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Man at Arms - Katana (Kill Bill)

Discussion in 'The Off Topic Room' started by thedispossessed, Jul 14, 2015.

  1. thedispossessed

    thedispossessed

    Check it out, I thought this was pretty damn cool. Especially the making of the steel.

     
    thedispossessed, Jul 14, 2015
    #1
  2. CrisAnderson27

    CrisAnderson27

    Matt and Kerry are awesome lol...I also see Sam Salvati in there running the striking hammer. Some of the best all around people (and craftsmen!) I know are in this video.

    A few things you guys might not have noticed:

    - The tool used to scrape the geometry into the steel is called a 'sen'. It's literally a spokeshave or plane, only for steel. It removes a seriously vicious amount of material, and I know smiths who can use one of those more quickly and accurately than I can use my 2x72 grinder with a 36 grit Cubitron II belt.
    - The clay being used is Rutland's Furnace Cement, lol. You can buy it at most any Ace Hardware. I sometimes use that for my own knives, though anymore I mostly use my own mix.
    - They did everything very traditionally!! Until it came time to harden the blade lol. Traditionally, katana are hardened in water...and the blade when quenched is perfectly straight. The water quench gives it its signature curve, or 'sori'. It literally curves downward in the quench, then slowly curves back upward as the hard edge steel forms. I'll share a video below to illustrate. On the sword in this video, they precurved the blade to counteract the DOWNWARD curve that steel takes when being quenched in oil. The oil they used is Parks #50, which is almost as fast as water, but much, much less likely to crack the blade.

    Anyway! On to that video I mentioned above:


    The gentleman quenching is my friend Goya Kenny, and the guy running the camera is one of my best friends, Rich Greenwood (of recent Forged in Fire fame, lol). The o-tanto being hardened is made from antique rail steel, which is approximately .75% carbon, and mostly iron (very few impurities). Note the straightness of the blade coming out of the forge, and how the tip dips down in the quench, then slowly comes back up.

    Really cool stuff :D.
     
    CrisAnderson27, Jul 14, 2015
    #2
  3. thedispossessed

    thedispossessed

    Cris,
    Super Freakin Cool!
    Thanks for sharing the video and all the info.
    Cheers
    Matteo
     
    thedispossessed, Jul 14, 2015
    #3
  4. James

    James smarter then your average duck Founding Member Gold Contributor

    both those videos were cool as hell. although neither sword as cool as my bad ass knife
     
    Last edited: Jul 14, 2015
    James, Jul 14, 2015
    #4
  5. CrisAnderson27

    CrisAnderson27

    Haha! For sure brother!
     
    CrisAnderson27, Jul 15, 2015
    #5
  6. HHH Knives

    HHH Knives Founding Member

    Fantastic on all counts

    Thanks for sharing
     
    HHH Knives, Jul 15, 2015
    #6
  7. Mrmnms

    Mrmnms Founding Member Gold Contributor

    Great share! Watched them both twice so far.
     
    Mrmnms, Jul 17, 2015
    #7

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