Weapons of real warriors: how to make a sword from wood and other materials. From what and how a laser swords for children

Perhaps any boy, even if he has already grown and got a family, presented himself with a crusader, Robin Hood, Spartak, Peter foam or fearless samurai. And what is the hero without a faithful sword. In our time, it is needed for a carnival costume, a collection of weapons imitation, reconstruction of the battle or fencing training. The necessary weapons can be bought on specialized forums or make independently at home. In today's review of the editors of the online magazine Housechief, we will look at how to make a sword from wood and other materials for training, games or collections.

What a boy did not imagine himself a knight in brilliant armor and sword
Photo: andomir.narod.ru.

Read in the article

What is the sword, the types and the main nuances of its manufacture at home

The sword is a kind of cold weapon, designed to apply piercing-chopping strikes. Initially, it was made of bronze and copper, and subsequently from iron and high carbon steel. There are many types of swords that differ in size, the shape of the blade, cross section and the method of forging. This type of weapon consists of a blade, handles, gards and impoverished. The sword was always a symbol of nobility, honor, indicator of the owner's status, and some copies that have come down to this day have a rich and interesting story. They can even be called the work of art.

Sword Stanisa Baration
Photo: I.Pinimg.com.

The most common, simple, lungs in the manufacture and handling are straight, one-time and two-handed swords. The direct or Slavic sword is the smallest and convenient for the battle, since it can be controlled with one hand. Two-handed - the longest and heavy representative of this type of weapon and allows to apply strong and deadly blows.

Direct or Slavic Sword
Photo: CDN.fishki.net
Overhead Bastard Sword
Photo: worldanvil.com.
Two-handed sword
Photo: avatars.mds.yandex.net

How to determine the optimal sizes of the sword

Before making a sword at home, you need to know certain parameters: length (general and blade) and width. The dimensions of this type of cold weapons fluctuate depending on the type of sword and the growth of the swordsman. Short swords had the length of the blade in the range of 600-700 mm, long - more than 700-900 mm, and their weight from 700 g to 5-6 kg. One-handed models, as a rule, weighed 1-1.5 kg, and long medieval had a length of about 900 mm and a mass not exceeding 1.3 kg.

There are the most simple methods for selecting the length of this weapon: a long two-handed sword, mounted by the edge to the ground, should get a handle to the chin of the swordsman, and in Slavic - the weapon in the lowered hand should be a tip of the blades to get to the sole of a boot or boot. Guy Windsor, a modern fencing expert, recommends that the following optimal dimensions of this noble weapon:

• the length of the blade with the handle and imagine is equal to the distance from the floor to the sternum of the swordsman;
• handle - 2.5-3 hand widths;
• mudka Garda - 1-2 palm lengths;
• the center of gravity (CT) - 3-5 fingers (in width) under Garda.

Long Sword should get from the ground to the middle of the breast of the warrior
Photo: I.Pinimg.com.

Gravity Center or Weapon Balancing

Determination of the center of gravity (CT) and the balancing of the sword is a very important point in the manufacture of this weapon. It depends on the ease of control, the impact force and the fatigue of the swordsman. The center of gravity of the sword is a point in which the weapon is in equilibrium. Depending on the shape of the blade and sizes, the CT is located in 70-150 mm from the Madzhek Garda. If the balance will be shifted further towards the tip, then the blow, though it will be stronger, but it becomes more difficult to handle such a weapon. When transferring a CT closer to the handle, it may seem that control has become easier, but the impact force drops significantly and the blade is heavier to control.

Easy way to determine the center of gravity
Photo: CS8.Pikabu.ru.

Selection of material

For the manufacture of a sword in modern conditions, a variety of materials (steel, wood, plastic, paper or cardboard can be used. This largely depends on its destination: for suit, training, reconstruction fighting or collection of weapons imitation. Below, in step-by-step instructions, we will look at how to make a sword from different materials.

Roman bronze sword
Photo: CDNB.ArtStation.com.
Steel weapons
Photo: mod-games.ru.
Japanese Tree Training Sword
Photo: I.Bayimg.com.

How to make a sword from wood with your own hands: for playing, training or collection

Having considered in general terms what a sword is, as well as some important nuances, you can go to the direct manufacture. First you need to decide from which wood we will make a weapon, which, in turn, depends on its purpose. Some recommend using a dust or aspen board, birch, ash, cock, oak or walnut. This is a good option for the manufacture of training sword. To the choice of material you need to approach responsibly: wood should be without bitch, rot and damage from insect pests. It is desirable to soak in water to full saturation, after which it needs to be slow and well dry. If you observe the technology of drying wood, then as a result, it is possible to obtain a sufficiently strong and light decorative or training weapon.

