How does making a sword in traditional european or japanese way work, and how where they mantained?
>>64298084be specific on the time period
>>64298084Google that shit nigga.
>>64298084Works pretty good. Maintain normally.
>>64298084>Buy or make a billet>Heat it up to working temperature and hammer it into shape>Anneal it>Quench it>Sharpen it>Stick a handle on itAll specifics about how you do any of those steps depend on the time and place, and some extra steps may be added too. But, that outline holds true for pretty much all blade making.
>>64298125I think you mean "quench" and then "temper" rather than "anneal" and then "quench".WTF is up with the OP image? It's like the animators couldn't decide whether to draw a European or Japanese style anvil so they drew some bizarre hybrid that makes no logical sense.
>>64298084It's quite simple: Katanas are superior to yuropeen trash.
>>64298149I know, and his weird arm has no bicep. It's drawn like a fucking cartoon.
>>64298149Quenching and tempering separately didn't become a thing till fairly late. But, then admittedly annealing didn't become a thing till fairly late either.
>>64298149It's from Lupin the Third. The show started in the 70's and is very dated.
>>64298239>It's from Lupin the Third.I know, I own it on Laserdisc. I'm just bitching about the strange anvil design. Goemon's noodle arms are an stylistic choice that matches the manga's art style, but IMHO that anvil should be a rectangular block.
>>64298149I feel like it's a mistake because the shape is for peening sheets to curved shapes. If you hate your life and need to atone for something you could shape chest plates and shoulder caps on it.
>>64298335Artists tend to be pretty low on the life experience and industrial aspects of anything, sort of like how in Conan they're pouring steel into an open molding and well... that could be quite the experience I guess.
>>64298340>I feel like it's a mistake because the shape is for peening sheets to curved shapesYeah. But that only works with a round, or at least narrow, horn or heel. There is no point in putting a waist on an anvil whose face is that wide. A Japanese swordsmith doesn't make concave items like barrel hoops or helmets, they use rectangular block-shaped anvils.
>>64298159*gets dented when touching bone*
>>64298093How did euros make swords in the medieval era? What was the standard?
>>64298762There was a 1000 years in the medieval era between 5th and 15th centuries, a whole lot of shit went down in terms of metallurgy. It wasn't some dumb dumbs bonking a piece of bog iron out of a furnace with a log all through that period. We're talking a couple of major foundry processes, cementation and not withstanding some of the first major industrial processes of steel and iron production.
People on /k/ dont know this and cant answer your questionWhen i read articles on sword forging it's very complicated with a lot of chemistry and i forget all of it
>>64298159>Bottom: has been laying in a swamp for 100 years. Put an edge on it and it'll still cut just fine>Top: carefully maintained and cherished for all that time, will fall apart into its individual components if you get a fingerprint on it
>>64298762There was no standard. Everything was hand made so no two swords were alike.
>>64298084I lived in japan and did reenactments for several years. Feel free to ask me whatever, i know a lot about japanese swords but theyre a very minor weapon in japanese warfare as a whole.Japanese swords of all common types post 800 AD or so are all very well suited to lasting a long time, because of both cultural and technological reasons. Culturally, swords in japan have almost always been SIDEARMS. This is a fundamental aspect of them that explains the majority of their differences from the european longswords they are so often questionably compared to. Because of this, they were especially ornate, especially well cared for, and especially designed for these things. Most samurai katana were property of the samurai, while the guns, bows, and spears primarily used as warfighting weapons were very often mass produced and mass issued by warlords. Japanese swords can be very easily taken apart by hand, without tools, and reassembled in the same way. They would be stored with their fittings removed, which would prevent oils and water from being trapped against the blade. Samurai would carry oil for, and oil the blade between uses, as well as regularly when not in use. A very fine abrasive powder (similar to toothpaste in fineness) would be used less regularly to polish minor oxidization was also used, traditionally made from crushed seashell i think. There are many Edo (1630s-1870s) period accounts of samurai being mocked for their swords not being in top repair, and as an owner of one its not hard to keep them nice at all, easier than my european blades by far thanks to the easy takedown. The soft pine interior of a sheath also keeps water off the blade short term by being more absorbent than the blade, and doesnt scratch or dull it due to its softness (a real katana draw is silent or makes a clacky wooden sound, the “shiiing” noise is from european blades with metal sheaths.
>>64298149It's railroad track repurposed as an anvil. Its big since japs are tiny.
>>64298801Ok how would a sword be made by the Lombards.
>>64302475That's the migration era so they used the spatha and langseax for swords, which were both uncommon and expensive. Main core of the blade is made up of bundles of wrought iron and/or low carbon steel twisted and forge welded together and the outer cutting edge is made with a bloom steel. Carbon steel is still relatively expensive and uncommon so it was forged out into a long strand and forge welded to the edge of the sword or knife, some basic shaping to suit and then its given over to the sword grinder. Its done on a grinding stone, polished with sand or emry.After that it goes off to the dude who does the handle and fittings, then off to the guy who makes the scabbard and hangers, then they charge you a fuckload of cashIt is never a one-man show, its all done by an entire industry of specialist, skilled workers.That continues to the 9th century, then crucible steels begin to arrive in much larger amounts which produces a better quality blade, before that in the 5-8th century blades are quite thick in order to survive combat and have very little distal taper to them. Things like the langseax start to disappear from common use and the more familiar viking style sword starts appearing as an evolution of the spatha
>>64300024I have lived in Japan for a few decades now, and I am thinking of buying a WW2 gunto bring back, to keep as a family heirloom in a deposit box I have back in my own country, where owning swords is legalFor those of you that own such swords, is this a bad idea? I would like to have a sword that has some providence, rather than a brand new one made just for me.
>>64303165A WW2 Gunto is a tricky situation because theyre generally very poorly made, and the better the condition, the less it probably actually did. Im not super sure how to advise you usefully here, because if you love that sword you should get one and if you dont you shouldnt, my opinions on collectability or coolness shouldnt really factor in. A few considerations though, apologies if these are already known to you:-even before things got desperate late war, many gunto were made to vastly different standards, and parts are not generally interchangable-gunto are all sized for 5’1” to 5’8” people, if youre a gaijin they are overly small and a little awkward to handle-gunto cut the most corners in their sheath, and will rust very quickly if stored in them. This is tricky because most examples these days that still have their sheath, have their sheath because they were stored in them.I think gunto are cool and have a reproduction one, but i think they are, by japanese standards, maybe the least heirloomable uchigatana to ever be produced. You do you though. My favorite katana is one i had commissioned new, it has the animals from my (western, of course) family crest on the fittings, and a tsuba that ressembles the crossguard on my great-great-grandpa’s saber, which is still on the family. You can create your own providence for generations to come, you dont have to buy it from someone elses family.
>>64298159damn...
