How many folds katana

Results 1 to 24 of Thread: How many times can a katana be folded. Join Date Sep Posts 6. How many times can a katana be folded Hi!

Sorry to bother everyone, but a friend of mine is saying that katanas can be folded up to 1, times. I don't think that could be possible however. Please help me. Thank you! Join Date Jul Posts Thats what I thought! I also said he probably meant layers, but he insisted that he meant folds. I am looking at both the bugei Crane Katana and the Last Legend series. Trying to decide between the two.

Kinda hard though. Any thoughts on either or these or does that belong in a different section of this forum In this article, I want to show you how many times katanas are folded in reality. How many times are Katanas folded? Katanas are usually folded between 8 and 16 times. There is a specific reason why people say that their katana is folded over times.

Read along and we will unveil the myths about folded steel katanas. Folded steel is a forging technique applied to mostly carbon steels 10xx series.

The process is mostly self-explanatory. As the name states, the metal is forge welded, folded and welded again. Most Japanese swords were folded. Here I want to give you a quick history lesson.

Most iron deposits in Japan contain ore with very high carbon content. This iron was called Tamahagane or pig iron.

This carbon content would make every sword break extremely easily. So, the Japanese swordsmiths had to come up with a solution to this problem. They discovered the process of folding steel. Yet the Japanese craftsmen who made them didn't know anything about temperature measurement or the carbon-content of steel.

How do you suppose they repeated such perfection? The answer's one we'd be well advised to remember. Sword making was swathed in ceremony and ritual. It was consistent because the ceremony was precise and unvaried. The ceremony was beautiful -- in action, dress, and color. Heat treating temperatures were controlled by holding the blade to the color of the morning sun.

The exact hue was transmitted from master to apprentice down through centuries. Sword-making was a part of Japanese art; and it was subsumed into Japanese culture. That sort of thing wasn't unique to the Japanese. Tamahagane is forged again as a shape of stick once more and cut uniformly about 7. This age-kitae is an optional step and sometimes omitted.

A tight microstrucutre and hada grain pattern can be expected after this step and the uniformity of the carbon content is improved. Of course this is just process of creating 2 or 3 grades of steel hard, soft and optionally medium.

Then they are combined, making greater total number of layers, how many depends on the style:. After 20 foldings, 2 20 , or about a million individual layers , there is too much diffusion in the carbon content, the steel becomes almost homogenous in this respect, and the act of folding no longer gives any benefit to the steel.

Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group.

Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Are Katanas made of steel folded times? Ask Question. Asked 9 years, 9 months ago. Active 4 years, 7 months ago.