Wooden sword for baby
Photo: Whitelynx.ru.

Deciding with the material, you need to choose the view, model of the sword and the necessary tool. Also do not do and without drawings with dimensions.

Drawing a sword from a tree with their own hands
Photo: avatars.mds.yandex.net

Required material and tools

In order to make your own hands a wooden sword for a child, we may need:

1. Wooden plank.
2. Kapron cord, beep or genuine leather stripes.
3. Paint.
4. Paint brush or roller.
5. Cardboard or Watman for the template.
6. Car glue or pva.
7. Hacksaw, electrolovik or circular saw.
8. Emery paper of various grainability, manual grinding machine or stationary machine.
9. Chisels, chisel, planer and cizyanka.
10. Clamps.
11. Manual or stationary milling mill.

Listed manual or power tools will need it regardless of whether you will decide to make wooden swords for children from array, plywood or sticks.

Good tool - Half Success
Photo: udivitelno.cc.

Production, grinding, assembly and finishing of a wooden board sword

From the step-by-step instructions below you will learn how to make a wooden sword with your own hands. You can choose another model and a decoration method, but the described principle of manufacturing will be the same. First of all, you need to make a template from cardboard or watman, made according to the necessary dimensions and forms.

Illustration	Process description
	We take a dry board (preferably without bitch) and squeak it. So we will remove the dirt and small sticking fibers
	We apply a pattern to the workpiece and supply it with a pencil. We also find the center of the sword
	With the help of a hacksaw or an electric batch, drink a sword blank. Start with handles
	We rearrange the workpiece and press the clamps to the table or the workbench
	In the hell with a cutter make a hole
	It turns out such a while still "raw" sword
	With a milling mill and special cutters, we pass along the contour of the sword
	Now you need to apply a line to the blade, which will be possible to remove the chamfer.
	With the help of a grinding machine, gradually remove the wood along the contour, imitating the sharpening of the sword
	It should work out as shown in the photo. In completion, you need to carry out the finishing grinding of the finest sandpaper
	As a result, we get this, made of wood with your own hands, the sword for children. Optionally, you can decorate the toy in different ways. For example, cover the blade of silver paint, and the handle is wrapped with twine, leather band or, in extreme cases, tape

The posted step-by-step instruction clearly shows how to make a sword from the board easily, quickly and without much costs. If there is no power tool, then even with a conventional saw, knife and sandpaper, you can make gaming or carnival weapons. We offer to watch a video in a home workshop.

Making Metal sword

We have already familiarized yourself with the process of making wooden weapons, and now consider how you make a sword from iron with your own hands. Immediately it is worth saying that the complexity of work on its creation will depend on type, form, decoration and destination. The most difficult thing in the manufacture - a wrought sword, it is understandable, because the horn, anvil and the experience of the blacksmith will be required.

Metal homemade sword
Photo: rusknife.com.

Materials and tools

Before making an iron sword, you need to stock material and tools. First of all, you need a metal: a sheet or strip of durable steel. Also necessary:

• clamps;
• angular grinding machine;
• set of cutting and grinding circles for metal;
• cardboard or watman;
• marker, varnish and proofreader for documents;
• plywood or tree;
• leather strip
• grinder machine;
• sandpaper;
• file.

Bulgarian with different discs - the main tool required for the manufacture of iron sword
Photo: images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com.

So, the tools and material are prepared. Now you can move to step-by-step instructions of how to make a real sword-gladius - weapons of gladiators and Roman legionnaires.

Production of a sword: from blanks to finishing polishing

Production of iron sword is a more complex process than creating a wooden analogue. In addition, it requires compliance with elementary safety rules when working with metal and power tools.

