Japanese Swords – Past and Present

Japanese swords, especially katana, hold a special place in the sword pantheon, in large part because of the tradition and cultural importance associated with these blades.

Many sword enthusiasts feel that custom, handmade katana are the highest form of the sword makers art.

The history of the samurai, whose training revolved around “The Way of the Sword,” reveals the reverence in which the katana was held at the time. That reverence is still very much alive today, as evidenced by the growing numbers of martial artists and sword collectors seeking out these famous hand-made swords.

The history of the Japanese sword extends back into the depths of time. For nearly 1,500 years, the Japanese made a careful, deliberate study of steel and it’s use in weaponry, refining their techniques and learning how to make swords that were both beautiful and deadly.

From a smith’s perspective, one of the most interesting aspects of the Japanese sword is the steel from which they are made. Traditional Japanese swords are made from steels painstakingly carburized by hand to achieve the proper purity and carbon content, then repeatedly folded and pattern welded to create thousands of layers. The shingane, or spine steel, is folded less often and has less carbon relative to the hadagane, or skin steel, which is folded as many as 15 times.

The shingane and hadagane are forged into bars, and then the hadagane is folded around and welded to the shingane. The shingane gives the sword a springy, tough spine to withstand the shocks and stresses of combat, while the hadagane creates a hard skin to deflect enemy blows. The edge, which has been differentially hardened, is even harder for exceptional edge-holding and cutting ability. This differential hardening creates the hamon, or temper line, of the sword and is visible evidence of the different qualities of the steel in the sword.

The Japanese sword-making arts were not static, but evolved over the centuries as manufacturing techniques and sword designs were refined. The transition from the Kofun to the Nara period (c. 300-794) offers an example of these changes. In the Kofun period, the hamon was often absent or ill-defined. It was during the Nara that distinct hamon, usually straight, became predominant.

During the Kamakura period (1185-1392), the Soshu school of sword making began forging swords using mixtures of different strength steels. This created exceptionally strong swords, and served to make swords from the Kamakura period among the most highly praised.

The history of sword making in Japan is a rich and complicated story, and many books have been written on the subject. These examples are only meant to illustrate that Japanese swords have evolved over time.

Daniel Watson, Angel Sword’s master swordsmith, has created Japanese swords using traditional methods in the past (click here for an example). Today, the Angel Sword forge still has all the required equipment for old-fashioned sword making – a bellows-driven, charcoal-fired forge, quenching vats, and a wide selection of hammers, anvils and other tools.

Bumon – The Evolution Continues

Recently, however, Daniel has focused on using more modern methods to create Japanese-style swords that benefit from advances in the science of metallurgy. Angel Sword’s new Bumon line is the result of this research.

The Bumon name means “war-style,” from the Japanese words “Bu,” or war, and “Mon,” which means pattern or design. These are fully functional, exquisitely balanced katana with pinned construction and traditional hardware. Tsuba, fuchi and kashiri on Bumon swords are cast from antiques in Daniel’s collection. Bumon swords are differentially hardened, producing a hamon along the blade’s edge.

Angel Sword uses modern steels to make our Bumon swords. Currently, we are using either 1075 or S7. These steels have exceptional performance characteristics and are used by many blade smiths. But we enhance these steels even further using our proprietary heat and cryogenic treatment. This creates a sword with a tough, springy spine to withstand severe impacts while at the same time removing brittleness from the extremely hard (RCH60) edge.

The end result is a Japanese-style sword with the aesthetic appeal of traditional Japanese swords, but with a blade that has the extreme performance made possible by advanced metallurgy.

(Source: Swords and Hilt Weapons, Barnes & Noble Books, 1993)