Katana

Many myths and countless stories surround this old and traditional weapon. The Japanese Katana Samurai sword finds its origin in the 13th century as a smaller and improved version of the "Tachi", a long saber. It is worn as a "daishō" together with a wakizashi on the "obi" belt. 

The Hamon hardening line, created by special forging and hardening techniques, as well as the handle, which is wrapped in ray skin and wrapped in silk, make the Katana legendary. It is traditionally made with a very sharp and cutting blade made of carbon steel, which has a Rockwell hardness of 60-67 HRC. In addition to the very hard steel, a soft steel is often used for the core to make the blade more stable. They are usually strikingly decorated with various elements in gold and silver, which can also consist of brass and metal. It is stowed in a wooden scabbard called Saya, just like the other sword types of samurai equipment.  

The production of a katana can generally be described as very complex. In a racing furnace, the blades of fragments of Tamahagane steel are joined by fire welding. The steel block is then folded up to 15 times, which corresponds to a steel layer count of 32,768 layers. This method is used for uniform carbon distribution. To get the soft core steel into the blade, a tough steel is forged into the existing block. Days of manual work then follow to shape the long blade and after further hardening the blade is finally polished.   Most of the time the katana is led with two hands, except at the martial school to Miyamoto Musashi (niten-ichiryū sword fighting school), which fought with katana and wakizashi at the same time. Blunt practice swords are called iaitō. The katana has always been one of the most beautiful and interesting weapons and is still produced today.