Illustration	Process description
	First we make a complete sword pattern
	On the steel sheet-blank on the template we will supply the overall outline of the weapon
	Cut the blank with the help of the "Bulgarian" with the cutting circle
	We get this black sword's workpiece
	On the template, we draw on the sword the boundaries of the future sharpening of the blade on the sword and paint the face with the help of the stationery corrector
	"Bulgarian" remove everything too much to the first size
	We put the petal disk and grind the chopping edge of the future sword
	This is how one side looks like a sharpened blade.
	Now, by a template for multi-layer Phaneur, we will appline rubber cladding circuit
	Cut out the cladding of handles
	Connecting them together, grind on the manual electric machine
	Drills in the handle of the hole for fastening the cladding
	Through the handle drilling holes and plywood blanks
	The plywood cladding is painted in silver and artificially constituting with large sandpaper
	Now proceed to polishing the blade. This process is long and tedious. We use for this bar with a shallow sandpaper on a tissue basis and water. Watering metal to mirror glitter
	Nominal polishing justified itself. The result in the photo speaks for himself
	We re-apply an internal pattern to the blade and supply it by contour
	Paint the nail polish cutting edges of the blade
	It should work out as shown in the photo. It is necessary for tinting the inside of the blade. Who does not want to tint, he can miss the etching process
	Place a sword into citric acid solution for several hours
	Something went wrong, in the film turned out to be a hole, acid flowed and, as a result, the toning came out weak and with divorces. In addition, a rust appeared in a few days. Therefore, it was decided to simply polish the sword and consolidate the cladding of the handle
	After that, the handle of the sword was wound with a leather strip.
	As a result, there was such a sword
	Looks very simmatory

The video shows how to see the sword Katana - the weapon of real samurai, as well as the way to decorate it.

How to make a sword with your own hands at home from different materials

We looked at how to cut a sword from a tree or make it from the steel plate. However, these materials are not the limit. Weapons of medieval knights, Russian heroes, Vikings or samurai can be made from another raw material. Let's briefly consider the main options.

Sword from plywood do it yourself

Quite easily and quickly you can make a baby sword from plywood. This is an affordable and convenient material in processing. However, when making a sword for a child, you need to adhere to some rules. It is desirable that the weapon of a small warrior to have the most blurred end of the blade so that he has no sharpening edge of the blade.

Drawing a sword from plywood
Photo: I.Pinimg.com.

We offer you to get acquainted with the video showing how to make your own hands for the child's sword-gladius from plywood.

How to make a sword from cardboard with your own hands

The sword for the baby can be made on a quick hand from the cardboard. To do this, you need the cardboard itself directly (as dense), scissors or stationery knife, paint and brush.

1. On a sheet of material with a pencil or marker, we draw a sword's contours and cut it with a scissors or a stationery knife.
2. Shallow sandpaper grind sharp edges.
3. Krasim's sword (Blade and Garda - silver, handle - black or dark brown).
4. If desired, the blade can be wrapped with foil, and Garda make a thin tin.

And it is only the easiest option, and on the Internet you can find a large number of ideas.

Sword from cardboard
Photo: avatars.mds.yandex.net

How to make a sword out of paper

Also for a child, you can make a sword of any kind of dense watman or the usual sheets of A4 office paper, which are sold at any stationery store. Weapon manufacturing can be done with the baby. We offer to watch the video constructions on how easy and fast, without much effort and costs to make a samurai sword for your child and paper scabers.

Samurai paper sword for child
Photo: I.Ytimg.com.

Light Sword - Weapons of True Jedi

Who, at least seeing the "Star Wars", did not want to become the owner of the Jedi Light Sword. Previously, this could only dream, and today it is quite realistic to do at home. Of course, this is not a real sword, but for the game the most.

Which boy did not dream to become a Jedi and own a light laser sword
Photo: Fanparty.ru.

First you need to know that the handle has a length of 240-300 mm, and the sword itself is 1000-1300 mm. These are the sizes of swords used in the filming of the famous film. For a child, we make a weapon in accordance with its growth and as they said at the beginning of the article.

Light sword blade is made from a transparent tube (PVC or polycarbonate), in which the LED tape is attached on a special rod. The handle is located a special power supply and battery pack. We connect everything together. At the same time, the transparent tube is taken into the handle by about 50-100 mm. If you want a light sword to make a characteristic sound, you can add Arduino to the scheme (special electronic board, microprocessor, battery and MP3 player).

The video shows how to make a cool Jedic sword. With him you can fight at least with Darth Vader.

The historic home decor is easy to construct yourself. It is in today's publication that will be discussed on how to make a sword from wood and other materials. The edition of Homius will help you familiarize yourself with some features of the design of this weapon.

Photo: dbkcustomswords.com.

Bright, elegant and beautiful weapons forces to fulfill everyone. However, it is previously important to accurately decide which of the materials to choose for the basis of the design. In fact, having lathe and carpentry skills, you can create serious weapons for training and a collection of metal and wood. Moreover, such copies are very successfully sold. Many collectors are ready to buy Hand-Made options.

Photo: Bloknot-stavropol.ru.

