The aura that surrounds the legendary samurai sword - katana, maintains interest and admiration for this type of weapon for more than one hundred years. The katana is a strong, lightweight and flexible sword. It becomes this way due to the special materials from which it is forged, the special forging technique and, according to the legends, the correct mood of the master.
It is necessary
- Ferruginous sand
- Smelter
- Horn
- Hammer
- Anvil
- Charcoal
- Rice straw
- Clay
- Sandstone powder
- Water
- Tools for grinding and polishing steel
Instructions
Step 1
In order to forge the correct katana, you need to stock up on special "black sand" from the Japanese coast. These are iron sands from which you have to smelt tamahagane - traditional Japanese steel used for forging samurai swords.
Step 2
Load ore sand into the smelter - Tatara - and smelt about 4 kilograms of steel on charcoal. The temperature in the melting furnace should be up to 1,500 degrees Celsius.
Step 3
Sort the steel into low carbon and high carbon steel. High-carbon tamahagane is heavier, bright silver in color. Low-carbon - coarser, gray-black.
Step 4
Cover the bottom of the forge with chopped charcoal, add large pieces of coal and light them. Place a layer of mild steel and back up with a layer of charcoal. Wait for the steel to sink to the bottom of the forge.
Step 5
Cover the bottom of the forge with ash from rice straw, half-and-half with powdered charcoal, place a layer of high-carbon steel with a hill, and cover with charcoal on top. Start pumping the bellows vigorously. Wait until only steel remains in the forge.
Step 6
Take pieces of tamahagane and start forging flat sheets of half a centimeter thick from them. Chill the sheets in water and break them into 2 square centimeters. Sort the steel into high carbon and mild steel.
Step 7
Take selected pieces of high-carbon steel, place on a steel plate with a handle. Wrap with paper and coat with clay. Place in forge. Cover with charcoal and heat for at least thirty minutes until bright yellow or white.
Step 8
Remove the block from the forge, place it on the anvils and siege it with a hammer. Place again in the forge, heat and bake. Repeat this cycle several times.
Step 9
When your block is ready, chisel it with a chisel and roll it towards you. Heat again and hammer until the top and bottom halves are fused and the bar is back to its original length. Repeat this cycle six times.
Step 10
Cut the block into four equal pieces before continuing with forging. Stack them one on top of the other and weld them together by heating and forging. Repeat rolling, heating, and forging six more times. You have the steel "kawagane".
Step 11
Take the set aside mild steel, hammer a bar out of it, and then roll and pierce it ten more times. You now have shingane or core steel.
Step 12
Forge the kawagane into a 40 centimeter long flat plate and roll it into a U. Place the shingane block inside the plate. Heat the workpiece in a furnace until bright yellow and begin to shackle. Achieve complete welding of the plates together.
Step 13
Make a blade blank by heating a block in a furnace and forging a rectangular blank from it.
Shape the blade by stretching the workpiece perpendicular to the length. Form the cutting edge, point, side ribs and butt.
Step 14
Use a scraper knife to scrape the surface of the sword. File the butt and cutting edge with a file. Pre-sand the entire blade using a silicon carbide stone.
Step 15
Prepare a sticky clay mixture of clay, crushed charcoal and sandstone powder in equal proportions. Dilute with water and apply to the cutting edge with a spatula. In a thick layer along the butt and on the sides and a very thin layer along the very edge. Wait for the clay to harden.
Heat the blade in a furnace to 700 degrees Celsius and chill in a container of water.
Step 16
Correct the curvature of the blade and polish it.
Step 17
File the shank of the blade.
Step 18
Finish your katana by making a handle with two pieces of wood wrapped first with leather and then with cotton cord.
