The blade body is the most import part of a sword. The Japanese
sword has a very traditional way of forging its blade. Today's swords blade is
forged quite differently from the old days. Hammers, rollers, brushes and all
other chemical dye are wildly used in production swords. We forge both
traditional swords and production line of swords. We have forged a wide rang of
blades by using different materials and method in the past. This blade
comparison page shows you the differences blades that are commonly seen in the
swords market today. An very easy and simple way to judge a
blade type is by looking at its hamon (a technique that creates the wavy and beautiful
temper line on the edge of the blade).
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This is a common display sword. It is made of carbon or stainless steel. The blade
is normally blunt. The tang is very short not recommended for swinging
or cutting. The blade is accomplished by using a big wire brush wheel
running over the metal surface. The hamon is easily spotted to be a fake as you can see
the regular fine lines from brushing. |
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A chemical etched hamon over none-forged
monosteel. A chemical dye like mild acid, vinegar, ferric chlorides were used to create this hamon.
The blade edge maybe sharpened for a display or entry
level tameshigiri. |
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Through hardened monosteel blade. Depends on
the steel and heat treatment, the blade edge is hard enough for cutting
purpose. The hamon is chemical etched with fabric buff over blade. A fabric buff over a chemical dye etched hamon
can create a cosmetic hamon that is very attractive and subtle. This is
an adopted method of creating a cosmetic hamon on production swords
today (e.g. 1050, 1060 and 1095 carbon steel). |
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This is a none clay tempered blade, no hamon
line can be seen. This actually is a laminated blade combining hard
carbon steel on its edge and softer steel on its spine. The edge can be
further clayed to reveal a natural hamon. |
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This is a folded wave blade, the steel is
folded to generate pattern hada
appearance. The wave blade is one of the most beautiful looking blades
in the world, it is also one of the hardest to create. however, soft
steel, chemical dye and other folding techniques are also used in
today's production swords. |
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This is a real clay tempered blade
with a natural hamon. After forging, the blade is covered with special
clay then further tempered and quenched to add hardness on the edge. The clayed blade
normally has stronger and durable edge than none clayed blade. |
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This is clay temper folded
wave blade. The
steel was forge folded first to generate wave
pattern, then a special clay is applied before re-heating and quenching.
It creates a visible temper area between hard and soft on the wave body. |
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This blade is forge folded using the old
Japanese forging method. It is also highly
polished by master polisher, you can see the different area of
edge, hamon and ji. It has very attractive hada grains on the blade.
Please view our forging page for more details. |
All our tameshigiri swords have sharpened edge (it will very). Compare each other, if cutting is your
priority, get a true clayed blade or 1095 monosteel blade. For collection
purpose, choose
a folded wave blade. For iaido practice or beginners, choose 1050 or 1060 monosteel.
Gengswords also create traditional forge folded and polished
blades, which are unlikely to source from others.
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