Hi kman1666,
Thank you for a very interesting question.
The Japanese Sword: Weapon and Work of Art © Courtesy David E. J. Pepin 1977
http://www.samuraisword.com/intro.htm
"The Japanese sword, more commonly know as the Samurai sword, was a
superb weapon. Its unique edge-tempering (compared to the full-blade
tempering of the famous Toledo and Damascus swords of Europe) allowed
a degree of hardness and razor-sharpness impossible to attain in
European swords without danger of brittleness and breakage."
"The actual forging of the blade was a complex process. Strips of two
different grades of steel, or of iron and steel, were welded together
by the smith's hammer. The resulting billet of metal was then folded
upon itself and hammered out again to its original length and
thickness.
This process was repeated many times, until the final blade consisted
of many thin, tightly welded layers of the original metal. When the
forging was completed, the sword smith used file and scraping knife to
give final shape and finish to the blade and tang.
As a result of the forging and finishing process, the un-tempered
portion of the blade of the Japanese sword frequently shows a unique
patterning of the metal similar to wood grain.
The most critical of all the sword making processes was the tempering
of the edge. The smith began by coating the entire blade with a thin
layer of a clay, sand and powdered-charcoal mixture. Then, using a
sharp bamboo stick, he inscribed a line a short distance back from the
edge. The character tern of the tempered portion of the blade.
Variations in shape of the tempering line are among the fine points of
classification used by Japanese sword experts.
Material between the scribed line and the edge was removed and the
rest of the coating allowed to dry. Then, the sword smith heated the
entire edge over his pine charcoal fire until the proper temperature
(judged by the color of the heated metal) was reached. Finally, the
glowing blade was plunged into a tank of warm water."
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The Samaurai - The warrior class of Japan
http://victorian.fortunecity.com/duchamp/410/samurai2.html
"The sword had its beginning as iron combined with carbon. The
swordsmith used fire, water, anvil and hammer to shape the world's
best swords. After forging the blade, the sword polisher did his work
to prepare the blade for the "furniture" that surrounded it. Next, the
sword tester took the new blade and cut through the bodies of corpses
or condemned criminals. They started by cutting through the small
bones of the body and moved up to the large bones. Test results were
often recorded on the nakago (the metal piece attaching the sword
blade to the handle)."
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http://dana.ucc.nau.edu/~pso2/edpage.htm
The samurai sword is one of Japans greatest icons as it has a
tremendously rich history behind it. One of Japans Mythologies states
that the creation of the first sword as a weapon created by the god
Izanagi who used it to kill his son the Fire God. This was because he
had caused Inzanami, his mother, such extreme pain at birth that she
abandoned Inzanagi, and crept away to the underworld. Inzanagi also
had a daughter, Amaterasa Omikami, the Sun Goddess, who gave the sword
to her grandson Ninigi-no Mikoto. He was given this to reign on Earth,
and this was the first sword to arrive in Japan, according to
mythology. To the samurai the sword had a soul or life of its own, in
fact the samurai developed their own code of etiquette on how to
handle and maintain their swords.
In the hands of a skilled worrier the samurai sword was extremely
deadly and efficient. Samurais did not carry shields, so their swords
were both an offensive and a defensive weapon. Over time the sword has
gone through many changes when first introduced to Japan by China and
Korea the swords were straighter than they are now. They were also
less durable; swords were either made of hard steel to hold a edge or
softer steel so it would be more durable. Most sword smiths preferred
to make their swords from ore from some ware in the middle of the soft
and hard. This usually resulted in a sword that would last longer but
it was usually dull.
The Japanese sword smiths really perfected the skill of sword making.
They found that by layering the steel, one hard layer of steel and one
soft layer of steel many times over, resulted in a sword that was very
durable and that could be polished to a razor-like cutting edge and
hold it. In forging the steel to make a sword the Japanese sword smith
would fold and cross-welded the steel many times over, sometimes with
up to 10,000 layers of hard steel and soft steel.
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Traditional Japanese Swordmaking - Ten pages of photos and explanations
http://www.galatia.com/%7Efer/sword/fujiyasu/swordmk.html
(Click on next at bottom of each page for photos)
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You might enjoy reading through the following pages:
http://www.galatia.com/%7Efer/sword/term.html
http://www.quanonline.com/military/military_reference/japanese/sword_anatomy.html
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The History of the Samurai Sword
http://www.inisfail.com/~ancients/sam-sword-hist.html
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Best regards
tlspiegel |
