Blade steel
We understand thateveryone desires a perfect blade that meets all our needs. However, in theshoes of bladesmiths, every material has its limitations. Here, we provide abrief overview of the various materials we used for your reference. This only representsthe perspective of Ryansword, any advice and discussion are welcomed.
This is a medium-carbon steel. After being forged by the bladesmiths, the carbon content decreases, finally between low-carbon steel and medium-carbon steel. After heat treatment, the blade’s flexibility is still relatively low. The blade can be bent by hand and cannot automatically return to its original shape. Blades made from this steel are suitable for use as Iaito or for beginner practice. After sharpening, they can also be used for backyard cutting practice. The primary targets for such blades are light cutting tasks such as Tatami rolls cutting (Tameshigiri), thin bamboo, plastic products, etc. They are not suitable for cutting high-hardness materials or targets that require heavy chopping force, such as thick wooden pieces or thick bamboo, as this may cause the blade to bend.
This is a high-quality high-carbon steel. After forging, although the carbon content decreases, it still falls within the high-carbon steel range, this is a very balanced steel--- hardness and flexibility--- for making long blades. Through different heat treatment processes, including thorough or partial quenching, the blade's flexibility and hardness remain in excellent condition. Blade made from this material are the top choice for practical use. It can be used on multiple targets, whatever light cutting or heavy force cuttings. Metal cans and bones will not damage the edge (Of course we don’t recommend to use a katana to do that). If you want a durable and reliable sword at reasonable price, then it is.
The carbon content of T10 is very close to 1095 steel, T10 is a bit higher. Based on our making and testing experience during the past years, the properties of these two steels are very close after repeated heating and forging them to complete blades. The slight differences mainly in the following two aspects. 1. Controllability of Hamon. When we do clay tempering to create the Hamon, T10 steel offers better controllability of the Hamon pattern. In contrast, when using 1095 steel, the Hamon pattern may sometimes deviate from the original design. 2. Flexibility and Edge Retention. For blades forged following the same process, 1095 steel demonstrates better flexibility and edge retention compared to T10.
To clarify again, the differences between these two materials are not obvious and just our experience. So, if you are confused by how to choose, our recommendation is to choose T10 steel if you want to customize a blade with a unique Hamon pattern and are willing to compromise on strength. Otherwise, there is no need to distinguish between these two materials for general use. Both T10 and 1095 are very good choice for practical swords.
9260 steel is also a high-performance material with wide applications in various fields. However, it is not very widely used for those hand-forge traditional Japanese blades smiths because it has both clear advantages and disadvantages. One of the key advantages of 9260 steel is its high silicon content, which gives the blades made from it excellent flexibility. Among all the materials we currently used for long blades, 9260 steel offers the best flexibility. However, its major shortcoming is also the high silicon contain make it very hard to control the clay tempered Hamon on this steel. Compared to 1095 and T10 we discussed above, 9260 is harder to control than 1095, that is why smiths are not willing to use it when they make blades with real Hamon. But this make it easy for us to choose: if you want a very strong blade with high flexibility but don’t care about the real Hamon, spring steel is a very good choice. It also can be used on various field such as practice, cutting for fun and can survive multiple targets.
Folded Steel also known as 折叠钢/花纹钢 (patterned steel), refers to the steels which are folded forged from different types of raw steels. The process has two main purposes: 1. To remove impurities. By repeat folded forging to get rid of the impurities in the raw materials to improving the overall quality of the steel. 2. To create unique patterns on the steel, giving it a distinctive aesthetic. In ancient times, the raw steel was made by the smiths themselves so it contained many impurities. After the process of folding and forging, these impurities were reduced then the performance of the steel was significantly improved. However, for modern industrial steel, which already contains very few impurities and has achieved relatively high performance in various aspects, the improvement in performance through folding and forging is now very limited. Today, the main purpose of folding steel is not to enhance the strength of the blade but to create unique patterns on the surface, giving the blade a distinctive aesthetic. On the other hand, if the bladesmith does not properly control the forging process, issues like carbon loss can occur, which may actually lead to a decrease in performance after the folding process. Therefore, when selecting different types of folded steel, we just can take the raw steels as reference. The performance of the blades made from various patterned steels will generally be similar to that of the raw material steel, but they have distinctive and aesthetic patterns on the blades.
