Quote:
Originally Posted by BlueSkyJaunte
Tamahagane arose as a result of the Japanese having to refine iron-bearing sand into steel. The "bloom" resulting from the refining process is folded repeatedly to homogenize the carbon content and various impurities as much as possible.
The resulting product is beautiful, but it is not "better". It's just high-layer forge-welded steel. The argument could be made that due to the extremely lengthy and manual process of making tamahagane, the risk of voids, bad welds, and inclusions is actually higher than in modern-made "Damascus" steel.
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That is actually highly inaccurate.
Tamahagane is the product of tens of tons of iron ore that is smelted into a few pounds of refined steel. The forging process removes any remaining impurities. There are 5,000 layers of steel that are folded into a blade less than a quarter inch thick. Any "voids" or "bad welds" simply do not exist.
Here is an interesting video about the process of making Tamahagane, and then forging it into a sword.:
NOVA | Secrets of the Samurai Sword