Hey! I just came on Your channel, after months of watching swordsmithing videos on youtube, i thought there is none about katanas in traditional ways left, and bam, here's you! Great content, i enjoy every minute of your video and work, keep it up!
I've only just found your channel and watched the entire lot tonight, i have never seen such detail of what goes into making a sword in a documentary before. I have been studying Iaido for just over 10 years and have a real admiration for what you are doing. Thankyou..
As a bladesmith myself I can tell before the end of the vid, hearing is one of the best measuring tecnic to know when the steel is ready to hammer. Really inspiring work you do!
I second that- it's rare to get even a little subtitle translation of a fully Japanese lanugage video on smithing, so mostly I/ we are left to surmise why this or that is done. For example, I learned why one splashes water on the anvil by trying it- it's very effective at blowing off scale that would otherwise be between the work and the anvil and be impressed into the work surface. Metal is preserved and kept clean when the scale is absent- very important when working with valuable tamahagane I should think; and just helpful when using industrial steel.
The mysterious power of beauty is what makes me do a lot of things. Maybe it's the reason I live. I think it's a reasonable ambition to see as much beauty in the world in my lifetime as I humanly can. What a good reason to enjoy your craft! :) As always, your video seems to be of the same quality as soft and hard tamahagane fused in the flames of the sun. Or also your soft and hard personality is forged in immortal steel, and semiconductors. Haha ok this is why I do not be a poet. I was going to guess your high tech equipment was the motorized hammer, the fume extractor and the camera. I didn't think like an expert swordsmith. Thank you for continuing to create these videos! I hope the earthquake in Japan was far away from your home and family.
This series of videos showing the secret process of creating such a beautiful piece of deadly artwork has really been a great gift to me personally as i love the Japanese steel work and art form, thank you
ありがとうございます This video series is amazing. Thank you for documenting the process in an in depth way while making the video intriguing. I have been looking for a someone who has documented the katana making process in the traditional method.
I just found your channel and have already subscribed. I can’t wait for more videos. I love seeing such a high level of craftsmanship. Keep up the amazing work 👍🏻
@@YashaYukawa Nej, jag lånade ut den till någon i slutet av 90-talet och fick aldrig den tillbaka. Men jag hittade den pa Adlibris så den kommer att stå i bokhyllan igen snart. Den skapade ett intresse som gjorde att jag under några år jobbade för en token-ya. Följer dig med stollthet och glädje. Blev så glad när jag såg att du lagt ut att du fått din license på fb för några år sedan. 明けましておめでとうございます、頑張って下さい！
Great video! I love your presentation style. I do hope you weren't affected by the earthquake and tsunami that just hit. Can you share some insights into how the forge itself is built? I am working on building a sword length forge.
Thank you! I was unaffected and safe fortunately. Yes, I will take your request regarding info on the forge into consideration and include information in a video coming up soon. It's a fairly simple construction. Basically fire resistant blocks with clay.
@@YashaYukawa It is good to know that you are safe and sound. I am praying for the people of Japan who are affected by this terrible event. Thank you in advance for the information.
I've seen that before for a sword that was to be dedicated to the temple from which the nails came- it's a beautiful continuation of material and spirit. I expect it's doubly meaningful in Japan where objects are, I believe, considered to have spirits of their own. I recall a place where old scissors can be respectfully collected in a recepticle and thanks given for their lives of service. I just love that idea.
This is so interesting, inspiring and somehow relaxing; I’ve watched all the episodes so far and looking forward to new videos in the series 👍. Btw what is in the brown liquid you pour on after pounding? And how was your fireplace area custom made? Have you ever burned yourself by mistake? 😂😎
Thank you, I am happy you're enjoying the videos! The liquid is a clay slurry. I mention the name and purpose of many things in the description section. Please have a look. Thank you for giving me new ideas! Getting burned is unfortunately unavoidable. The eyes are the worst.
I can say from myself it's very seldomly- you do it once and you learn quickly what not to do LOL But it still happens occasionally- as Yasha-san says, it's unavoidable.
