Shirasaya

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.

Ryan1384 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 tsuka and saya are made of hardwood.

The blade is made of 1095 high carbon steel and full tang, it is differentially hardened and has a visible straight hamon. The area between hamon and cutting edge is hazuya-polished. The tsuka and saya are made of hardwood, black polished buffalo horns are used at the end of tsuka and saya.

The blade is honsanmai structure, 1095 high carbon steel is the core steel and cutting edge, folded steel is the jacket layer. The grains of folded steel is clearly visible. The blade is clay tempered. Besides foundation polish, the blade has top level traditional Japanese decorative polish. The habaki is made of brass, the pattern on it is hand-engraved. The handle and saya are made of hardwood, polished buffalo horns are used as fuchi and koiguchi.

Ryan1244 is a katana in shirasaya mount. The blade has a shinogi zukuri geometry with a mild 1.3 cm sori or curvature. It has a laminated blade with an edge made of 1095 carbon steel and sides made of folded steel with a beautiful hada. It is clay-tempered with a natural hamon and with a bohi that starts above the habaki and terminates at the yokote. The saya and tsuka of this sword is made of a light-colored hardwood and the blade is secured to the handle with a single bamboo peg or menuki. Though the blade is made of durable steel, this sword is not really intended for cutting as a shirasaya furniture is only intended as a storage for a blade which will not be used for a considerable time.

Historically, there are no records of reverse-edged katanas in medieval Japan. The reverse-edged katana was popularized by the manga Samurai-X where the main character Rurouni Kenshin uses a reverse-edge katana to avoid killing opponents in a swordfight.

Ryan1218 is a katana in shirasaya case. The blade is made of differentially-hardened 1095 carbon steel with a visible, natural hamon. The saya and tsuka is made of beautiful, light-colored wood with brown buffalo horn.  Blades in shirasaya casing are not really intended to be used for cutting as the handle is prone to break without the support of the rayskin and ito wrap and the fuchi and kashira. When a katana is not to be used for a considerable time, the blade was usually mounted in shirasaya case to prevent rusting.

The saya is made of hardwood with varnish coating. The saya is octahedral, the fuchi and koiguchi are made of buffalo horn, the mekugis are also made of buffalo horn. 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, hamon is clearly visible.

The blade is made of 1095 high carbon steel, it's differentially hardened, beautiful hamon is clearly visible and runs along the cutting edge. The tsuka and saya are octahedral, made of hardwood with clear varnish coating. Fuchi and koiguchi are made of black polished buffalo horn. The mekugis are also made of bufflo horn. The sword is suitable to light cutting.