How to make a samurai sword from iron. How to make a wood katana: simple tips - easy crafts. Manufacture of katana handle frame elements
The sword blade is like
The flow of a mountain stream.
I admire them on a transparent summer morning.
Have you ever touched a samurai sword and felt at hand not cold steel, but a hot, living flow of energy? As if this blade contains the soul of the master who made it, and the emotions of the warriors who pulled it out of its sheath to protect the honor of the samurai.
The katana appeared in the everyday life of Japanese warriors around the 12th-13th centuries, and over the centuries since then, its design has hardly changed. The sword fell into the hands of the samurai already spiritualized, it takes years to make it.
Each generation of masters brought their own nuances to the manufacture of katana.
Today, swords of 4 eras are distinguished:
- Kato (made before the 16th century inclusive);
- Shinto (17th century);
- Shinshinto (late 18th-early 19th century);
- modern Gendaito.
The reason for this difference is not that the traditions of the Kato masters were lost, but that other raw materials were used to produce swords of later eras, which affect the combat qualities of the weapon. For example, modern katanas and Shinshinto swords easily cut bamboo bundles, while Shinto blades crumble and Kato crumple.
Metal production
The metal from which the ancient katana is made has a unique layered structure. There are several technologies for obtaining high-quality weapon steel for katana.
The first way to make steel
Iron ore, rich in tungsten and molybdenum impurities, was mined from satetsu sand. The resulting raw material was burned, cut into crumbs and burned again. This process saturated iron with carbon, turning it into raw steel - oroshigane. To separate high-quality steel from metal weakened by the presence of slags, oroshigane was forged, cooled in water and crushed, easily breaking out slagged pieces. Water quality was of great importance, so most of the forges were located near mountain rivers and springs. Since the raw steel was not homogeneous enough, it was forged and welded several times until a high-quality pure steel was obtained.
The second way to make steel
Another method of obtaining steel appeared in Manchuria and was actively used by Japanese craftsmen at the end of the 14th century. It consisted in the long-term smelting of iron ore in Tatar furnaces. The process was labor-intensive, expensive, but effective: to obtain 5 tons of smelted metal, called kera, it took several days and more than a dozen tons of coal. Almost half of the kera is steel with a 1.5 percent carbon content. The rest was a conglomeration of several metals, including zuku cast iron.
Before becoming a weapon steel, the metal had to pass one more test - the test of time. The workpiece was buried in moist soil near volcanoes and geysers, and in a few years the rust had eaten away the “weak” parts of the metal.
Metal processing: carbon reduction
From the carbon-enriched steel obtained by one of the indicated methods, a blank was made for the future blade. At the same time, it was necessary to reduce the saturation of steel with carbon, since its content of more than 0.8% makes the metal hard, but brittle after hardening.
Carbon was burned out directly from the blank of the blade in stages. Raw steel was forged into a plate, cooled in water and split. The resulting pieces were sorted and laid out on a spatula made of iron or raw steel, fixed with clay and forged at high temperature. The resulting bar was folded in half, notched across, welded, then folded in half again, this time notched along and welded again.
Several such cycles were carried out, up to 15. With each such doubling, the carbon content decreased: after the first stage by 0.3%, after each subsequent stage by 0.03%. Thus, it was possible to quite accurately catch the moment when the level of hydrogen in the steel decreased to the desired 0.8%. What will be the final composition of the steel, each master decided for himself: someone preferred to work with a strong, but softer metal, and someone was interested in hardness, even if the blade became very brittle.
Each doubling step added new layers to the workpiece. From a mathematical point of view, there should be millions of them, but since the molecules of the thinnest plates were mixed during the welding process, in reality, several thousand layers were obtained.
Techniques of various weapons schools
Each of the more than 1,800 weapons schools had their own secrets for forging blades from the resulting high quality steel. But at the same time, each master followed the same rule for all: the blade of a long sword should be hard, and the rest of the parts should be strong, but softer.
Most craftsmen made blades in three layers according to the san-mai scheme: a hard but brittle sharply honed blade is surrounded on both sides by softer viscous iron plates. A slightly improved technology involved wrapping a steel blade with an iron "shirt" on three sides.
In the famous province of Bizen, recognized as the weapons center of Japan, they used a completely opposite technological method - kobu-shi. Craftsmen from Bizen used iron to make the base of the blade, which was “wrapped” with weapon steel. The blade of the blade was forged from a solid part of the steel "shirt". At the same time, it was necessary to know special methods of hardening, which would provide the blade with high elasticity without loss of hardness.
