Probably nowhere in the world is a gun so revered as in Japan. In the land of the rising sun, the blade is a treasure and a family heirloom. The Japanese sword is a philosophy, an art. There are many varieties of this national weapon, and among them one can single out a katana - a “long sword”. Although now the Japanese call any Japanese sword that.
If you describe the Japanese katana sword, then outwardly it resembles a saber. The difference lies only in the shape of the handle and in the method of use. Its handle, unlike the saber, is not curved, and it requires a two-handed grip. Basically, this weapon was worn behind the belt along with the wakizashi. The total length of the sword is 1000-1100 mm. It came into use from the 16th century.
Perfect melee weapon - Japanese sword
Collectors consider the samurai sword to be the most flawless weapon in the world. For them, katana is a materialized philosophy, a reflection of the world, frozen in metal. For the manufacture of this sword, a special iron ore with impurities of tungsten and molybdenum was used. Forto remove weak points, metal rods were buried in a swamp for 8 years, and only after this period the metal was sent to the forge for further processing. During this period, rust ate away weak spots.
Japanese sword - manufacturing process
The making of a katana blade is often compared to the process of making puff pastry. The bars were first flattened into thin foil with a hammer. The result was a multi-layer stack, which again flattened. This procedure was repeated once more. It was in this way that it was possible to obtain numerous layers of a katana blade, which are admired by modern experts in melee weapons. The steel of the blade was hardened in liquid clay. After hardening, a straight or curved line (hamon) formed along the blade, which distinguishes a real Japanese sword from a fake.
Then the blade was ground on nine circles of different grain sizes. The master's blade was processed manually, with fingertips, using charcoal as an abrasive. The famous master left his mark or name on the tang of the sword. Such weapons are extremely valuable, as a rule, they were inherited and marked as a separate item in the will. It is not known how much a katana costs, but very often much more than all the possessions of a samurai.
The value of the Japanese blade
A katana sword and a wakizashi made in pairs are worth more than one Japanese sword. Of course, if we are not talking about ancient and unique katana, the cost of which can reach a million dollars. Wakizashi is a small sword forritual suicide. A real samurai must have both a katana and a wakizashi.
Real Japanese katana have a number of unique characteristics. For example, the number of metal layers can reach up to 50 thousand, and some ancient swords are made with 200 thousand layers. The katana sword is a self-sharpening weapon due to the orderly movement of molecules in the metal. Therefore, you can hang a sword with a blunt blade on the wall and after a while remove a completely razor-sharp blade.
