Katanas, pix and deals.

We can't make a Viet Namese anything anymore than we can make a Japanese Katana. It's all BirGorkha -- and shows it.
 
According to a book I have called "The Craft of the Japanese Sword" (by Leon and Hiroko Kapp, and Yoshindo Yoshihara--10th gen. master swordsmith), Yvsa and Wrongfriend et. al. are right. This book has a section entitled "Sorinaoshi:adjusting the curvature, which tells of a curvature of as much as 1/2" due to the quench alone, and more being put on by re-heating the blade over a hot block of copper and requenching as needed, at each place the hot block/quench technique is used, "a little local curvature is introduced into the blade" " If there is too much curvature, [the swordsmith] can straighted the blade by hammering along the back ridge to expand the metal there". The book says that typically the smith forges the blade prior to yaki-ire (quenching), with less curvature than is desired in the sword.

YIPPEEEEEEEEEEE:D :) :D :) :D :) :D I finally had something to add to a discussion of steel---whooopeeee:D I still don't know squat, but at least I could look something up!

Rob
 
Uncle, I'll visit Reno, when my daughter can take trip over the Pacific Ocean. I hope BA can come together. As you mentioned, I need a large, or at least long suitcase. An alternative idea is to carry a golf bag. A Japanese tourist with a golf bag is one of the most usual and peaceful people around the world.

Rusty, no criticism taken. Here's the story. After WWII, Japanese were disarmed of all kind of weapons while occupied by U.S. GHQ. MAs were all banned (for a while). Some people who were to preserve katana as a traditional artistic skill / product, and lobbied to win previlege that katana is not a weapon. This was an exception as they did not lobby to re-arm Japanese, only wanted to keep katana tradition continue. Then laws were changed to allow katana's traditional way of production by certified katana smith in condition all katanas must undergo all the redtapes to get permitted to make.

So, any other katana were simply banned as "weapon". Some kind of swords may represent their tradition(s), but by the laws' policy, the tradition is not Japaneses' business. There's one way left to own and open a museum, which is too much for a knifenut.

MauiRob, thanx for your information! After I read your comment, I tried some research. The red hot copper block is called "aka (=red)". Copper in Old Japanese is "aka gane (red metal)". If it gets red hot, it's much more "aka" than usual! It's sometimes used when a katana lost its hardness at some area. A quick and local heat is added, then quickly quenched to bring martensite (tanx, DocPat) again.
 
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