TRADITIONAL HAND MADE JAPANESE SAMURAI SWORD TANTO KOBUSE BLADE RAY SKIN SAYA

This is a tanto sword. The construction of the blade is GYAKU-KOBUSE, one kind of KOBUSE construction. It is constructed of two different kinds of steel, the core steel and the outer steel, where the core steel is wrapped with the outer steel. The core steel is harder than the outer steel. The outer steel was made of folded steel. It was folded 13 times creating 8192 layers for superior strength and flexibility. The visible tenuous undulating grain on the blade was resulted from folded repeatedly during forging. The core steel was made of 1095 steel. The steel has been throughly refined and tempered, a special clay is applied to the blade by hand, using a thin covering near the edge and a thicker layer over the rest of the blade. This results in a relatively quicker cooling of the edge during quenching, producing a hard edge and softer back. The beautiful real hamon on the blade is also result of the differential cooling of the blade (quenching and tempering). This blade has been hand polished with multiple grade sharpen stone by Japanese method, which made the surface of the blade like a mirror, the more importance is that the blade was polished by HAZUYA which is a very thin Uchigumori stone fixed with paper, Hazuya is a specific stone to bring up hamon. The stone is very fine and soft against the steel. the blade of this sword is completely finished with Hazuya. The work is done to get mirror-like surface on shinogi-ji and edge. High quality brass dragon design Tsuba(guard) with one piece brass habaki(blade collar), and two seppas(spacer) secure the tsuba. The Fuchi(sleeve) and Kashira(buttcap) are also made of brass. The tsuka-ito is black with alternating cross over the red real ray skin samegawa, and two dragon design copper menuki on the handle. The tang is double pinned with bamboo mekugi. The Tanto comes with a hard wooden SAYA(sheath) with samegawa covered, Same'  (ray skin )has been sanded smooth and filled with polished  lacquer. The saya has buffalo horn koiguchi, and thick yellow&brown silk sageo tied over a buffalo horn kurikata with bright copper shitodome.  This sword is strong enough to cut through a thick bamboo tree with a single strike yet sharp enough to slice paper.