'Eternal Dragon' Hand Forged Katana

'Eternal Dragon' Hand Forged Minamoto Katana in 1095 with a clay tempered blade and Sanmai Lamination.

This hand forged katana is clay tempered. This involves smearing clay on the blade during heating and quenching to offer a uniform hardness to the blade and remove weak points which can occur when the heating or quenching is less even. It also allows the smith, by placing the clay thicker on certain parts of the blade, to make the edge harder (thus more able to keep the famous razor sharp samurai edge) and the rest of the blade less hard but more able to absorb impact.



The blade is also laminated using the ‘honsanmai’ (or simply ‘sanmai’) lamination process. San Mai involves laminating 3 types of metal – with the same general purpose as clay tempering – to offer an edge that is razor sharp and can keep the edge, but leave the rest of the blade more able to absorb impact and avoid shattering.



The hamon on this sword is real. There is no bohi (groove in the blade for weight reduction). The pattern on the blade is hand carved. The wooden handle is wrapped in genuine Stingray skin (Samekawa) before the traditional cotton handle wrapping (Tsukamaki). The saya (sheath) is engraved with mother of pearl and the fittings are of buffalo horn. The sageo (or ‘ito’) – which is the material wrapped around the saya – is made of black silk. The wooden box, silk sleeve, cleaning kit and stand are included.