Lucky day in August.....

[huntershooter]

I was always curious why blades seemed to be invariably dated "a lucky day in Aug,", or "a lucky day in Feb." I was reading my copy of "The Samurai Sword" by John Yumoto and came across this explanation: The Japanese believed the temperature of water was the same in Aug. and Feb.(An explanation wasn't given why). This was the temperature that was desired for the tempering/quenching process-hence "made a lucky day in Aug./Feb."-irregardless of when it was actually forged. Thought I'd pass this on to my fellow neophytes. ________________Todd M.

[remzy]

I was surprised to read that info aswell, goes to say how humans can be.. humans

[Nobody]

The mukansa swordsmith Kawachi Kunihira says in the video that the 2nd month and the 8th month roughly correspond to March and September of our current calendar respectively. In that season, the temperature of water and air (atmosphere) become almost equal and that is good for tempering/quenching.

 

http://militaria.co.za/nihontomessagebo ... php?t=1773

[huntershooter]

That makes sense Koichi. I thought he (Yumoto) was implying the water temperature was the same in Feb./Aug. Further he did state this was from the "old calender". Thank you for the clarification. ________________________Todd M.