Bladesmith

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Bladesmithing is the art of making knives, swords, daggers and other blades using a forge, hammer, anvil, and other smithing tools.^[1][2][3] Bladesmiths employ a variety of metalworking techniques similar to those used by blacksmiths, as well as woodworking for knife and sword handles, and often leatherworking for sheaths.^[4] Bladesmithing is an art that is thousands of years old and found in cultures as diverse as China, Japan, India, Germany, Korea, the Middle East, and the British Isles. As with any art shrouded in history, there are myths and misconceptions about the process. While traditionally, bladesmithing referred to the manufacture of any blade by any means, the majority of contemporary craftsmen referred to as bladesmiths are those who primarily manufacture blades by means of using a forge to shape the blade as opposed to knifemakers who form blades by use of the stock removal method, although there is some overlap between both crafts.^[5]

Related trades

Many blade smiths were known by other titles according to the kind of blade that they produced:

• A swordsmith's specialty is making swords.
• A cutler or knifemaker makes knives and other cutlery.
• A scythesmith is a smith who makes scythes.

Historic Bladesmithing

Historically speaking, bladesmithing is an art that has survived and thrived over thousands of years. Many different parts of the world have different styles of bladesmithing, some more well-known than others.

Egyptian

Ancient Egyptians referred to iron as "Copper from the Heavens" and used wrought iron in the manufacture of swords and blades as early as 3000 BC.^[6] They exported this technique to Israel, Babylon, and Greece through trade and as they conquered other lands and were conquered themselves.^[6][7]

Celtic

The Proto-Celtic Hallstatt culture (8th century BC) were among the earliest users of iron swords. During the Hallstatt period, they made swords both in bronze as well as iron with rounded tips. Toward the end of the Hallstatt period, around 600-500BC, these swords were replaced with short daggers. The La Tene culture reintroduced the sword, which were very different from the traditional shape and construction of the Bronze Age and early Iron Age, charecterized by a more pointed tip.^[6][8]

Chinese

Traditional Chinese blades (jians) are usually of sanmei (three plate) construction, which involved sandwiching a core of hard steel between two plates of softer steel. The central plate protrudes slightly from its surrounding pieces, allowing for a sharp edge, while the softer spine protects the brittle core. Some blades had wumei or five plate construction, with two more soft plates being used at the central ridge. Bronze jian were often made in a somewhat similar manner: in this case an alloy with a high copper content would be used to make a resilient core and spine, while the edge would be made from a high tin-content alloy for sharpness and welded on to the rest of the blade.

The swordsmiths of China are often credited with the forging technologies that traveled to Korea and Japan to allow swordsmiths there to create such weapons as the katana.^[9][10] These technologies include folding, inserted alloys, and differential hardening of the edge. While the Japanese would be more influenced by the Chinese dāo (single-edged swords of various forms), the early Japanese swords known as ken are often based on jian. One sided jians from the Tang dynasty provided the basis for various Japanese forging styles and techniques. The Korean version of the jian is known as the geom or gum, and these swords often preserve features found in Ming-era jian, such as openwork pommels and sharply angled tips.

Korean

Korea has a history of swordsmithing dating back 3,000 years.^[11] With Korea being in close proximity to both Japan and China (being invaded and invading many times), the three countries have influenced each other.^[9][12]

Korean swords include long swords such as the yeoh do, geom, and hyup do and curved swords such as Samindo.^[11] Metal swords of double bladed leaf structure have been found throughout Korea dating back to the Bronze Age. These bronze swords were around 32 cm in overall length, with a short handle.^[11]

Japanese

Japanese bladesmithing stems from Chinese blacksmithing and was brought to Japan by way of Korea.^[9] The oldest steel swords found in Japan are known as Chokutō and date to the fourth or fifth century A.D.^[9] Although appearing to be ceremonial in nature, samples of these straight blades preserved in the Shōsōin were hand-forged with hardened cutting edges. By the time of the Heian period (794-1185A.D.) the Japanese sword took on its distinctive curved shape as a mounted horseman would have more use for a slashing type of blade as opposed to a thrusting type.^[9] These swords were known as tachi.^[9]

Due to the quality of metal found in Japan, Japanese bladesmithing became an extremely rigid, precise process, involving folding and forge-welding the steel many times over to create a laminated blade. By the time of the Kamakura period(1185-1333A.D.) Japan was under the rule of a military class and repelling Mongol invasions. This became known as the "Golden era" of Japanese bladesmithing under Emperor Go-toba, who became a bladesmith himself.^[13] After retiring as Emperor, Go-toba summoned Japan's finest bladesmiths around him in an effort to develop the perfect sword.^[9] It was determined that a sword had to be hard in order to maintain a sharp cutting edge, yet hard steel is brittle and can shatter under the stress of a heavy blow.^[9] Swordsmiths in Japan found the solution by wrapping a softer low-carbon steel core such as Wrought iron, in a jacket of high-carbon steel and then hardening the edge.^[9] However, under heavy usage, the edge would be more prone to chipping than its European counterparts, which were typically designed to deal with heavier armor than Japanese blades.^[9] This was answered by inserting strips of softer steel known as ashi in the hardened cutting edge.^[9]