Types of Japanese blades.
Sharpening and grinding
Having made a slightly curved 60–70 cm blade 3 cm wide from the resulting steel, the master proceeded to sharpening and grinding. The katana is sharpened on only one side so that the sword can be used both in mounted and on foot battles. The shift of the center of gravity towards the tip facilitates the application of chopping blows.
The blade was also ground in stages, each time reducing the graininess of the grinding wheel (in total, 9-12 circles were used). At the last stage, the master polished the steel with his fingertips with finely ground charcoal. The appearance of a mirror shine meant the birth of the katana.
After polishing, a longitudinal line appeared on the blade - jamon, denoting the border between the matte surface of the steel blade and the mirror-shiny softer part, jigane. On the highest quality blades, jigane has a hada pattern similar to the surface of Damascus steel.
katana blade
Sometimes jamon is called a hardening line, which is not entirely true, but has a basis. If the blade was hardened using the kobushi technology, then the jamon was manifested through the use of clay. Before hardening, the part of the blade, which was supposed to maintain viscosity, was coated with clay, leaving the blade area free. The blade was heated and hardened in water. At the same time, the open part cooled down faster, acquiring the desired hardness, and the part hidden under the clay became more elastic due to the long cooling. At the junction of these areas, jamon appeared. The blade, hardened in this way, was called yaki-ba, which means burnt.
Connoisseurs call the sword of the samurai, the katana, the most perfect edged weapon that has ever been created by man.
They have survived to this day and do not lose popularity. Since ancient times, katana has been made from damask steel - "Anosov" steel, but it is dangerous to fight with such a tool, so we will put aside the original samurai weapon for now, let it decorate the interior.
If you decide to study the ancient art of the samurai, then the bokken, a wooden analogue of the blade, is perfect as a training weapon. "How to make a katana out of wood?" - many people asked themselves such a question, but only a small number of samurai mastered the technique of wooden bokken.
Features of a wooden katana
Japanese culture is rich in traditions. For hundreds of years, training swords have been used in samurai art. In the East, there are many schools that study martial arts. Depending on belonging to a particular school, the bokken sword has its own parameters and name. For example, for the manufacture of Bokuto bokken, a white tree is used or The length of such a blade is 102 cm, and the weight varies within 580-620 grams. As for the Casey-Ryu bokken, such a weapon is more weighty and, with its length of 102 cm, weighs 730 grams.
Bokken is a replica of a katana made of wood, which has been used since time immemorial to learn the samurai craft. When you learn how to make a katana out of wood, you will be surprised, because this process is not laborious.
The shape of the bokken completely duplicates the shape of the katana, but due to the material used to manufacture the weapon, it weighs less. How to make a do-it-yourself katana from wood and get a quality product? Choose the right material. For the manufacture of bokken, wood of such species is mainly used:
- oak: white, red, black, brown;
- hornbeam.
The blade of a wooden bokken, like that of a real katana, is beveled at an angle of 45 ° at the end, and the blade profile has a flattened oval or round shape. It depends on the type of weapon.
A distinctive feature of the samurai bokken is the absence of a guard, a transverse lining that protects the hand from the enemy's weapon sliding along the blade. A shallow cut is made along everything - “hi”, due to which the bokken makes a characteristic whistling sound when struck.
How to make a wooden katana
Today you will learn how to make a katana out of wood by following a simple instruction.
Possession training takes place with the bokken, which is why the need to make or buy this instrument is so common.
Walkthrough
- To get started, you need a drawing. You can draw a rough drawing of a katana or download a ready-made template from the Internet.
- Having made the workpiece, proceed to processing, starting with the handle. Process the place under it with a file and a planer.
- Give the blade a shape by removing excess wood according to the template with the help of tools.
- Round the tip and smooth the corners of the handle.
- Sand the handle and blade with sandpaper.
If desired, you can cut out and attach the guard, but most bokken are made without this element.
Now you know how to make a wood katana. It turns out that this is not as difficult as it might seem. Even a beginner in this business can cope with such a task.
