Video: Japanese swordsmith looks at foreign forging techniques.

[KungFooey]

This Bizen smith is fascinating in his commentary - and, personally, I think he graciously cuts the western sword makers a lot of slack.

However, it's also interesting to note he confirms that he also uses some of their techniques (using a rotary tool to cut hi, oil quenching for hocho) and that he would actually like to use their equipment (hydraulic press, large electric kiln etc) if they were available in Japan.

 

A Japanese Swordsmith Reviews Katana Forging Videos - YouTube

[Peter Bleed]

Dee, 

Thanks for sharing this. It find it remarkable!  "Masamune Meets Forged in Fire!" I have forwarded it to some of local bladesmiths. I am deeply impressed at how surprised and respectful the Japanese smith is for both the tools - and the results  - of modern bladesmiths. We may be right at the end of "Japanese" sword making!

Peter

[ROKUJURO]

Deanna,

thank you for the link!

I have seen a number of videos by SUKEMITSU-SAN. They show clearly that he has a different approach to sword forging. I personally think that the traditional methods are not at all outdated, and there is good reason that the techniques and materials are not free to choose but mandatory for licensed sword-smiths. Of course you could forge a sword in different ways, and it might even look similar, but when I see SUKEMITSU-SAN grinding his blades on a belt-grinder, I don't feel I would want one from him.

His is a funny guy, and in one video he is even quite drunk and still trying to speak about his theories, but I sincerely hope that his approach is not something that will spread around in Japan, 'revolutionizing' sword-making.

[Hokke]

It's an interesting question to me. Which came first.....the art or the craft? The simple answer has to be craft, if only out of necessity. Tamahagane as we all know is a steel made from rather crude iron sand. It seems logical that beauty and art were never in the foreground in feudal Japan. We see different schools manufacture their blades in different ways which is what gives us the identifying features we prize today. However, I think the main purpose of experimenting with construction techniques was always in an effort to find a more superior design and one of the side effects was the amazing hada characteristics we love. The video you posted makes me wonder what designs would have come from 1100AD forward if they had access to a better iron in those days. Steel is steel, its properties are finite, so there is only so much you can do with it, but the Japanese have a long history of very purposeful and creative thinking. 

It makes me think of the spanish when they were looting the world of gold and silver. In South America they set up refining camps to convert the ore into useable billets. When these camps were discovered centuries later they would usually find a pit of platinum nearby. The spanish didnt know what the stuff was, they only knew it couldn't be refined like gold and silver, so they discarded it like slag. I think we often downplay and romanticize what it was to live in those early days, truth is, I cannot imagine it. But what is clear is the constant push for innovation in a world filled with unknowns. 

 

[Robert S]

  On 1/28/2025 at 6:30 PM, Peter Bleed said:

Dee, 

Thanks for sharing this. It find it remarkable!  "Masamune Meets Forged in Fire!" I have forwarded it to some of local bladesmiths. I am deeply impressed at how surprised and respectful the Japanese smith is for both the tools - and the results  - of modern bladesmiths. We may be right at the end of "Japanese" sword making!

Peter

Expand  

There will always be a significant umber of people who do things the "old way" for all kinds of reasons - the link to past sword-makers, the challenge, or just that a craft produced using different tools will always be slightly different.  However, I'd bet that if the old koto sword makers had been given an opportunity to experiment with a hydraulic press, they would have, although they might not have adopted it in the end.  Master craftsmen are always experimenting and learning.

[Hokke]

  On 1/28/2025 at 11:33 PM, Robert S said:

.....I'd bet that if the old koto sword makers had been given an opportunity to experiment with a hydraulic press, they would have, although they might not have adopted it in the end.  

Expand  

I am of the opinion they would have adopted it immediately. Ignore for a moment that a hydraulic press means electricity and that in turn changes EVERYTHING, but let's assume a press was somehow made with bamboo and a waterfall. From the standpoint of efficiency in time and labor, it would have been quite difficult NOT to adopt it. I think what we would have seen is bamboo waterfall press builders experimenting with design just as sword smiths did, and thus, it would have been just another tool in the box. 

[The Forest Ninja]

I can't wait till Spring so I can try my hand at forging using my little charcoal forge. 

[ROKUJURO]

Forest,

all the best for that! Get a good teacher for the start!

[vajo]

He was very gentle in his comments.