We will explain, verify and also experiment about logics and theories related to Samurai culture.
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■ Members Hito: I was born in Hiroshima and grew up in Tokyo. Ever since I began practicing Iai, I've been captivated by the wisdom and elegance of Samurai culture. This fascination has driven me to research and explore various aspects of their way of life. I can't wait to share my intriguing discoveries with you all!
Peng: I was born and raised in Penang, Malaysia. My fascination with Japanese cuisine and culture began when I started watching Japanese dramas and anime. Since moving to Tokyo in 2014 (yay!), I've encountered and learned so many interesting things about Japan. I can't wait to share my exciting experiences and discoveries with you all!
This is really interesting. I am an American blacksmith and I practice traditional European smithing. I make smaller tools, horseshoes, and blades, so I have not cooled that much metal at one time ever. The structural changes are immense and the stress that would put on the metal is incredible; the creators of these blades must be experts at their craft to not crack half the blades they make. I dropped a hammer yesterday after hardening it and 4 pounds of steel shattered like glass. I was very sad. It would be depressing to have stress cracks in a beautiful sword before you can temper it; to see one explode would be disheartening indeed.
Hey just wanted to see if you could make a video about katana maintenance, preferably older Nihonto maintenance. I was recently gifted a nihonto from the Edo period, around 1650’s from my father in law. I know the basic maintenance the traditional way, but am just nervous I am doing something wrong. Furthermore, I was only gifted the koshirae, and do not have a shirasaya mounting. How could I go about getting one? If you do make a video, please be very detailed about all the materials!
the sheath for mine has split halfway down the middle. How should i fix it? i wanna say its a katana but its to short to be but much larger than a knife. Its strait from japan and came home with my father and i would like to keep it in the best condition as well as the most original condition. any tips?
I was about to heat up and unbend the tip of a knife. I was going to quench it with a wet paper towel but was wondering on which side to do that so it doesn't go back to being bent as I did. @_@ Now I'm really confused
It's nice to see someone that knows what they're talking about as there's a few videos on how to clean a katana. That's one company paints their blades and they wonder why they get black paint and they're cleaning rags for their cleaning kit that they push on people plus painting the blades will cause friction reduce the cutting power these blades weren't even clay tempered.
You basically annealed the bar that wasn't quenched. You didn't perform yakiire. As a blade Smith This was extremely difficult to watch and contains zero accurate information.
This was a really wonderful presentation. I dont think I have ever seen anyone go into so much detail about the chemical / physical processes involving the production and patination of shakudo. Very interesting and informative.
Is there any practice in creating more resilient Katanas? Not to displace history, I think all practices should be kept based on information levels and accessibility
Very good content, thanks for sharing this. I’ve studied a few English sources on this subject that rely on second and third hand information, it’s great that you are coming straight from the original sources.
The purpose of the clay is to SLOW the cooling process on the spine of the blade. By doing that, the edge cools really fast and becomes really hard martinsitic steel, yet the spine becomes a softer and more flexible perlite. This gives a sword with an amazing cutting edge, but it's not so brittle all the way through that it's in risk of cracking during use. Fascinating process!
while your explanations on the metallurgy are very good, saying a sword blade can cut easily trough iron is just plainly false. A sharp and thin edge will take damage when striking a hard surface, such as iron. That's just how it is, even steel has its limitations. From what i've seen, katanas are somewhat thicker than european swords, and therefore probably tougher at the edge, but in that case it's not the material that changes the outcome of striking iron, it's the geometry. European swords were too made of tempered martensitic steel from medium carbon wich is both hard and extremely tough, some argue probably tougher than tamagahane, but i do not believe steel made from iron sand is lower quality than european steel made from iron oxide ore. I think some videos to demonstrate how awesome katanas are, are fake, or misleading. Show me a video where someone cuts trough an iron/steel pipe with a katana and i'll remove everything i've said. But there's just no way, so i'm not worried. Even the best quality carbon steel will have limited performances against hard materials. I suppose you can cut trough a thin sheet of mild steel, making a small dent or very dull spot in your blade as a tradeoff, or a chip if the blade was of lesser quality (or just left too hard). But if you've seen a video of someone cutting trough an iron pipe "with ease" then it was aluminium, not iron or steel. It's kinda dumb, but if it was possible to cut or punch trough iron plates, nobody would wear armor. You would DESTROY your beautiful katana on someone's armor, and you would just scrape and dent the iron plates.
While everything you said is very true, i think there's a misconception that's created around Japanese techniques. People talk about Japanese techniques, explaining the mechanisms and practices, but never mention how the process was done in other parts of the world to give context. That's why we have myths such as "tamagahane is a terrible steel and you need to fold it to get any strength from it, because it's such a bad steel", except that's not accurate. Tamagahane is actually of impressive quality. The blooms i've seen are tight, highly carburized, and somewhat slag free. People don't realize that pretty much all the "japanese techniques" around blacksmithing are actually common practice around the world. So making bloomery steel just like tamagahane was just the standard way of making steel since antiquity, anywhere else on earth. Folding the steel to refine is was the ONLY commonly known way of making steel in any form across the world and since antiquity. Same for using sparks, or welding a carbon steel edge on a lower quality iron body, or quenching in water, or watching the sparks to tell if the steel is hot enough... People never say these techniques were common across the world, and viewers end up thinking it's specifically japanese swords that are made of folded steel and whatnot.
What actually impresses me is how even the temperature is, across such a long blade. That's tricky to do. Your explanations were really good, but i would add one more detail : the curvature of the sword is slightly delayed, because martensite (the hardened crystal form of steel) only forms at lower temperatures (about 180C). This means as long as the water boils, the steel doesn't really expand into the martensite, so it adds some delay before the curving. That's also why when quenching blades in hot oil, you can actually hammer them straight and bend them for a few seconds, as the blade still isn't cold enough to harden (but the quench still collapsed the austenite)
Tamahagane is made from Ironsand, from a video I watched of one of the few traditional blacksmiths to make Tamahagane from Ironsand, they used 30kg of Ironsand and got about 7.3kg of Tamahagane (Usually they get 10kg but something went wrong), so they made a knife. I deeply enjoy watching how Japanese Blacksmiths forge Katana's and other blades, especially through traditional methods.
This also is why, in some cases, there is a metal "brace" at the opening of the scabbard, like a metal bracket which meets with the tsuba of the sword. This is mostly found in military grade swords of WW2 katanas. But obviously they were keen about the un- initiated in the handling of a dangerous weapon.
Thank you for making this video and for your quick translation of the Soken Kisho in particular. I think you might be interested in the videos on Japanese Metalwork by Mr. Ford Hallam. Its well worth to check out his youtube channel. Thank you again.
@wondercarl I have always love Mr Ford’s work :) it is a coincidence that you recommend his channel! Thank you so much for your kind words :) they are encouraging!
Well if I remember correctly if the sword wasnade of western trade steel ( nanban tetsu) or Chinese steel that sometimes made it's way into Japan the loss of steel while forging was greatly reduced because those would be usually sold already consolidated into bars with a more homogeneous carbon distribution as opposed to being bloom steel like tamahagane
the sparks are a sign of burning carbon, which is quite bad to see when forging refined steel but for tamahagane it is right as it creates a temperature range that makes it easy to weld and also remove impurities during the forge welding. that is why this head is avoided after the tamahagane has been made into a solid billet.
