Weapon Masters on Discovery Channel

Chuck Gedraitis Knives

Chuck Gedraitis Knives

Joined
Dec 10, 1998
Messages
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Did Anyone else catch this show? This episode was all about Katanas and tested to see if there was a difference between the abilities of a traditional made sword and a modern made sword. One of the hosts spent some time with Howard Clark making a sword in the modern method. It wasn't too bad.
 
I only caught a couple minutes of the show. What kind of steel did they use for the modern version? Did they do any differential heat treatment?
 
Jeff Clark said:
I only caught a couple minutes of the show. What kind of steel did they use for the modern version? Did they do any differential heat treatment?
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I didn't catch the whole show but I believe they were both differentially hardened. The Japanese blade was san mai and Howard's was monosteel. They were both "clay" coated for the HT. The Japanese blade was made from tamahagane and the Clark from 1086M<?>.
 
Yeah that was a trip seeing Howard Clark on TV. He probably has groupies and paparazzi now. :D

The show would've been much better if they had just let Howard make the sword instead of having that goofy host try to make one himself. In fact, I just don't like that premise at all. They should leave the weapon-making to the experts and let the host just watch and learn
 
Wulf said:
Yeah that was a trip seeing Howard Clark on TV. He probably has groupies and paparazzi now. :D

The show would've been much better if they had just let Howard make the sword instead of having that annoying, knuckleheaded hack who hosts the show try to make one himself. In fact, I just don't like that premise at all. They should leave the weapon-making to the experts and let the host just watch and learn
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I missed part of the show, did they shoot a bullet through the Clark blade and it broke? I tuned back in just as the Japanese blade was shot and it survived. The hosts seem to feel that it justified the Japanese approach but in that case one of Howard's san mai or L6 blades should have been used instead and I agree that Howard should have been the sole smith.
 
Yes that show was not bad, but I agree with Derek, the host is kind of a dufus. Howard is a celebrity now and his 1086M blade did survive the bullet test. I thought the japanese swordsmiths power hammer was neat. All in all an interesting show.

Brion
 
I got the impression Howard Clark was more than a bit annoyed with the goofy host. I wish they'd let Clark finish it out instead of seeing that guy take a grinder to the finish. The thing I liked about the bullet test was how it showed the effect of a high polish.

I also found it interesting that the Japanese blade lost a big chunk of edge when it hit the armor, but Clark's had no damage.
 
kjbenner said:
The thing I liked about the bullet test was how it showed the effect of a high polish.
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I cought most of it and liked the part about the high polish having lees drag when cutting, The Japanese blade cut two mats cleanly because of the high polish and the moderan katana would not cut it all the way because of the extra drag on the blade. I'm not much into swords and found it iteresting that tha katana stats out straight and gets the bend during the heat treat.
I could do without the goffy host but would like to see more tv shows like it.
 
Great show. I really like seeing modern vs traditional. I did notice that the guy doing the cutting did not use his traditional sword on the helmet. When he showed up with nicks in the blade after the armor test I could almost see the $$$$ going thru his head at $100/inch to re-polish this is going to cost me.....

Chuck
 
Yep! A high polished blade will cut smoother all things being equal. Odd how this has been forgotten!

And as a bonus, it will hold up much better to wear!
 
Anybody know if you can purchase a DVD of the show from the Discovery Channel? I can't seem to find any info for this particular episode listed on their website, or the Military Channel.
 
Of course the traditional blade is going to cut better. It's geometry is very precise and there's a fine polish on the blade. The TV hosts blade looked like he ground it with his feet with a brick.

Should have let Howard Clark do the damn thing. One point in the show he did express his confidence and said that he would put one of his blades up against a traditional Japanese blade any time and any place.
 
saw it too, and laughed at the grinder polish .

i learned about the bend too...thought that was interesting .


-j
 
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