From:	Duke Diener <DukeDragon@***.COM>
Subject:	Re: Katanas
Date:	Wed, 28 Jun 1995 22:13:47 -0400

Rat wrote:

>At the lowest quality, Japanese blades were little more than a
>hunk of iron and a hunk of hard steel with an edge; these would break
>fairly easilly. At the higest quality, the techniques used by Murasame
>and the other master craftsmen result in a blade with over 4 million
>layers; very difficult to break.

From Swords and other Hilt Weapons by Micheal D Coe et. al. 1993.

" The smith first prepares his steels by repeatedly heating, quenching,
breaking up, and re-fusing the pieces together in order to obtain the
required degree of purity and adjust the carbon content. Next, a prepared
billet is heated in a charcoal furnace, beaten out and folded, and then
welded back onto itself using a flux of ashes. This process is repeated
several times until the billet is composed of a large number of intimately
welded layers. The SHINGANE, or core steel, is folded just a few times, and
is of relatively low carbon content for final toughness. The HADAGANE, or
skin steel, may be folded as many as fifteen times, although more foldings
than that will cause carbon dispersal across the boundaries of the layers and
break up the layer structure. The hadagane will have a higher carbon content
than the shingane.
Finally, both shingane and hadagane are beaten out into long bars, and
the hadagane folded around the shingane and welded to it throughout its
length. Then the welded length is beaten into its final shape in preparation
for the heat treatment. This involves covering the blade with a mixture of
ingredients, including clays and ashes, leaving only a thin layer along the
cutting edge and a thicker layer on the body of the blade, and heating the
whole to 'the colour of the moon in February or August', and then quenching
it in a trough of water.
The sword now has a central core of tough steel which gives the
resilience required to resist the violent shocks of combat, a hard surface to
deflect the cuts of enemy swords, and a yet harder edge which will retain it
sharpness even when used to cut through hard objects such as iron armor.
After the sword is polished [Swordsmith and polisher are different
craftsman...], the full effect of the complex manufacturing process becomes
evident. ..."

The process is nothing that could not be duplicated or even improved upon by
modern techiques. IMHO the effectiveness if the Katana is its' method of use
not its' method of construction.

Duke