Sword CS or Hanwei

Will P. said:
UnknownVT, traditional katanas were not tempered at all.
No disrespect to y'all traditionalists, but too many people out there treat nihonto as a religion.

You got me there -
perhaps all those sites and literature are all wrong?

Since the Japanese Sword Glossary definitions are -

HAMON - temper pattern along blade edge

SAIHA/SAIJIN - retempered sword

YAKIBA - hardened, tempered sword edge

YAKI-IRE - fast quenching of sword (tempering)

So are they using "temper" incorrectly?

Perhaps some people do regard Nihonto very highly -
no disrespect meant -
katanas have been made to a high degree of craftmanship - even artistry - for centuries -
perhaps they might just know just a little bit about making swords?

--
Vincent

http://UnknownVT2005.cjb.net
http://UnknownVT.cjb.net
http://UnknownVincent.cjb.net
 
wordreference.com said:
temper
reheating and cooling in oil; "temper steel"

quench
cool by plunging into cold water; "quench metal"

Ok, the dictionary site limits the definitions to quenchs and tempering in oil and water. But the difference is clear - quenching, or hardening, is accomplished by rapid cooling while tempering is accomplished by a sort of baking process.

So yeah, the Japanese Sword Glossary which uses quenching and tempering synonomously is wrong.

Western swords were treated with care and artistry too. I don't mean to bash either tradition or nihonto, but technological innovation leads to functional improvement, and Japan was technologically stagnant for a LONG time.

You could say that the Vikings made swords with care and artistry for a long time, and you'd be right. But the swords, being made out of welded metal bars, would still be structurally unsound compared to more modern swords.
 
Will P. said:
So yeah, the Japanese Sword Glossary which uses quenching and tempering synonomously is wrong.

Many thanks for the definitions -
- seems incredible to me that this major mistake has not been caught and corrected, I have been guilty as any of using tempering incorrectly.

Will P. said:
Western swords were treated with care and artistry too. I don't mean to bash either tradition or nihonto, but technological innovation leads to functional improvement, and Japan was technologically stagnant for a LONG time.

I believe there have been many attempts to improve on the best of the Nihonto -
have there been any significant developments that actually show improvements over the best of the traditional Japanese swords?

Thanks,

--
Vincent

http://UnknownVT2005.cjb.net
http://UnknownVT.cjb.net
http://UnknownVincent.cjb.net
 
UnknownVT said:
Interesting information - first time I've heard of uniformly tempered katanas out performing properly differentially tempered ones.

Are the Cold Steel Warrior katanas used a lot in tameshigiri (Japanese sword cutting) competitions?

Thanks,

--
Vincent

http://UnknownVT2005.cjb.net
http://UnknownVT.cjb.net
http://UnknownVincent.cjb.net

I haven't heard of a C.S used in an "official" tameshigiri competition, I really doubt it would be allowed in to alot of them because of it's nontraditional construction- but I have no idea. All I know is what I've seen and what others I know have seen- go to swordforum.com and search under "Cold Steel Katana" and look for posts there about it to see what I mean.
Or better yet, go here, scroll down, and look for the post by "Howard Clark". He makes the L6- you asked about modern improvements on the traditional katana? There ya go. It's the best. If I had the money, I'd buy as many L6's as I could, they can only appreciate in value.

http://forums.swordforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12460&highlight=cold+steel+katana+abuse

$!lv3r
 
solarwind said:
I haven't heard of a C.S used in an "official" tameshigiri competition
look for the post by "Howard Clark". He makes the L6- you asked about modern improvements on the traditional katana? There ya go. It's the best.

Many thanks for the input.

I too am very impressed with what I've read about Howard Clark's swords -
but as for "best" that is all opinion -
even Howard Clark himself makes it clear in his post -

Howard Clark wrote on SwordForum.com
QUOTE
My L-6 blades will take more abuse than just about anything out there, IMO. Granted, my opinion is very biased, since I in fact am the one who makes them, keep that in mind.
UNQUOTE

--
Vincent

http://UnknownVT2005.cjb.net
http://UnknownVT.cjb.net
http://UnknownVincent.cjb.net
 
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