The Quest for a TRUE Katana

dylan_d, well 'expensive' is a relative term. I can't say whether they are expensve or not, but I certainly can tell you a bit about them.

(From top to bottom) The first one was made in Shinto era. The mei is Bungo Ju Fujiwara Yukinaga. It has one of teh best balance of all.

The second one is made by Howard Clark from L6 (bainite). Exclusively available from Bugei.com. The blade was made by Howard Clark, and the fitting/polishing by Fred Lohman. This thing is close to indestructible. A cutting beast !

The third one is a Gendaito made by Nagamitsu. The mei read : Ichihara Nagamitsu. His swords are rated one of the best cutting swords. It really is a priviledge to own one of his sword.

Feel free to contact me for more info.

Cheers.
 
Crayola :

... cutting bricks with a katana is crazy. As is chopping at trees. Or watermelons. Or banging it against another sword.
Click to expand...

Cutting into another person could easily generate a level of stress exceeding the first three. If a katana had a significant problem with any of them regarding durability, it would only be functional against those with no bones. In addition, assuming the person is armed, or even just wearing clothes, edge impacts off of metallic objects are also not unlikely.

As for being able to chop a concrete block in two and still be sharp, sure you can - just not on the same section of blade that hit the concrete. It isn't however that demanding to prevent excessive damage though, you just need a decently tough steel which doesn't chip and just indents. The reason that this test ever recieved any "fame" was because of the popularity of brittle stainless alloys which fail it horribly.

Decent tool steels have no problem with it at all mainly because concrete block shatter so easily while greatly dampens the impact shocks. Here is a shot of a bowie from Ray Kirk that was used to cut a notch in a concrete block :

http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/images/rk_bowie_light_concrete_chop.jpg

Same blade which he used for his ABS Smith test. This has also been done live at shows with the Swamp Rat knives.

-Cliff
 
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