Suitable cold-arms sizes

If you believe the regulations that came to us from antiquity, then the length of the sword should be about equal to half the growth of the warrior. In order to more accurately determine this, it is necessary to measure the height from the foot to the palm in the position by the seam. If you keep the sword in your hand, bent in the elbow, then its tip should come into contact with the chin.

Photo: Comp-Pro.ru.

It is necessarily taken into account not only the length, but also the width of the future blade. Also take into account the mass of the finished product.

1. The weight of the design should be no more than 3 kg, otherwise, it will be very difficult to manage this weapon.
2. If the sword is short, then the length of the blade should be 60-70 cm, as for long models - 70-90 cm.
3. The width of the handle is 2.5 widths of the palm, while it should be distinguished by a comfortable design. The size of the palm is taken by the future host of weapons.

In fact, it is possible to take into account the mass of other parameters, however, it is quite enough to produce models from natural wood and metal of this data. For example, wooden swords for children should be lightweight.

Photo: Liveinternet.ru.

How balancing is performed

Balancing is the same center of gravity, which is taken into account in the production of different options for cold weapons. Mostly it is located in the area of \u200b\u200bthe beginning of the cutting edge of the blade.

If the center of gravity is shifted below, for example, by the middle of the blade, then the blow strength will be small. When balancing is closer to the handle, it becomes more complicated to drive a cold weapon.

Photo: Pikabu.ru.

To correctly poke the sword, it is necessary to hold it on one point finger and shift it left, then right until the design is balanced.

How to make a sword of wood with your own hands

Wooden cold weapons is pulled out for long, most importantly, to prepare the entire inventory to the workflow. Similar options most often make grandparents to their grandchildren for games and training. And if you make a carved sword from the board, then it will come down as one of the objects of the historical collection.

Photo: Whitelynx.ru.

What materials and tools must be kept at hand

As a rule, special tools will not be required for the manufacture of sword from wood. Usually all this is in the farm in every man. In order to cut the sword from wood, you will need:

• saw on a tree or;
• a sharp knife, a simple pencil (preferably greasy, it is stronger);
• sandpaper;
• roulette, ruler and measuring tape
• chisel;
• drawing a sword for drinking from a tree.

Photo: Rock-cafe.info.

Creating a set of weapons

First, to make a wooden sword with your own hands, you must create a template and make the workpiece on its example. This is performed as follows.

Illustration	Description of action
	I am very polished by the board, and then carry out the sketch of the sketch from the template onto its front side. Blacks are clear
	With the help of an electrolybiz cut out the workpiece together with the handle and the blades themselves
	With the help of the chisels, we make corners on the handles more rounded and symmetrical on both sides.
	We perform grinding of all angles and cut ends. We remove all the jar to the full smoothness of the material.

Detail is ready for the further processing stage and applying the final strokes. Using thinner wood, you can create a sword from a tree with your own hands for children.

Final Stage: Sword Assembly

Initially, we will make all the angles with more rounded and safe, after proceeding to the next step of creating weapons.

Illustration	Description of action
	The chisel make the pattern on the handle, thereby separating it from the blade
	Additionally, traveled the product, make a measurement of the handle, is it suitable for hand. If not, we carry out a minor trimming of the chisel to optimal parameters. We get the perfect holder for a tree from a tree made by your own hands.

If necessary, you can paint the structure, or on the site of the side of the sides to attach the metal plates of the same type with the help of.

On a note! If you remember childhood, most of the children and girls made swords from ordinary sticks.

How to make a sword-kana do it yourself from metal

Training cold weapons should be operated only for its intended purpose. It is necessary to observe safety during fencing, as this design is dangerous. Exceptionally adults work with it.

In order to see the sword needed:

• metal sheet (even the old one) 3-5 mm thick;
• and grinding machine;
• vice;
• other metal processing tools.

You can make an iron sword for fencing in a simple algorithm.

Illustration	Description of action
	We make a sketch of the future product on a piece of metal, then cut the bulgar from the contour. If there are welding seams on the material, they are polished. Two identical details and one flat are created. These three elements are welded with each other so that the same details formed a small angle.
	As a result, such a form of blade should be obtained. It is additionally frowning with a hammer to get slightly. Cooked handle gripped with a blade
	Then the steel plate is put on the border of the handle, bended using vice
	Create a template of the limiter and put it on a handle with the shape pre-created in the form
	Create a handle from a wooden bar, we make it with metal plates and be overlooked from above leather

It remains only to stick the handle to the sword, making her a lamp from red dermatin. So it is possible to make almost a real sword.

