#Katana japanese swords skin
#Katana japanese swords full

The yakibatsuchi is applied over the surface, thicker along the spine and thinner at the edge. Every smith has his own special recipe, often a closely kept secret. To begin with, the blade is coated in yakibatsuchi, a mixture of water, clay, ash, and other ingredients. It is the hardening of the edge that gives the blade its ability to take and retain amazing sharpness. The hardening of the edge is in many ways the most important, and the most difficult, aspect of the sword-making process. All that remains is for the smith to prepare the edge. At this time, all the distinctive characteristics of the sword are present-a clearly defined profile, point, and ridgelines, the tang, and an even, level surface.

Once the blade has been forged into its basic form, the smith uses files and planes to bring out the final shape, followed by a rough polish. This welds the layers together and forms the blank from which the finished sword is made. The two layers are heated and hammered out into a long bar.

Additionally, the harder kawagane is better suited to sharpening than the more ductile core. This combination gives the blade both the flexibility and the strength to resist breakage under stress. The outer skin, called kawagane, is then wrapped around a softer iron core, or shingane. The block can be folded repeatedly in the same direction, in alternate directions, or crosswise, each method producing a different style of jihada. The smith can choose specific jihada, such as masame (a straight grain parallel to the edge) or ayasugihada (concentrically curved grain) ( 2001.574), simply by varying the direction of folding. When the blade is finished, the jihada is visible in the ji, the surface between the edge and ridgeline. By folding only fourteen times, over 16,000 layers are produced. Each time the block is hammered out and folded back, layers are formed. Second, the folding produces the jihada, or patterns, for which these blades are so famous. An experienced smith can control with great accuracy the quality of the steel in this way. First, impurities are worked out of the steel and the carbon content is homogenized throughout the metal. The process yields two important results. Next the smith begins the laborious process of hammering out and folding the block back on itself.

#Katana japanese swords skin

This block will form the outer skin of the finished blade. First the smith selects suitable pieces of tama-hagane and forge-welds them into a single block.

In order to correct and compensate for the quality of the tama-hagane, the folding technique of kitae was developed. Too little carbon and the metal will be soft, too much and the metal is brittle.

#Katana japanese swords full

However, the tatara smelting process, though efficient, is not perfect, and tama-hagane is full of impurities and lacks a consistent dispersal of carbon content, the vital ingredient for turning iron into steel. Modern smiths making Japanese swords in the traditional manner still use this type of steel today, now produced in the last operating tatara smelter, located in Yokota, Shimane Prefecture.

Japanese smiths traditionally use tama-hagane, steel produced in a tatara smelter from iron-rich sand. To fashion these blades, the smith not only must possess physical strength, but also patience, dexterity, and a refined eye for the limits of the material and the beauty of a finished sword. The forging of a Japanese sword is a subtle and careful process, an art that has developed over the centuries as much in response to stylistic and aesthetic considerations as to technical improvements.