I heard you saying that softer steel is used to wrap the harder steel to protect it. I remember that there's another design where harder steel is used to wrap around a softer steel core. Can you explain which is more suitable in what kind of situation? Many thanks
Happy New Year Yasha-san! This was another fascinating video. I can't imagine how stressful it must be to have so many chances for things to go wrong and ruin months of work. I suppose there must be a lot of spiritual acceptance that things may not work, or one would go crazy. I have a question: is the purpose of rolling the steel in rice straw ash before putting it back in the forge a measure to minimize carbon loss at the surface? Or is it actaully for some form of carburization? I was always told that if the steel sparkles, you have over-heated it, but obviously it's not so in all cases as many Japanese smiths manage with it just fine.
Thank you, and Happy New Year! You are absolutely right regarding the accepting attitude. Yes, it's both protecting and carburizing as well as working as a flux. At this stage of steel-production, the temperature we work in, inevitably creates lots of sparkles. thats one reason we need rise ashes and clay.
@@YashaYukawa Great, thanks! A great blacksmith called Rowan Taylor always says wrought iron is self-fluxing due to the remaining impurities it will ultimately have, and since you use no direct flux like borax in your joints, I suspected the same was the case for the folding process- but I hadn't thought that the straw ash would assist in I guess cleaning the exterior and maybe assisting in conducting the impurities out when welding? I, myself, have started adding more borax to my welds on the outside to protect it from oxidation, the way your clay slurry does (so thanks for that information), and it seems to do a good job. I knew I'd learn useful things from your videos ;)
I like your videos and presentation approach, however I am missing something: you mention at the end that the hard steel is wrapped in soft steel, but i failed to see where this happened. Are you going to show in a separate video the method you used? Cause this is one of the most intriguing aspects of the process.
Sorry for disappointing you. These videos are made without any budget, free to watch. Unfortunately, I can't finance a cameraman for every single step, and also, being recorded is actually very distracting for my work. (I'm a swordsmith not a youtuber) Concentration on my craft, and the demands from my customers is first, and whenever I find it possible, I will make the documentations. As a gift...
Amazing! First of all happy new year! I like how you wait for the steel to "hiiissssss" when it begins to spark up, and that you use the ashes right after pulling it from the fire to block oxygen from degrading the steel! Why is it preferred in Japan to use clay instead of sand for the weld? I believe sand melts slightly more easily, and cleans up impurities very well, but i've never tried clay so i cannot compare. Have you tried sand? Also, you explained that you put an external layer of soft steel on a hard core, but we only saw you fold a homogenous bar of steel in the video. Did you mix soft and hard steel together to make a medium carbon steel with it?
Thank you, and wish you a Happy New Year! I've never tried or even heard of using sand. interesting. Every step in the process was not possible to document in detail, but I usually roll or fold the different steels inside each other.
@@YashaYukawa oh wow okay, so sand isn't used in japan... In europe and a bunch of other countries, it was the traditional welding powder since antiquity. I always assumed everyone else in the world used sand, so i was surprised to see japanese smiths use clay! (if you want to try sand, use pure silica sand, or in the old days, blacksmiths used crushed old grindstones, wich are sandstone. You need to apply the sand when the steel is yellow or white hot, so it melts and becomes like molten glass) But anyways, i'll be waiting for your next videos!
@@YashaYukawa i thought so, Ive also heard that there were some Katana (still around i assume) that have over a billion layers in them (over 30 folds i believe) does it depend on the individual piece of tamahagane or do the stars have to align? And what is the preferred amount of folds if i may ask? And when you make the Tamahagane block, i know you use the broken piece to stack but theres a flat base of Tamahagane that you stack on. what did you use to make that and what metal did you use for the core of the katana???
I don't need my sense of smell to judge the temperature, but it sure is a great tool in many other areas. And yes you are right, we sure need strict routine, and perhaps routine is the soil where intuition grows.
I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO SAY. THE KNIVES YOU INCORPORATED ARE MY DREAM KNIVES EVEN BROKEN. I AM HAPPY THAT THEY WENT FROM SCRAP TO A MUCH HIGHER FORM THAN COVETED CHEFS KNIVES. THEY TRANSFORMED INTO A SWORD. 😊