We make a simple sword with your own hands at home: simple ideas that the child will delight

Who did not dream of becoming a real warrior? Believe me, the creation of a toy sword will bring a lot of joy and pleasure from the process. Moreover, the toy will be most secure as possible.

Photo: Tytrukodelie.ru.

Sword from plywood do it yourself

Phaneru can always be reached in any construction store. It is quite easy to work with this material, as it has a thin but sufficiently strong texture.

1. We harvest the template or drawing, on the basis of which we will make a sword with your own hands.
2. Redraw it on a sheet of plywood, after which we cut a hand or electric jig.
3. With the help of sandwich, all the edges are well grinding, cover the paint blank.
4. Next, we proceed with varnish or waterproofing.
5. We leave weapon to dry out for a few days.

Photo: in.pinterest.com.

This product looks great not only as a toy, but also in the form of a decorative element. To make a sword at home, which looks more effectively, you can make a carved blade, for example, with interesting teeth from the inside.

Photo: in.pinterest.com.

Photo: dxfprojects.com.

How to make a sword from cardboard with your own hands

The cardboard product is made on the same principle as plywood. For the design you will need only packaging boxes from any home appliances. Next, we make cold weapons according to the algorithm.

Few of the connoisseurs of weapons, the Japanese sword leaves indifferent. Some believe that this is the best sword in history, an inadential top of perfection. Others - that this is a mediocre cauldron, not withstanding comparisons with swords of other cultures.

There are more extreme opinions. Fans may argue that Katana rubs Steel that it is impossible to break it that it is easier for any European sword of similar dimensions and so on. Thieves say that Katana is simultaneously fragile, soft, short and heavy, that this is an archaic and dead-end branch of the development of cold weapons.
On the face of fans is the entertainment industry. In Anime, Cinema and Computer Games, swords of Japanese type are often endowed with special properties. Katana may be the best weapon of its class, and may be a megamic of the main character and / or villain. It is enough to remember a couple of Tarantino films. You can also remember the militants about the ninja from the 80s. Examples too much so that they are seriously mentioned.
The problem is that due to the massive pressure of the entertainment industry in some people a filter, designed to separate the real from the fictional, gives a failure. They begin to believe in what Katana is the truth is the best sword, "because everyone knows." And then the desire to reinforce its point of view appears on the natural psyche. And when such a person meets the criticism of the object of his adoration, he perceives it in the bayonets.
On the other hand, there are people who possess knowledge about certain lack of Japanese sword. On fans, unrestrained katan, such people often react initially quite healthy criticism. Most often in response - I remember about the perception of the bayonets - these critics receive inadequate ears, often leading them into rabies. The argument of this side also goes to the side of the absurdity: the advantages of the Japanese sword are silent, the shortcomings are inflated. Critics turn into cries.
So the incessant war goes, on the one hand fed to ignorance, and on the other - intolerance. As a result, it turns out that most of the available information about the Japanese sword occurs either from fans or from the crosses. Neither one may not be taken seriously.
Where is the truth? What is, in fact, the Japanese sword, what is his strengths and weaknesses? Let's try to figure out.

