Sword Sharpening

[Livin' On The Edge]

I think I remember that the Katanas are sharpened to a very high polish, but what about things like sabers and greatswords? Were they sharpened to a "toothy" edge to help "bite"? or were they polished for maximum cutting ability? I realize that historically, the materials needed to achieve a high polish edge might not have been accessible, but what is optimal, and why?

 

[kaotikross]

Excellent question! I know different bevels were used, but I have no idea how sharp the actual technology of the times could make a weapon, considering all they had was natural stone. The stone carver who made the grindstone could only get that so perfect, as he had hand tools, which were probably sharpened on yet another hand made grindstone. It's very likely a particularly fine grindstone would command a hefty sum. If anyone else has any information on this I'd really like to find out more.

 

[horseclover]

Any sword of any period or culture were sa sharp as one might want them to be. In other words, dismiss modern mythology and the thought sharpening was difficult.

 

[horseclover]

Stones can and were trued pretty easily. Some water powered wheels were quite large. I often read people wondering how folk in the olden days did things and it usually only differs in the amount of time to get something done. If anything., the :ancients: seem to have had a lot more practical common sense than many growing up in the past half century or so. The only other thing that has really changed is available tools and materials.

I know more than one high end katana polishers that mention toothy edges but it is a matter of degrees. The old tyme Japanese had razors for shaving as well. Gee, come to think of it, so did many around the world thousands of years ago.

Early modern military swords were sharpened for the troops. Generally or at the discretion of their commanders.

Leather stropping swords is not unknown or not recommended by modern smiths. If it floats someone's boat, why not? On the other hand, I don't feel the need and have other things to do.

Medieval swords were noted by Ewart Oakeshott as sharp as carving knives (which was recently bolstered by a smith saying sharper than most peoples kitchen knives).

Coke or Pepsi?

GC

 

[Triton]

Medieval swords were noted by Ewart Oakeshott as sharp as carving knives (which was recently bolstered by a smith saying sharper than most peoples kitchen knives).

GC

Beat me to this one.

 

[Livin' On The Edge]

Very interesting, thanks for the info guys! P.S. pepsi.

 

[althesmith]

Remember that during the time Japanese swords saw their highest usage as weapons, swords were only sharpened to a relatively coarse grade. The "art polish" thing didn't evolve until the Edo period.

 

[J W Bensinger]

I wish I had pictures of this sword, but sadly I don't. I did some "appraisal" (read:tang translation) for a customer of mine-the sword was a short wakizashi given to his grandfather by the Japanese consulate in the early(1912 or so) 20th century. When I saw it it was in the original (probably 18th century?) polish (I doubt it was the original polish from the 16th century).
The interesting part is that the entire cutting surface of the sword was polished from shinogi to edge, rather than parallel to the edge, to about 3-4000 grit (waterstone grit). That sword was very bitey-not the usual polished edge.
I wonder how common that was-given that armor lacing was silk, i think it would be a benefit (the only edge I have reliably cut silk over tatami omote with had some bite to it).