The production of a katana consists of many stages and can take up to several months. At the beginning, pieces of tamahagane steel are stacked together, poured with a clay solution and sprinkled with ash. This is necessary to remove slag from the metal, which, during melting, comes out of it and is absorbed by clay and ash. After that, the pieces of steel are heated to let them connect with each other. Then the resulting block is forged with a hammer: it is flattened and folded, then flattened again and folded again - and so the number of layers is doubled (with 10 folding 1024 layers, with 20 - 1048576) Thus, carbon is distributed evenly in the workpiece, due to which the hardness of the blade in each of its area will be the same. Further, softer steel must be added to the tamahagane block so that the blade does not break under high dynamic loads. During the forging process, which lasts for several days, the block is stretched in length and the structure of the blade and its original shape are created by composing strips with different hardness. After that, a layer of liquid clay is applied to the future blade - to prevent overheating and oxidation. During the hardening process, while observing the technological process, jamon is formed between the yakiba (hard part with a cutting edge) and hiraji (softer and more flexible part). This pattern takes its final form at the moment of tempering the sword and appears in the process of polishing. Jamon, unlike the zone hardening line, is a material at the junction of two steels, from which the blade is forged, showing how well the katana creator is skilled. This is followed by hardening: the blade is heated to a temperature strictly dependent on the metal that is used for forging and cools quickly, as a result of which the atomic structure of one of the composites passes into the state of martensite, and the cutting edge acquires extreme hardness. After that, a long process of giving the blade its final shape, sharpening and polishing is carried out, which the polisher carries out using stones of various grain sizes (up to 9 steps). At the same time, the master pays special attention to achieving perfectly flat surfaces and strict angles of the edges between the mating surfaces. At the end of the sharpening, the master works with very small plate stones, which he holds with one or two fingers, or with special boards. With special care, the manifestation of all the details and features of the hud is carried out. In some cases, especially by modern craftsmen, non-hardened parts of the blade are engraved with a decorative character, mainly of a Buddhist theme. After polishing and decorating the handle, which takes a few more days, the katana is ready.
Steel
By tradition, Japanese swords are made from refined steel. The process of their manufacture is unique in its “traditionality” (according to Pseudo-Aristotle, the inventors of iron metallurgy, the Khalibs, dealt with such raw materials) and is due to the use of ferruginous sand, which is cleaned under high temperatures to obtain iron with higher purity. Steel is mined from iron sand. Previously, the process took place in the Tatara oven (rectangular cheese oven). The composition of the crack obtained from the sands is heterogeneous, the proportion of carbon in it varies from 0.6 to 1.5%. For a sword, steel with a constant percentage of carbon is required (approximately 0.6-0.7%). In order to completely clean the metal and achieve the required and uniform carbon content in it, a special folding technique was created, the high efficiency of which is comparable to its labor intensity. A feature of ferruginous sand is the low content of sulfur and phosphorus, which contribute to segregation (violation of the crystal structure of steel) and therefore are undesirable. For the same reason, low-sulfur charcoal is used during forging.
First, the steel fragments are forged into ingots, which in turn are heated, folded in length and width, and again returned to their previous shape by forging.
During forging, steel burns out, as a result of which the metal loses weight. At the same time, the share of carbon decreases due to oxidation. To control these processes, ingots with different carbon content are combined during forging. After repeated addition of steel, numerous thinnest layers are formed, which, after special polishing and sharpening, become noticeable on the surface of the blade.
This technique serves exclusively to clean the steel, to achieve a uniform structure and to control the carbon content. The opinion that a good katana should consist of as many layers of steel as possible is erroneous. Depending on the quality of the tamahagane and the desired percentage of carbon, the ingot is reforged 10 to 20 times. The blacksmith (like Kanenobu or someone of his kind) repeats the cycle as many times as necessary to obtain a homogeneous ingot with the required characteristics. Excessive stretching of this process softens the steel and leads to further loss of metal due to waste.
Factory-made Japanese swords from World War II typically contain 95.22 to 98.12% iron and 1.5% carbon, making the steel very hard. Additionally, it contains a certain amount of silicon, which gives the blade high flexibility and high impact strength. Copper, manganese, tungsten, molybdenum, and occasional inclusions of titanium may be present in moderate amounts (depending on where the raw material is mined).