Mining iron ore

The fact that swords are made of steel is not a secret. Steel is an alloy of iron with carbon. Iron is obtained from ore, carbon - from wood. In addition to carbon, steel may contain other elements, one of which affect the quality of the material is positive, while others are negative.
There are quite a few types of iron ore, such as magnetite, hematite, lemonitis and siderit. They differ in essence, impurities. In any case, ores contain iron oxides, and not iron in its pure form, therefore iron from oxides always have to restore. Clean iron, not in the form of oxides and without a significant number of impurities, in nature it is extremely rare, not on an industrial scale. Basically, it is fragments of meteorites.
In medieval Japan, iron ore was obtained from the so-called iron sand or stem (砂鉄) containing magnetite grains (FE3O4). Iron sand and in modern times is an important source of ore. Magnetite from sand is mined, for example, in Australia, including for exporting to Japan, where the iron ore has long over.
It should be understood that the remaining types of ore is no better than iron sand. For example, in medieval Europe, a marsh ore was an important source of iron, BOG Iron containing gothitis (FEO (OH)). There, too, there are many non-metallic impurities, and in the same way they must be separated. Therefore, in the historical context, it is not too important which ore was used for steel production. More importantly, how it was processed before and after smelting.
Stsing about the quality of Japanese sword begin with the discussion of ore. Fans claim that ore from Saccans is very clean, and it is manufactured from it very perfect steel. Thieves say that in the case of mining of ore from sand, it is impossible to get rid of impurities, and the steel is low quality, with a large number of inclusions. Who is right?
Paradoxically, but those and others! But not at the same time.
Modern methods for cleaning magnetite from impurities, really allow to obtain a very clean iron oxide powder. Therefore, the same marsh ore is commercially less interesting than magnetic sand. The problem is that these cleaning methods use powerful electromagnets that appeared relatively recently.
The medieval Japanese was necessary or byfeit with cunning sand purification using coastal waves, or separating magnetite's grapple from sand manually. In any case, if you produce and clean the magnetite truly traditional methods, the net ore will not work. There will remain quite a lot of sand, that is, silicon dioxide (SiO2), and other impurities.
The approval "In Japan was a bad ore, and therefore steel for Japanese swords to determine low quality" is incorrect. Yes, in Japan really was quantitatively less than iron ore than in Europe. But it was no better and not worse than European. And in Japan, and in Europe to obtain high-quality steel, metallurgists accounted for a special way to get rid of impurities, inevitably remained after smelting. To do this, very similar processes based on forging welding (but this later).
Therefore, the statements of the type "Satza - very pure ore" are true only for magnetite separated from impurities in modern ways. In historical times it was a dirty ore. When modern Japanese make their swords "in the traditional way," they creepy, since ore for these swords is cleaned with magnets, rather than manually. So this is no longer swords of traditional steel, since raw materials used for them are higher quality. The gunsmiths, of course, can be understood: there is no practical sense to use knowingly worst raw materials.

Ore: output

Steel for NuTono, produced before joining the Japan of the industrial revolution, was made from the dirty on modern standards of ore. Steel for all modern neuonto, even those that go to the farthest and authentic Japanese villages, is made from pure ore.

In the presence of sufficiently perfect smelting technologies, the quality of ore has no particular importance, since impurities will be easily separated from iron. However, historically in Japan, as in medieval Europe, there were no such technologies. The fact is that the temperature at which pure iron melts is equal to about 1539 ° C. It is really necessary to achieve even higher temperatures, with a margin. "On the knee" it is impossible to do this, you need a blast furnace.

Without comparatively new technologies, it is very difficult to achieve a temperature sufficient for melting iron, very difficult. Only a few cultures were under power. For example, high-quality steel bars were produced in India, and the merchants were already taken to Scandinavia. In Europe, they learned to normally reach the desired temperatures somewhere around the XV century. In China, the first domain furnaces were built in the 5th century to our era, but the technology did not come out of the country.

Traditional Japanese cheese oven, Tatar (鑪), was a fairly perfect device for his time. With the task - to obtain the so-called Tamahagan (玉鋼), "diamond steel" - she coped. However, the temperature that could be achieved in the Tatar did not exceed 1500 ° C. This is more than enough to restore iron from oxides, but not enough for complete melting.

Completely melt is needed primarily for separating unwanted impurities, inevitably contained in ore extracted in a traditional way. For example, sand during heating releases oxygen and turns into silicon. This silicon is sharpened somewhere inside the iron. If iron becomes completely liquid, then unwanted impurities like the same silicon just float to the surface. From there, they can be detected with a spoon or leave it so that it is later removed from the cooled pigs.

Melting iron in Tatar, as in most similar old-fated furnaces, was not complete. Therefore, the impurities did not float into the surface in the form of slag, and remained in the thickness of the metal.

It is necessary to mention that not all impurities are equally harmful. For example, nickel or chrome allow you to get stainless steel, vanadium is used in modern tool steel. These are the so-called alloying additives, the benefits of which will be with a very small content, usually measured in fractions of interest.

In addition, carbon should not be considered an admixture at all when it comes to steel, because steel is an alloy of iron and carbon in a certain proportion, as noted earlier. However, when weaving in the Tatar, we are dealing not only and not so much with alloying additives of the type mentioned above. The slag remains in steel, mainly in the form of silicon, magnesium and so on. These substances, as well as their oxides, were much worse than steel on hardware-strength characteristics. Steel without slag will always be better with slag.

Welding steel: conclusion

Steel for Nyonto, which was paid by traditional methods from traditionally mined ore, has a significant amount of slag. This worsens its quality compared to steel obtained with the help of modern technologies. If you take modern, clean ore, then the resulting "almost traditional" steel will be noticeably higher than the quality than the traditional.

The Japanese sword is manufactured from the traditional manner of the resulting steel, called Tamahagan. Blade in different areas contains carbon in different concentrations. Steel folds into several layers and has a zonal handling. These are widely known facts, you can read in almost any popular article about Katan. Let's try to find out what it means and what effect has it.

