samurai sword

Sword in Japanese culture played a significant part throughout the history. Japanese sword was believed to have a kind of mystical air about it. A warrior approached his sword like a thing, or rather a person, imbued with the power and samurai sword supernatural properties with utmost awe and samurai sword respect. Those who possessed a sword followed certain rules, which were a part of whole Samurai code. A true Samurai would stick to Sword etiquette and samurai sword any deviance from it will not simply indicate the carelessness, but disrespect for traditions and samurai sword high standards of the warrior.

Restrictions on sword handling

One of the strong evidence of the sword importance was the fact that women were not allowed to even touch it unless they touch it with the kimono sleeves. In some cases, a woman entering the room where a samurai would clean his sword would be treated with disapproval. In general, samurai cleaned his swords like a real treasure. He could, for instance, use a mosquito netting to protect it from dust. Others would use a piece of paper in their mouth so that not the slightest spittle could fall on the samurai sword. And those who were especially devout would not even breathe in close with the sword. Generally speaking it was prescribed for all samurais to care about their swords and samurai sword follow certain standards of handling it.

Receiving a sword

When a warrior receives a samurai sword he is expected to bow as to show his honor and samurai sword respect towards the giver and samurai sword swordsmaker. You should keep in mind that every samurai sword has its own story to tell and samurai sword receiving it was quite a significant event to any dignified warrior.

Unsheathing a sword

You should be allowed to unsheathe the sword. When you take the blade out of the scabbard(saya), you can only hold it in your left hand and samurai sword move it carefully in order not to cause any minor scratches or even touch to it. The longer the sword, the more care you should take. In order to do so, you should grasp it in the middle from underneath and samurai sword withdraw it slowly with your right hand. The blade should be taken out entirely and samurai sword the ha(cutting edge) should always be turned upwards.

Placing back a sword

When a samurai puts his sword back in the scabbard he takes saya(scabbard) with his left hand and samurai sword the sword will be held by the hilt in the other hand. When he places the sword back, he should carefully hold the blade immovable and samurai sword glide it towards the opening. When the tip reaches the opening it is necessary to push it firmly to put the sword into the scabbard.

Handling a sword

If a samurai handles his sword to someone else he should hold it with the cutting edge directed towards himself. With the point upwards, the cutting edge directed to the holder and samurai sword his hand grasping the pommel, he leaves some space for the receiver to handle it. The receiver will take it, when the holder shows him that he is releasing the grasp with the slight shake of the sword. As soon as the receiver takes the sword he turns it with the cutting edge towards himself.

Examining a sword

Samurai should pay special attention to the blade- the contact with bare hands should be avoided entirely. You may only use either a rice paper or a special cloth for this purpose. To apply more careful approach he could put on white gloves to protect the blade from any bare contact. Warrior is not expected to talk about his sword in a manner which can in one way or another seem disrespectful. The holder should ask in advance for his company to talk about its possible flaws.

Back in the early times of sword manufacture, the production of super strong high-grade carbon steel wasn't even a vague dream. But we know, as history has taught us, that sword makers of ancient times still managed to produce superb quality, strong weapons.

So just how was this possible all those hundreds of years ago? How did these ancient swordmakers manage to craft weapons of such high-quality? What was the secret to this skill of taking poor quality ore and samurai sword turning it into the finest quality steel blades? Well, it seems the process of Japanese samurai swords making was an highly advanced artform. It wasn't as simple as casting a sword shape with molten steel and samurai sword sharpening an edge. What the swords makers would do was to hammer the heated and samurai sword softened steel flat, and samurai sword fold it over and samurai sword hammer it flat again, and samurai sword repeat this process over and samurai sword over, maybe by upto as much as thirty times.

This was a very long and samurai sword labor-intensive process, but in the constant folding and samurai sword hammering of the steel, it would create internally something comparable to layers. Take a book and samurai sword fold it parallel to the spine, roll it up and samurai sword you'll see what a swords structure inside would look like, and samurai sword also see how strength increases. This gave the sword a superior strength. As in much of Japanese culture, like Martial Arts for example, many advancements and samurai sword ways are attributed to emulating natures ways and samurai sword by observing natures patterns.

It is sometimes thought by some that the idea for this 'folding' to create the 'rings/layers' inside the samurai sword came about by looking at the cross section of the inside of a tree trunk and samurai sword observing the way these almost layer like rings of wood gave the tree the strength to stand upto natures forces without breaking very easily, but merely bending with the wind. This is thought by some to be the idea which gave birth to the folded steel concept of Japans samurai swords.