Why Real Samurai Swords Are Made From Folded Steel And Not Cast
Everybody knows that steel is strong. Hardly surprising then, is the fact the material of choice to make samurai swords is steel.
Such a laborious and time consuming task is making a samurai sword that many people are confused over why the sword makers insist on heating, hammering and shaping out a piece of steel to form the blade, instead of just pouring molten steel into a mold to form a cast?
There are many reasons why samurai swords are made this way. Here are a few:
- Air and impurities: Casting something from molten steel means that impurities and air pockets are liable to form before the steel sets. This is a no-no for a samurai sword, and is why impurities and air pockets are worked out in the folding and hammering process.
- Non-uniformity: Imagine a wall. Not only is it a few layers thick, but each layer, and each brick placed atop of the other is done so in a way which adds strength to the wall. If the wall was simply created with one brick on top of another with seems running from the top to the bottom, it’d be weak. Same goes for swords. Non-uniformity of metal particles adds strength.
- Folded steel adds layers: By heating, hammering flat, heating, and hammering flat many times the raw block of steel, layers are created which add strength to the steel. Consider it the difference between trying to snap a solid piece of wood of 5cm thick, or trying to snap 5 pieces of wood held together, all 1cm thick each.
Real samurai swords are always made from folded steel, there are no exceptions to this.