Grem Posted October 30, 2013 Share Posted October 30, 2013 Okay so here's a question, I'm watching the documentary on Making of the Katana, I've watched this at least a dozen times by now. When the bladesmith is putting the pieces of the iron into the fire to forge weld them together, it looks like he's putting it on an iron plate. Wouldn't that mess with the quality of the sword being made? It looks like he just folds the sword metal with whatever metal that was. Does anyone do this themselves? Do you just pre-make a handle out of the metal you're going to use? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 30, 2013 Share Posted October 30, 2013 The "paddle"? why would it mess up the composition if you chose it to be part of the composition? I often start out a billet with one piece being longer to provide a handle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grem Posted October 30, 2013 Author Share Posted October 30, 2013 That's what I thought, but nothing is ever as easy as it appears, it's nice having a website full of experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mick maxen Posted October 30, 2013 Share Posted October 30, 2013 Grem, It would be impossible to tell from the documentary that the plate was iron. The smith would have carefully graded the tamahagane into high , medium and low carbon steel and made the plate/paddle out of what grade steel he wanted. Below is a photo of 3 kilos of wafers that have been forged out from a bloom of steel into 1/4" thick plates and quenched in water to harden, then broken into pieces. Then they are graded according to the carbon content which can be judged by spark testing on a grinder or how fine the grain is where they cracked. After you have selected what grade steel you want to use from the wafers it does not take very long to weld up a paddle big enough to stack more wafers on. A very good book that goes into great detail about all the processes involed in making a Japanese sword and full of great colour photos is called, The Art of the Japanese Sword, The Craft of Swordmaking and its Appreciation, by Leon and Hiroko Kapp, Yoshindo Yoshihara and published by Tuttle Mick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grem Posted October 31, 2013 Author Share Posted October 31, 2013 Ah very good, I will find these books. I appreciate it greatly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mick maxen Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 Grem, The book I metioned is just one book, but with a long title, see here http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Japanese-Sword-Swordmaking-Appreciation/dp/4805312408/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1383243196&sr=1-1&keywords=the+art+of+the+japanese+sword#_ Mick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grem Posted November 2, 2013 Author Share Posted November 2, 2013 Yeah I found it on Amazon for $25 going to order myself a copy on payday. It seemed like it was two just because of the title, but I took a sneak peek in it. I'm finishing up another book and I should be done by the time I get this one considering it's still 4 days to payday :/ I hate being broke. The good news though, I did blueprint up myself a clay forge, estimated cost about $60. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 2, 2013 Share Posted November 2, 2013 Often you can find expensive or hard to find books on Inter Library Loan through your local public library and so preview them to see if they are worth the effort/expense. You lucked out that that one is so cheap, try looking at "The Knight and the Blast Furnace", williams, or "The Celtic Sword" by Radomir Pleiner! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grem Posted November 4, 2013 Author Share Posted November 4, 2013 Well that's why we have the wonderful powers of the internet. I can preview just about any book and find it's worth. Sucks being poor but you do what you can right? In other news, I'm picking up the materials to build my forge on Tuesday. Estimated cost is around $50 for everything, I'm excited to get this train moving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 4, 2013 Share Posted November 4, 2013 I don't know of any preview site that allows you to see every page and picture and I'm at the stage where I have bought books for *1* picture in them that documented something I was researching (before the English version!: Manfred Sachse's Damaszener Stahl, ) My local library allows me to get it for 3 weeks and costs me US$1 per search Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grem Posted November 5, 2013 Author Share Posted November 5, 2013 My local library is worthless, as far as obscure subjects go, such as blacksmithing. I just use a combination of E-books and Amazon. Generally I'll get the E-book because if they aren't free most of them are stupid cheap (About the cost of checking books out for a month). If I feel ike they're worth buying, I'll spend the $30 on a hard copy of the book for reference and on the go reading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 5, 2013 Share Posted November 5, 2013 THAT IS WHY YOU USE Inter Library Loan!!!!!! Shoot my local library in a small town in New Mexico can ILL books from over 90 other libraries including university ones. It can get me a copy of a book I've had on continuous search for a decade on several on line book search places with no problem. It doesn't matter what the local library has along as they will do ILL for you! Funny all the libraries I've used in the last 50 or so years have never charged for checking out books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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