'Enter the Dragon' Katana with 1095 Honsanmai Lamination

'Enter the Dragon' Handmade Katana in Clay Tempered 1095 with Honsanmai Lamination (in Black with Embossed Gold).

The successful combination of the lamination or folding technique and the differential heat treatment technique, along with the skill and experience to do the job properly, are the true art of making a masterpiece Katana. In this Katana the smith has selected Honsanmai lamination as the lamination technique and clay tempering as the differential heat treatment tempering process.
The blade is laminated using the ‘honsanmai’ (or simply ‘sanmai’) lamination process. San Mai involves laminating 3 types of metal to offer a hard brittle edge that is razor sharp and can keep the edge, but leave the rest of the blade more soft and durable and 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 purpose of the clay tempering process is to further improve the sharpness of the edge and durability of the overall blade. It 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 wooden handle is wrapped in genuine Stingray skin (Samekawa) before the traditional cotton handle wrapping (Tsukamaki). The saya (sheath) fittings are of faux gold. The sageo (or ‘ito’) – which is the material wrapped around the saya – is made of cotton. The wooden box, black sleeve, cleaning kit and stand are included.