To obtain answers to these questions, you will need an excursion to metallurgy. Needless to deepen will not. Many nuances are not mentioned in this article, some points are intentionally simplified.

Properties of material

Why do swords are made from steel, and not, say, from wood or sugar wool? Because to create swords, steel as a material has more suitable properties. Moreover, for creating swords, steel has the most suitable properties of all materials available to humanity.

From the sword is not so much. It should be durable, sharp and not too heavy. But all these three properties are absolutely necessary! Insufficiently durable sword will quickly break, leaving its owner without protection. There is no sharp sword to be ineffective in applying the enemy damage and also will not be able to protect its owner. Too heavy sword, at best, quickly turns the owner, at worst - in general it will be unsuitable for the fight.

Now we will describe in detail with these properties.

During operation, swords are subject to powerful physical effects. What happens to the blade, if you hit them by purpose, whatever it is? The result depends on what goal and how to hit. But it also depends on the device of the blade, which we beat.

First of all, the sword should not break, that is, it should be durable. Strength is the ability of objects not to break from the internal stresses arising under the influence of external forces. The strength of the sword is mainly influenced by two components: geometry and material.

With geometry, everything in general is understandable: scrap is harder than wire. However, scrap is strongly harder, and this is not always desirable, so you have to go on tricks, minimizing the mass of weapons while maintaining the maximum strength. By the way, you can immediately notice that all types of steel have about one density: approximately 7.86 g / cm3. Therefore, the reduction of mass is achievable only by geometry. We will talk about it later, so far we will deal with the material.

In addition to the strength, hardness is important for the sword, that is, the ability of the material is not deformed with external effects. There is no solid sword, it can be very strong, but he will not be alone or cut. An example of such a material - rubber. The sword made of rubber is almost impossible to break, although it is possible to cut down - again the lack of hardness affects. But, more importantly, his blade is too soft. Even if we make a "sharp" rubber blade, then it can cut it, it can except sugar wool, that is, even less solid material. When you try to cut at least a wood blade from a sharp, but soft material will simply be bent.

But hardness is not always useful. Often, instead of hardness, a plasticity is needed, that is, the body's ability to deform without self-destruction. For clarity, we take two material: one with very low hardness - all the same tires, and the other with very high - glass. In rubber or leather boots, dynamically bent after the leg, you can safely walk, but in glass well, it will not work. Glass fragment can be cutting with rubber, but the rubber ball with ease breaks the window glass, not a victim.

The material cannot simultaneously have a high firmness and at the same time be plastic. The fact is that when deformed, the body of a solid material does not change the shape, like rubber or plasticine. Instead, it first resists, and then breaks, cracking - as it is necessary to go somewhere to the energy of the deformation, which in it accumulates, and it is not able to repay this energy less extremely.

With low solidness of the molecule, which make up the material are not connected too hard. They are calmly moving relative to each other. Some soft materials after deformation take the original shape, others - no. Elasticity is the property of return of the initial form. For example, a stretched tires will be gathered back, unless to overdo it, and plasticine will retain the form that he will be given. Accordingly, the rubber is deformed elastically, and plasticine - plastic. By the way, solid materials rather elags than plastic: they are not deformed first, then slightly deform elastic (if you release here, then the form will be returned), and then break.

Varieties of steel

As mentioned above, steel is an alloy of iron and carbon. More precisely, it is an alloy containing from 0.1 to 2.14% carbon. Less - iron. More up to 6.67% - cast iron. The more carbon, the higher the hardness and at the same time below the plasticity of the alloy. And the lower the plasticity, the higher the fragility.

In fact, of course, everything is not so simple. You can get high carbon steel, which will be plastic low carbon, and vice versa. Metallurgy is much larger than one carbon chart. But we have already agreed to simplify.

Steel containing very little carbon is ferrite. What is "very little"? Depends on various factors, primarily on temperature. At room temperature, it is somewhere until half a percent, but you need to understand that you should not look for excessive clarity in the analog world, complete smooth gradients. Ferrite is close in properties to clean gland: it has a low hardness, deformed plastic and is a ferromagnet, that is, attracts to magnets.

When heated, the steel changes the phase: the ferrite turns into austenite. The easiest way to understand whether the heated steel blank came to the austenitic phase - to bring a magnet to it. Unlike ferrite, Austenite does not have ferromagnetic properties.

