How to Make a Samurai Sword 🥷🏻

Morning Samurai!

Japanese samurai swords are some of the finest blades ever made.

I mean just look at them…

Beautiful.

Not to mention they’re sharp enough to slice through almost anything.

Even a bullet, look:

So, how do the Japanese make such perfect swords???

Well, here's the step by step process:

Step 1: Go out and collect some iron sand from river beds.

Then heat it up with some charcoal to create this super high quality steel known as tamahagane.

(This is what all japanese swords are made of)

Step 2: Now you're gonna wanna take that steel…

Heat it up…

Hammer it a bit…

And finally fold it in half like this:

Then you're gonna wanna keep doing that until it has about 1 BILLION layers…!!

WHAT?!

Don't worry that doesn't mean you need to fold it a billion times lol.

Each individual fold doubles the total number of layers, so really you only need to repeat this heat, hammer, fold process like 10 ish times…

This technique is called tatara, and it makes the steel much stronger and more flexible whilst also helping distribute impurities throughout the metal, ensuring a consistent and high-quality material.

Step 3:

Now, your gonna wanna take this folded steel that currently looks like this:

And hammer it until it looks like this:

No problem right?

Step 4:

Next, you take your, now blade-like, steel, and subject it to a process called honeshi.

What's honeshi?

Well, take your blade, and then completely cover it in clay.

A thick layer for the spine.

And a thin layer for the blade.

Then heat it up in the kiln.

And finally quickly dunk it in some water.

Here's where it gets interesting… The clay layer acts as a heat insulator, causing the blade to cool at different rates.

Because the blade part has less clay it cools rapidly, becoming hard and brittle.

But as the spine part has much more clay, it cools much more slowly, remaining softer and more flexible.

This process results in the blade developing its signature curved shape, like so:

Making the overall sword much more strong and flexible.

Pretty cool right?

Step 5:

Last, but not least, the blade is carefully polished and sharpened using things called whetstones.

And finally…its mounted to the handle!

And that's it!

Now you’ve got your very own samurai sword!

And it only took SEVERAL YEARS!!

Stay Cute,
Reece, Henry & Dylan 🌈

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