Not all steel is suitable for making a sword. The original forged sword is made, unlike cheap copies, not from 440A stainless steel, that is, tool steel obtained by rolling, having a Rockwell hardness of 56 HRC and unsuitable as a material for katana. In addition, a genuine sword does not have a wave-like sharpening, engraving or etching that imitates jamon. The degree of hardness inherent in the originals is achieved only through special processing of the metal. During forging, the crystal structure of the steel is also formed. Hardening of the cutting side to 62 HRC together with elasticity guarantees the high quality of Japanese blades. Due to its high hardness (60-62 HRC), the sword retains its sharpness for a long time. Exceptional cutting ability in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the blade (as opposed to cutting in the longitudinal direction - like a saw that moves along its longitudinal axis), the principle of which is also involved in the shaving process, that is, when the blade moves at a right angle strictly perpendicular to its plane , is due to the use of pure iron carbide, due to which, when sharpening, a very thin blade is achieved without notches. Iron carbide is usually formed in rusting steel, while high-tech stainless steel does not give such a smooth blade without serrations. However, these microscopic serrations make the blade look like a miniature saw, which is an advantage of such a weapon, provided that the appropriate fighting technique is used. Already the Vikings in the early Middle Ages skillfully mastered the technique of multilayer forging of steel for swords; in use were very spectacular Damascus blades, which in shape had nothing to do with Japanese ones. The Franks also produced good steel that did not need to be folded to achieve uniformity. In terms of the technological steelmaking and forging process, aimed at the required properties of the material, and the features of surface treatment, Japanese steel products did not resemble European ones, which was due to fundamentally different combat techniques and differences in the design of armor.
hardening
Just like the Western blacksmiths of the Middle Ages, who used zone hardening, Japanese masters harden their blades not evenly, but differentially. Quite often, the blade is initially straight and gets a characteristic curve as a result of hardening, giving the blade a hardness of 60 HRC, and the back of the sword - only 40 HRC. Hardening is based on a change in the crystal structure of steel: due to the rapid cooling of the hot metal (usually in a water bath), austenite turns into martensite, which has a larger volume. Because of this, the cutting part of the sword is stretched and the sword is bent. A curved sword has the advantage that it cuts better and delivers a more effective strike. Therefore, this type has become widespread.
Before hardening, the sword is covered with a mixture of clay and coal powder (other ingredients may be contained). A thinner layer is applied to the cutting edge than to other parts of the blade. For hardening, the blade heats up more than the back. At the same time, it is important that, despite the temperature difference (for example, 750-850 degrees C), the sword in cross section and the reverse side are heated evenly. During cooling in warm water, the blade, which is heated more than the rest of the parts, cools faster and receives a higher martensite content than the rest of the blade. The boundary of this narrow zone (hamon) is clearly visible after the sword has been hardened and polished. It is not a line, but a rather wide zone (here the yakiba (“burnt blade”) is confused - the actually hardened part of the blade, and the jamon - a narrow line separating the hardened part from the unhardened part).
Some master blacksmiths give the jamon a more intricate shape by applying the clay in waves, irregularly, or in narrow oblique lines. The drawing of the jamon obtained in this way serves to identify the belonging of the sword blade to a particular blacksmithing school, but, as a rule, is not an indicator of quality. You can find blades of very high quality with a straight, no more than a millimeter wide jamon, as well as specimens with a very wavy pattern, which are considered rough work, and vice versa. Jamon with many narrow "waves" forms narrow elastic areas (ashi) in the sword that prevent the spread of cracks in the metal. However, in the event of a transverse crack, the sword becomes unusable.
By changing the duration and temperature of heating prior to cooling, the blacksmith can also achieve other effects on the surface of the sword (for example, nie and nioi - characteristic martensite formations of various sizes).
Hardening (heating and cooling) is followed by tempering - heating the hardened product in a furnace, followed by slow cooling. At a temperature of about 200 degrees C, internal stresses in the metal are relieved, due to which the necessary balance of hardness and toughness is achieved.
Heat treatment is a very delicate step in the production of katana, and even an experienced master blacksmith can fail here. In this case, the sword is re-tempered and released. However, the process can only be repeated a limited number of times: if all attempts fail, the blade is considered defective.
Polishing
After completing his part of the work, which also includes surface treatment with a sen tool that looks like a metal scraper, the blacksmith passes the sword to the polisher - togishi. His task is to sharpen and polish the blade - first with rough stones, then with finer ones. Work on one blade at this stage lasts approximately 120 hours. Togishi not only sharpens the sword, but also uses various techniques to highlight the metal structure on the surface of the blade, jamon, and hada, which are the “skin” of the product and give an idea of the forging technique. At the same time, it is possible to eliminate minor flaws that have arisen during the manufacturing process.
Above the fighting qualities of the sword today, the quality of steel and aesthetic properties are valued, which are achieved only through technologically correct polishing. At the same time, the shape and geometry of the sword, which the blacksmith gave it, must be completely preserved. Therefore, the craft of a polisher also implies an exact knowledge of the style of a particular blacksmith, as well as blacksmith schools of past centuries.
