool water, draws the impurities toward the surface. The main purpose of folding and hammering the steel is to force all of the impurities and voids out of the metal. The next step involves folding the metal over itself using a technique called mizu-uchi (water striking). Refining The Swordsmith, Katsushika Hokusai, 1802, via the MET Museum When it has thinned enough, they make a cut into the bar.Ĥ. Once the metal has been heated to a sufficient level the smith removes it from the forge and begins hammering it flat. That’s right - all of those scenes you’ve seen in movies where a smith pours a container of molten metal into a mold and allows it to cool are wrong. The block of steel is heated not quite to its melting point you don’t ever want to fully melt steel you intend to forge into a sword because it compromises the metal’s molecular structure. The paper and the straw do two different things: they help to decrease the loss of carbon through oxidation and they hold the block together so it can be forged. Once the block has been assembled by putting the pieces of ore together, it is wrapped in wet rice paper and sprinkled with straw. Assembly A Japanese Sword Guard ( Tsuba), 19th century, via the MET Museum Because we are only focusing on the basic type of real katana design, we won’t go in-depth into the techniques used by famous swordsmiths such as Goro Masamune, who allegedly created swords with seven different grades of tamahagane.ģ. The kawagane (outer layer) is harder and will maintain a keen edge for hundreds of years with proper maintenance. The shingane (inner layer) forms the spine of the blade it allows the metal to flex and absorb tension, which is important when parrying an oncoming sword. The most common layout for sword composition consists of two types of steel. In truth, the tamahagane pieces can be grouped into five separate classifications. Harder pieces are characterized by cleaner edges. The softer pieces are characterized by a rounded-off shear. This is far from an exact science ancient smiths relied so much on the steel’s color, work was often done in darkness. The swordsmith learns to distinguish by color and shear what each piece of tamahagane will become. Individual pieces are heated and hammered into thin wafers, about a quarter of an inch thick. When the swordsmith receives the tamahagane, they begin breaking the ore into pieces to sort them into softer and harder steels.
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