Katana

Tamahagane, which in Japanese literally means "jewel steel" or "precious steel", is a type of steel made in the Japanese traditional way. Tamahagane is made by smelting iron sand in a clay furnace called "tatara" and mixing it with charcoal to produce steel with various carbon content. This very laborious process takes as much as 3 days. After the smelting process, the tatara is broken and the steel bloom or "kera" is broken and swordsmiths segregate and collect the steels with various carbon contents.

Making a blade from tamahagane requires high level of expertise from the swordsmith. Swordsmiths will laminate the different types of steel collected from the kera to create a sword which has a hard edge, soft core and springy sides.

Ryan858 is a katana with a blade made of Chinese tamahagane. The blade of this sword is hazuya-jizuya polished to bring out the beauty of the blade. It takes a polisher several weeks to do the entire polishing process. The blade has choji hamon, hadori polish is done to make the hamon stand out against surrounding areas. The tsuka is made of hardwood, fully wrapped with one-piece genuine rayskin and leather ito. The tsuba, fuchi and kashira are made of iron. The saya is made of hardwood and wrapped with bamboo. Koiguchi, kurikata and kojiri are polished buffalo horns. The sword is fully customizable.

Ryan854 is a katana with a blade made of differentially-hardened 1095 high carbon steel. The blade is of shinogi zukuri geometry with bo hi and a natural hamon. The bohi makes the blade lighter without compromising its strenght and it also produces a distinct sound when the blade is swung properly. The tsuka is made of hardwood with black real, rayskin panels and wrapped in black, synthetic silk ito. The tsuba, fuchi and kashira are made of copper and feature a fan theme. The saya is wood with a glossy, black finish and inlaid with mother-of-pearl (shells) depicting a bird perched on a branch. The koiguchi, kurikata and kojiri are made of black buffalo horn.

This O-kissaki katana has a blade made of through-hardened 1095 high carbon steel in unokubi zukuri geometry. Unokubi zukuri geometry results in a light and agile blade. A through-hardened, high carbon steel blade is capable of handling botched and bad cuts. The fittings of this blade are made of copper with a bird theme. The tsuba has a detailed image of a phoenix, a mythical bird which symbolizes rebirth. The tsuka has a hardwood core with white rayskin and wrapped with red, synthetic silk ito. The saya is also made of hardwood painted with black lacquer in glossy finish with red sageo.

This katana is intricately forged in the shihozume lamination structure. The edge is made of 1095 high carbon steel which has high hardness while the sides are made of folded steel which has high flexibility and has a beautiful grain pattern or hada. Iron is used to form the softer core of the blade. The shihozume lamination is a labor-intensive forging technique that requires high skill level on the part of the swordsmith. Imperfect fusion or welding of the different steel types on the blade can cause the blade to delaminate or split.

The blade is honsanmai lamination, 1095 high carbon steel is the cutting edge, folded steel is used as jacket steel. The blade is clay tempered. The tsuka is made of hardwood, wrapped with genuine rayskin and synthetic silk ito. The saya is made of Chinese redwood, the color and wood veins are natural. Koiguchi, kurigata and kojiri are buffalo horns. Tsuba, fuchi and kashira are made of iron. The sword is fully customizable.