Subject: Re: Sword purchase

From: [email-masked] (David Falk)
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 1994 17:04:33 GMT

Omar Siddique ([email-masked]) wrote:
: I'm planning to buy a Japanese sword, and the one I'm looking to buy
: claims its made of 420C stainless steel that's tempered to a hardness of
: 52RHc.  What precisely does this mean (the hardness especially) and are
: these ratings good?   Sorry if these are basic questions, but I didn't see
: a FAQ for this group on rtfm.mit.edu...

Buying a Japanese sword is one of the most complex purchases concerning
knives and weapons in general.  A "quality" Japanese sword will cost well
over $1000.  The first question you might want to ask yourself is "are
you looking for a traditional Japanese sword or are you willing to allow
modern materials to be used (such as 420C)?"  Personally I would not
purchase this blade...  One thing that should be understood about
Japanese blades is that the reason why they are among the finest blades
ever constructed is because of the amount of stress they can withstand
in proportion to their light weight design.  Questions you should be
asking are "is the blade hollow cut?" or "is a composite blade?"
A composite blade should have a soft iron or spring steel core enveloped
by a hard steel exterior cutting edge.  Don't buy a hollow cut Japanese
sword.  I suspect you may be looking at a hollow cut blade.  However,
I don't like stainless steel for Japanese swords because a hamon
cannot be made on the edge.  A "hamon" a clouded area at the edge of the
blade created by a special harding process after the blade has been
initially hardened.  The "hamon" will prevent your expensive investment
>from  cracking and snapping in half.  As for the question of hardness,
this is quite difficult to say if this rating is good.  No sword should 
have a uniform hardness.  If the sword has a uniform hardness, then at
some collision incidence angle that blade will snap.  Note: short swords
are the exception in that with a few modifications the short sword maker
can get away with a lot of cheats.  Personally, I like the edge to be 
closer to 58Rc.  Note that harder the edge the higher the edge retention.

Hope this helps...

Dave.
-- 
David Falk, Technical Specialist, SoftQuad Inc.  <[email-masked]>  
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