Quote:
Originally Posted by tevake
I'm surprised not to see the layered steel, or is that called Damascus steel?
I thought that was a hallmark of those old Japanese swords.
Cheers Richard
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You are thinking of damascus steel, and it indeed is layered. The construction of an authentic Japanese Katana would be the forging of several pieces of steel together to form the blade. The cutting edge piece would be very hard steel, the spine a more flexible piece and the side pieces somewhere in the middle. With this arrangement, the sword can be sharpened to a razor edge yet can flex about 30 degrees! When in combat, the Samurai would turn the blade 90 degrees to deflect a blow to protect his sword's edge. The wood "sheath" is just a storage container. The real hardware has the wood blade, who's purpose was to keep all the bits and pieces together in one place. Nice sword!