Samurai Swords and The Swordsmiths

Back in the early times of sword manufacture, thein the constant folding and hammering of the steel, it
production of super strong high-grade carbon steelwould create internally something comparable to
wasn't even a vague dream. But we know, as historylayers. Take a book and fold it parallel to the spine,
has taught us, that sword makers of ancient timesroll it up and you'll see what a swords structure inside
still managed to produce superb quality, strongwould look like, and also see how strength increases.
weapons.This gave the sword a superior strength. As in much
So just how was this possible all those hundreds ofof Japanese culture, like Martial Arts for example,
years ago? How did these ancient swordmakersmany advancements and ways are attributed to
manage to craft weapons of such high-quality? Whatemulating natures ways and by observing natures
was the secret to this skill of taking poor quality orepatterns.
and turning it into the finest quality steel blades? Well,It is sometimes thought by some that the idea for
it seems the process of Japanese samurai swordsthis 'folding' to create the 'rings/layers' inside the
making was an highly advanced artform. It wasn't assamurai sword came about by looking at the cross
simple as casting a sword shape with molten steelsection of the inside of a tree trunk and observing
and sharpening an edge. What the swords makersthe way these almost layer like rings of wood gave
would do was to hammer the heated and softenedthe tree the strength to stand upto natures forces
steel flat, and fold it over and hammer it flat again,without breaking very easily, but merely bending with
and repeat this process over and over, maybe bythe wind. This is thought by some to be the idea
upto as much as thirty times.which gave birth to the folded steel concept of
This was a very long and labor-intensive process, butJapans samurai swords.