![]() ![]() ![]() First, impurities are worked out of the steel and the carbon content is homogenized throughout the metal. The process yields two important results. Next the smith begins the laborious process of hammering out and folding the block back on itself. This block will form the outer skin of the finished blade. First the smith selects suitable pieces of tama-hagane and forge-welds them into a single block. In order to correct and compensate for the quality of the tama-hagane, the folding technique of kitae was developed. Too little carbon and the metal will be soft, too much and the metal is brittle. However, the tatara smelting process, though efficient, is not perfect, and tama-hagane is full of impurities and lacks a consistent dispersal of carbon content, the vital ingredient for turning iron into steel. Modern smiths making Japanese swords in the traditional manner still use this type of steel today, now produced in the last operating tatara smelter, located in Yokota, Shimane Prefecture. Japanese smiths traditionally use tama-hagane, steel produced in a tatara smelter from iron-rich sand. To fashion these blades, the smith not only must possess physical strength, but also patience, dexterity, and a refined eye for the limits of the material and the beauty of a finished sword. The forging of a Japanese sword is a subtle and careful process, an art that has developed over the centuries as much in response to stylistic and aesthetic considerations as to technical improvements.
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