We present our achievements in video fencing on katana, machete knife. After watching our films, you may discover some new aspects of history, weapons, culture. This section presents the techniques of fencing, the technique of their implementation, the technique of movement during execution. Knife fight videos of developments in techniques and techniques - will please anyone who is seriously involved in knife fighting. We pay a lot of attention to technique, all our lessons are designed so that you can see not just a quick execution of techniques, but understand how this technique is performed. Therefore, the display is often performed in a slightly slowed down format, which does not negate, of course, its fast execution during running time. Separately, there are sparrings - a video of a knife fight. Here you can see the real application of the techniques shown earlier in other videos.
Small feature films related to weapons, the history of samurai, the manufacture of samurai swords, traditions, old photographs and much more stand apart. We sincerely hope you enjoy these films.
Another aspect of our knife fighting videos is the testing of punches and weapons on real flesh - on pieces of meat - on pork knuckles, pork bokeh. This is necessary in order to understand HOW a particular weapon strikes, what passes and what does not, and often common myths are dispelled during such testing. We do not want to become like Discovery or Cold Steel, not at all, but we like their format and we have adopted it for ourselves.
We sincerely hope that our videos of knife fighting, katana and machete tricks will not disappoint you and you will find something useful for yourself in them.
DIY katana sharpening
Sharpening a katana with your own hands is not as difficult as it might seem.
In ancient times in Japan, there were special craftsmen who sharpened water stones for weeks. There were always very few such masters, and the services were insanely expensive. Not only the cutting edge itself was processed, but the blade itself was polished - all this was part of the understanding of sharpening a katana. Today, sharpening is understood as processing only the cutting edge of the blade and bringing it to a razor-sharp state.
Contrary to popular belief, this is quite easy to do today and at home with your own hands. The standard cost of a single blade sharpening is from 1500 rubles. But what can you do yourself at home - how to sharpen the blade so as not to spoil it? Well, firstly, you need to understand why you are sharpening your katana. For chopping rice straw makiwara is one thing, for chopping let's put not too thick tree trunks - this is another thing, for chopping all sorts of meat items such as sausages - this is somewhat third.
We will carry out a real sharpening of a katana at home with our own hands.
A Chinese katana was taken as a weapon, hardness up to 52 - 54 units, monosteel, spring, nothing unusual, a fairly cheap sample.
For sharpening, a musat, a fiscars-type grinding device with rotating stones, and a bottle of oil were taken.
First, from the blade - a completely working one, which has just been chopped in a variety of plastic bottles with the help of musat, all small roughness and burrs are removed.
Then, a fiscars-type grinding device sharpens the knurling of the cutting edge of the katana.
The result is checked on a sheet of paper. As a rule, one pass is not enough for normal paper cutting and razor sharpness, and therefore the blade is lubricated with oil and again rolled into sharpeners.
Slowly, a katana blade can be sharpened in three to five steps.
As you can see from the video, a sharpened katana cuts paper like a razor.
Today we will learn how to make a wooden samurai sword katana (bokken) at home with our own hands.
How to make a wooden katana at home
The bokken is used for practicing samurai swordsmanship, and it will also be a great decoration for your room.
So let's get started. If you intend to use our product for training, then it is better to choose hardwoods for the workpiece - oak, beech, hornbeam.
- On the beam, draw with a pencil an approximate outline of our future katana. Let's start with the handle - we process the place under it along the contour with a file or planer.
- Next, in the same way, we give a contour to the blade, removing the extra tree to the lines that we have drawn.
- Next, with a file, we give a rounded shape to the tip of the blade and smooth the corners of the handle, giving it an oval contour in the cross section, remove the bumps with sandpaper and make it smooth.
- We also smooth the blade with sandpaper so that it is flat, with effort leading the sandpaper along the entire length of the blade.
It remains to make a tsuba - the guard of a samurai sword. We draw the outline of the tsuba on a sheet of plywood, cut it out with a jigsaw. The dimensions of the center hole can be determined by placing a blank guard against the handle and making marks where the edges should be. We connect the marks along the ruler with a pencil, make a hole with a drill and cut out the center of the tsuba with a jigsaw, round the edges so that they fit the handle along the radius, put the tsuba on our katana, fix it, for example, with superglue.
Photo scheme for making a katana
Making a samurai sword from wood video
So we made with our own hands in ordinary home conditions the likeness of a samurai sword made of wood. After it is done, it is advisable to impregnate it with wood resin or varnish. The video provides instructions for making this product, after watching it, even a beginner can make a bokken.
Genre of the article - Japanese weapons