The Process To Make A Handmade Samurai Sword
The Samurai Sword is often described as the very soul of the Samurai Warrior. The process to make one of these magnificent creations has been perfected over hundreds of years. The Samurai Sword contains the ideal properties needed for a weapon of its kind, it must be flexible enough so that it does not break in battle, but hardened enough so that it maintains its sharp edge after much use.
Process to make a handmade samurai sword
The first step in the process to create the perfect handmade Samurai Sword is to create the right steel. Only the purest steel is used to make the sword, which is known as tamahagane, or jewel steel. They start with iron bearing river sand and add charcoal. Approximately 25 tons of these first ingredients are added into a large smelter and heated to temperatures in excess of 2500 degrees. The iron is continually reduced using the carbon as charcoal to fuel the needed high temperatures. When the process is completed, the 25 tons of raw materials becomes only 2 tons of the finished product, tamahagane.
It is important to note that during the smelting process that the mixture is never allowed to come to a molten state. This is done to make sure that just the right amount of carbon is absorbed into the steel. By watching the amount of carbon the steel absorbs, the sword smith prepares two grades of tamahagane, high-carbon and low-carbon. This is done to ensure that the final weapon is does not become too dull too quickly, nor too brittle and break in combat.
The next step in the process is the most tedious. The sword maker must begin folding the tamahagane over and over onto itself to remove the last impurities in the steel. The iron and carbon in the steel will continue to combine as it is continually folded. Any of these impurities that are not removed could weaken the Samurai Sword’s blade.
After all impurities are removed, the actual forging of the samurai sword begins. The master smith begins with high-carbon tamahagane and shapes it into a long, u-shaped channel. He then takes the low-carbon steel and shapes it to fit exactly into the channel he just made. This allows the sword to take shape as the tough low-carbon steel forms the base of the high-carbon hard steel that will hold the Samurai Swords edge.
Once the Samurai Sword is formed it must be coated. Just prior to firing the sword for the last time, he paints a thick, insulating mixture of clay and charcoal powder onto the blade’s upper sides and dull back edge, leaving the sword’s sharp front edge only lightly coated. This serves both to protect the blade and to give it its signature wavy design called the hamon, which later polishing will show. The sword smith then places the katana back into the fire to be heated to just below 1,500°F. Heated any hotter and the sword might crack during the next step.
On the last firing, the smith quenches the blade. This is done by placing the still hot sword into a large trough of water in order to cool it down very quickly. Because the sword’s back edge and inner core contain little carbon, they can contract more than the high-carbon steel at the front edge of the blade. The difference in both the degree and speed of contraction between the two forms of tamahagane causes the sword to bend, creating the distinctive curve. If the sword was forged incorrectly, it can break. More handmade Samurai Swords are lost in this step of the process than any other.
Now it is time to polish the blade. The blade is polished using water stones. These stones are highly sought after and are usually handed down generation to generation. The polishing process can take as much as two weeks and is only completed when the sword achieves its signature razor sharp edge.
At this point, once the blade is completed, the blade itself is usually handed off to a number of different craftsmen who will fashion the hilt, scabbard, and adornments that give each handmade Samurai Sword its unique individuality.
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