| Back in the early times of sword manufacture, | | | | hammering of the steel, it would create |
| the production of super strong high-grade | | | | internally something comparable to layers. |
| carbon steel wasn't even a vague dream. But | | | | Take a book and fold it parallel to the |
| we know, as history has taught us, that sword | | | | spine, roll it up and you'll see what a |
| makers of ancient times still managed to | | | | swords structure inside would look like, and |
| produce superb quality, strong weapons. | | | | also see how strength increases. This gave |
| | | | the sword a superior strength. As in much of |
| So just how was this possible all those | | | | Japanese culture, like Martial Arts for |
| hundreds of years ago? How did these ancient | | | | example, many advancements and ways are |
| swordmakers manage to craft weapons of such | | | | attributed to emulating natures ways and by |
| high-quality? What was the secret to this | | | | observing natures patterns. |
| skill of taking poor quality ore and turning | | | | |
| it into the finest quality steel blades? | | | | It is sometimes thought by some that the idea |
| Well, it seems the process of Japanese | | | | for this 'folding' to create the 'rings |
| samurai swords making was an highly advanced | | | | layers' inside the samurai sword came about |
| artform. It wasn't as simple as casting a | | | | by looking at the cross section of the inside |
| sword shape with molten steel and sharpening | | | | of a tree trunk and observing the way these |
| an edge. What the swords makers would do was | | | | almost layer like rings of wood gave the tree |
| to hammer the heated and softened steel flat, | | | | the strength to stand upto natures forces |
| and fold it over and hammer it flat again, | | | | without breaking very easily, but merely |
| and repeat this process over and over, maybe | | | | bending with the wind. This is thought by |
| by upto as much as thirty times. | | | | some to be the idea which gave birth to the |
| | | | folded steel concept of Japans samurai |
| This was a very long and labor-intensive | | | | swords. |
| process, but in the constant folding and | | | | |