The Mongol invasions brought with them a need for swords also suited for hand-to-hand combat and the smiths began manufacture of shorter blades to meet this need.^[10] It was during the Muromachi period that the katana and tantō came into being.^[10][9] By the sixteenth century, Japanese bladesmithing had become so reknown throughout Asia that the Japanese turned to large scale manufacturing of swords as an export to China.^[10] Smiths at Sakai also crafted knives for cutting tobacco, which had been introduced by the Portugese. The Sakai bladesmithing industry received a major boost from the Tokugawa shogunate (1603–1868), which granted Sakai a special seal of approval and enhanced its reputation for quality.^[10]

The Haitorei edict in 1876 banned carrying swords and guns on streets, as a direct result many swordsmiths were left without a trade to pursue, and valuable skills were lost.^[9] Bladesmithing resumed in Japan during a nationalistic period prior to the Second World War, but was again outlawed in occupied Japan by the American Occupation Forces and did not resume until 1953, under heavy restrictions to preserve it solely as an art.^[9][10] In modern-day Japan a swordsmith is only allowed to manufacture two swords a month by law, for example.^[9] As a result many smiths travel to Taiwan or China to make extra swords for the export market as foreign-made swords are also illegal in Japan.^[9] Bladesmithing is still practiced in Sakai, known in the West as "Seki City" and still found as the stamp on many blades produced there.^[14]

Germanic

The Germanic Migration period peoples also had extremely advanced bladesmithing techniques for their level of technology. Migration Era smiths would often forge-weld blades of multiple materials, and their blades were typically double-edged and straight. Migration Era blades were often forged with a hard steel edge wrapped around a pattern welded core. These swords are commonly associated with "Viking" culture, but it has been hypothesized that they were largely produced in the Rhineland.^[15][16]

Indian/Middle Eastern

Bladesmithing was common practice in India and the Middle East during the Middle Ages. A special type of steel known as Wootz or Damascus steel was often used in these areas. The term Damascus steel can refer to two different types of artefacts. One is the true Damascus steel, or Wootz steel, which is a high carbon alloy with tremendous edge retention and flexibility due to its composition of carbon nanotubes and carbide nanowires^[17], with a wavy surface texture originating from the etched crystalline structure. The other is a composite structure made by welding together iron and steel to give a visible pattern on the surface, called pattern-welded steel. Although both were referred to as Damascus steels, true Damascus steels were not replicated in Europe until 1821.^[18]

Modern Bladesmithing

Tools

The basic art and principles of forging a blade has remained similar for thousands of years and the modern bladesmith uses a variety of tools and techniques in order to produce a blade.^[5] Forges formerly fed by wood, coke, or coal are still in use, but gas forges are becoming the standard.^[5] Likewise the smith's hammeris being eclipsed by the use of hydraulic forging presses and power hammers.^[5]

Steel

Modern bladesmiths use a variety of steels to produce their blades, most commonly high carbon steel, such as SAE 1075/1085 or SAE 1095 (the '10' representing the 10-series carbon steels, while '75' '85' and '95' reflect the carbon content of the steel), tool steel such as O-1, A-2, D2 or other tool or high carbon steels.

Swords and longer blades, in modern times, are often crafted of 5160 carbon spring steel, which is not as hard or brittle as a high carbon steel (such as 1095), but is more durable and less prone to breakage, and therefore more suitable for longer weapons. 5160 carbon spring steel is sometimes used for leaf springs in American trucks^[19], making it readily available in the US. In the UK & Europe, EN45 is more commonly used.

For further clarification, 5160 spring steel is more durable than 1085 or 1095 high carbon steel, but does not hold an edge for quite as long. 1095 high carbon steel is tougher and more durable than 440C stainless steel, but will rust much more easily. Most stainless steel is more brittle than both 5160 and 1095 carbon steel, but is still very useful due to its resistance to rust and corrosion.

Damascus steel

Many bladesmiths are able to forge a special type of steel using a technique called pattern welding, producing a metal erroneously referred to as Damascus steel. Modern pattern-welded steel can be highly decorative as well as durable (if welded in certain ways with proper steels), and is often used in custom knife- and sword-crafting.

Myths and misconceptions

Movies

A number of myths about bladesmithing have sprung up in the modern era due to incorrect depictions of bladesmithing in movies and other media, as well as a widespread lack of understanding of the art. These depictions often occur in modern movies such as Conan the Barbarian, Highlander III: The Final Dimension and The Lord of the Rings and mislead their audiences into false understandings of the art.

Drop forging misconception

Drop forging is sometimes confused with casting. Casting involves heating metal to a liquid state then, pouring the liquid metal into a mold. Conversely, drop forging involves using mechanical equipment to push heated, non-liquid steel into dies or molds. The confusion possibly arises from use of the term "drop" which intimates drops of liquid, or dropping liquid into a mold.

See also

• American Bladesmith Society
• Sword replica

References

Further reading

• Weygers, Alexander G. The Complete Modern Blacksmith, 1997.
• Weygers, Alexander G. The Modern Blacksmith, 1974.
• Erik; Jones, F.D. Oberg. Machinery's Handbook 13th Ed, 1946.
• Legendary Swords' Sharpness, Strength From Nanotubes, Study Says

External links

• The American Bladesmith Society

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