1.5 million folds in Katanas? Hmm, one of the myths teenage me misunderstood.

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Teenage me was very much into Japanese culture, in particular Budo, Samurai and Katana. I loved martial arts and reading about the exploits of the likes of Miyamoto Musashi.
I marvelled at the peerless skill of the Japanese Swordsmith, folding swords a million times or more, by inference our European medieval equivalents just lacked that level of craftsmanship. I couldn't understand how a swordsmith would make a katana then fold the blade in two along it's length then, repeat the process for a million times. All I knew was they were likely impossibly sharp, anime had taught me that!
Obviously, I learnt this wasn't quite the case and swordsmiths practiced different skills for their required theatres of war, ceremony and tradition.
In this video I take a look at how the original material is worked, using plasticine, while chatting my way through various reasons for it and using plasticine as a training aid for blacksmiths.
Hope it's fun, unearthing my ahem interesting teenage thoughts on Japanese Katana.

Опубликовано:

29 сен 2024

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Комментарии : 24

@joost1120 4 года назад

Now try to unfold it ;)

@jeanladoire4141 4 года назад

Also, carbon has a tendency to migrate and even itself out when heated. So of course good pattern welded steels use modern alloys that keep a good contrast with steel. But if you weld 1045 and 1095 together, they will even out to give like a 1060 homogene piece.

@StealthMoustache 7 месяцев назад

If we assume 10 minutes per fold, it would take you 19 folds and 3.16 hours to complete the 1.5 million folds katana blade, but then add the extra steps for finishing the blade after that.

@madrail9103 3 года назад

actually it would only be about 20 folds as the layer count increases exponentially and 2 to the power of 20 equals 1048576

@knutzzl 3 года назад

Damascus. Place and metal working technique

@brianelkins8604 2 года назад

That is not why it is folded, that is why they do a soft core hard shell construction as well as a clay temper. They fold it to remove the impurities in japanese steel. As you fold it the inclusions come to the surface and flake off as scale. The steel being folded are the same steels, either the hard steel that will become the toco shell or the soft steel that will become the meat. They are folded separately and then forged together like a toco then forged out into blade shape.

@knutzzl 3 года назад

Homogeneous material is probably why copper alloys remained so popular. Before crucible steel Damascus was the only way to make homogeneous iron's,

@brianelkins8604 2 года назад

You should take this video down as ot is wrong in a lot of arias. I am a blacksmith as well as a blade smith.

@woodrowcall3158 Год назад

Name one inaccurate claim he made.

@propeach 4 года назад

Interesting to see this done in clay! It's very clear what's happening here where it might be more difficult to see in similarly coloured steel. Are you familiar with Mokume gane? It's the same process of forge welding dissimilar metals, but with non-ferrous metals of different colours so that the final billet has this beautiful wood grain effect depending on how you work it. I've tried my hand at it recently and it's pretty tough! Gorgeous results though, even with cheap metals like copper and brass.

@GreenleafWorkshop 4 года назад

I've seen some nice mokume game and it's on my list of things to try … for about the last decade. It's a slow moving list :) It is lovely though when it's done well.

@leifbennett1600 4 года назад

For the fun of it: looking it up, an atom of iron has a radius of 0.126 nm, or a diameter of about .25 nm (2.5 x 10^-10 m). Let's guess the thickness of a Japanese blade as 6 mm (6 x 10^-3 m). So folding would produce layers one atom thick at about 2 x 10^7 layers (20 million layers). That would be between 24 and 25 folds, starting with a 2-layer billet. Any more than 24 folds and there couldn't be any layers, due to the size of the atoms. This ignores any effects from atomic migration (which blurs the edges between the layers), imperfections in the layering process, etc., all of which would make the layers disappear with fewer folds. If the starting billet has more layers, then it takes fewer folds to reach the same number of layers. A 4-layer billet drops the number by 1, an 8-layer billet drops the number by 2. So, starting with an 8 layer billet means that 23 folds puts you past the atomic limit, instead of 25 folds.

@GreenleafWorkshop 4 года назад

Amazing, I'll try ;)

@StealthMoustache 7 месяцев назад

@@GreenleafWorkshopI know this is for fun and all but the idea itself is preposterous, you cannot cut anything the size of an atom, since it is so small that even swinging a sword towards it would move the atom, and actually the sword would push the atom around it and you could never even impact the atom let alone create a blade with a edge that thin.

@bobvines00 4 года назад

Graham, one of your young countrymen, Alec Steele, has done this. I _think_ he forged a million+ layer billet of steel(s) last year on his RU-vid channel. I don't recall, but I _think_ he then made a blade of some sort from it & then etched it. I simply don't recall how it turned out.

@GreenleafWorkshop 4 года назад

I'll see if I can track that down, sounds interesting? I guess you're not UK based by this?

@bobvines00 4 года назад

@@GreenleafWorkshop No, I live in Florida in the US.

@boomcookie13 4 года назад

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CtBus_iU-PQ.html

@CNNBlackmailSupport 4 года назад

It would be neat to do the calculations on how many chisels you would need just to split the layered bits for folding.

@CNNBlackmailSupport 4 года назад

It's OK to say no, but... Can I send you my child for an apprenticeship? He barely eats and is amazing at menial tasks like sweeping. You could use a shop sweeper for 8 to 10 years, right? Kid is like a bird, he eats so little. Just throw him some trail mix twice a day. So how bout it?

@GreenleafWorkshop 4 года назад

Nice offer, but I can barely get my own one to sweep the floor, I'd be a terrible boss ;)

@CNNBlackmailSupport 4 года назад

@@GreenleafWorkshop I see you are too shrewd to accept the first offer. I'd expect nothing less. What if I threw in 4 changes of clothes and a Walkman?