THE BLADE
The blade of the Samurai sword is the most important aspect of the sword.
The quality of steel can be readily appreciated when inspecting a blade.
There is texture and character built into it. The blade is not bright
like the modern replicas but rather dull in color.
Jitetsu is a term employed when refering to the texture and color of the
blade. This pattern comes from the manufacturing technique of folding
and hammering the blade multiple times. The Jitetsu provides the
principal means of dating a blade because it varies greatly from period
to period. The Kamakura era is considered by many experts as the time
in which the highest quality blades were produced. Examples from these
years exhibit a dark gray velvet appearance.
THE BLADE TIP
The tip of the blade of a Samurai sword is the most dangerous part of the weapon. In combat
the Samurai were able to make the tip cover great distances with a mere movement of their wrist.
The main targets of attack were the wrists, neck and elbow joints. When two Samurai faced each
other the battles would not last more than a few seconds.
KISSAKI: Point of the sword.
BOSHI: Pattern of hardened edge on the point.
YOKOTE: The line which divides the point from the body.
JI: Blade surface located aove the hamon.
SHINOGI: ridgeline.
BLADE SIGNATURES
Samurai swords bare the signature of their maker on their tang. However,
the only swords that were signed were those that met the standards of the
maker. Therefore, it is possible to have two blades made by the same person
and yet have one that is not signed.
The collector must be aware that signature forgeries have been going on
since the early days of sword making. Lesser known sword makers would
copy the signature of more famous craftmen and chisel it on a sword. The
fact that a signature is old does not necessarily mean that it was made
by a famous master.
Often times the tang contains incriptions on both sides. One side houses
the date of manufacture while the other side contains the name of the
maker. If the information was available, the side with the name would also
have the title of the maker and the town or school where the blade came from.
Unlike the blade the tang was never polished. As a last step in the sword
making process, the master would draw a pattern of lines on the tang and
then chisel the inscriptions on it. The collector should never clean the
tang of a sword because it contains a great deal of information regarding
the age of the blade and authenticity of the signature.
THE HAMON
During the manufacturing process the blade is covered in a special
insulating clay which is then heated to extreme temperatures, then
water is poured on the mix. These steps provide a hardened edge with a
visual pattern that loosely resembles the pattern in which the clay was
applied. A common practice which often followed was that of polishing the
hamon to make it stand out more from the rest of the steel.
As a general rule older blades have a straight and narrow hamon. One of
problems experienced when fighting with older blades was that the hamon
would chip horizontally following the edge of the blade.
The Heian period saw the introduction of wider hamons. This is
the period where the serrated, toothlike hamons (gunome) were invented.
Each tooth projection is known as ashi. This design greatly reduced the
chiping problem and confined the maximum size of any lateral breaking to
the distance between two ashi. The pattern of the ashi were also used
as a signature of particular schools.
THE HABAKI