Austenite is different from ferrite with a different structure of the crystal lattice: it is wider than that of ferrite. Still remember the thermal expansion, right? Here it manifests itself. Due to the wider grid, the austenite becomes transparent for individual carbon atoms, which can be free to travel to a certain extent inside the material, turning to be directly inside the cells.

Of course, if you warm up the steel even higher, until complete melting, then carbon will travel even freer. But now it is not so important, especially since, with traditional for Japan, the method of obtaining steel melting does not occur.

When cooled, the molten steel first becomes solid austenite, and then turns back to ferrite. But this is a general case, for "ordinary" carbon steels. If you add nickel or chrome to steel in an amount of 8-10%, then when cooled, the crystal lattice will remain austenitic. This is done stainless steel, in fact - steel alloys with other metals. As a rule, they lose the usual alloys of iron and carbon in terms of hardness and strength, so swords are made from "rust" steel.

With modern metallurgical technologies, it is possible to obtain stainless steel, comparable according to hardness and strength with high-quality samples of historical carbon steel. Although modern carbon steel will still be better than modern stainless steel. But, in my opinion, the main reason for the lack of stainless sword is Market Inertia: Customers of gunsmiths do not want to acquire swords from the "weak" stainless steel, plus many appreciate the authenticity - despite the fact that this is, in fact, the fiction, what was said in the previous article .

Getting Tamahagan

We take iron ore (Satentsu-magnetite) and baked. Would like to completely melt, but it will not work - the Tatara will not cope. But nothing. Heat, bring to the austenitic phase and continue to heat up to the stop. Add carbon, just sprinkling in the coal stove. Again satisfying Sacatsu and continue to bake. A certain part of steel melted still succeeds, but not all. Then we give the material to cool.

When cooled, steel is trying to change the phase, turning from austenite to ferrite. But we added a significant amount of unevenly distributed coal! Carbon atoms that freely moved inside liquid iron and normally existing inside austenitic grid, when compressed and changing the phase, begin to squeeze out of a narrower ferritic grid. From the surface, okay, extruded to eat where, just in the air - and good. But in the thickness of the material, it is especially nowhere to go.

As a result of the transition of iron from austenite, part of the cooled steel will no longer be ferrite, but cement guide, or iron carbide Fe3C. Compared to Ferrite, this is a very solid and fragile material. Clean cementite contains 6.67% carbon. It can be said that this is "maximum cast iron". If carbon is in some section of the alloy, it will be greater than 6.67%, then it will not be able to disperse in iron carbide. In this case, carbon will remain in the form of graphite inclusions, without rearing with iron.

When the Tatara cools, the steel block weighing about two tons is formed at its day. Steel in this block is heterogeneous. In those areas in which Sacatsu borders with coal, there will be not even steel, but already cast iron containing a large number of cementite. In the depths of Saccans, far from coal, will be ferrite. In the transition from ferrite to cast iron - various structures of iron carbon alloys, which can be defined as perlite for simplicity.

Perlite is a mixture of ferrite and cementite. When cooled and the phase transition from Austenite in Ferrite, as already mentioned, carbon is squeezed out of the crystal lattice. But in the thickness of the material, it is especially nowhere to squeeze it, only from one place to another. Because of various inhomogeneities, when cooled, it turns out that part of the lattice this carbon extrudes, turning into ferrite, and the other part takes, turning into cementite.

Perlite looks like a zebra skin: the sequence of light and dark stripes. Most often, cementite is perceived more white compared to dark gray ferrite, although it all depends on the conditions of lighting and observation. If carbon is small in perlite, the striped areas will be combined with pure ferritious. But this is all pearly, just low carbon.

The walls of the furnace destroy, and the steel block is broken into pieces. These pieces are gradually crushed to very small pieces, carefully inspect whether they are cleared of slag and unnecessary carbon-graphite. They are then heated to a soft state and flattened, the flat ingots of arbitrary shape, resembling coins, are obtained. In the process, the material is sorted in terms of quality and carbon content. The most high-quality pieces of coins go to the production of swords, the rest - where it fell. With carbon content, everything is quite simple.

Ferrite derived from Tamahagana, Japanese is called Chuchua (包丁鉄). Proper English-speaking record - "Houchou-Tetsu" or "HōCHō-TETSU", possibly without a hyphen. If you look for both "Hocho-Tetsu", you can't find anything good.

Perlite is just Tamahagan. More precisely, the word "Tamahagana" is called both all the obtained steel in general and its pearlite component.

The solid cast iron from Tamahagan is called Nabe-Ghana (鍋 が ね). Although the names for cast iron and its derivatives in Japanese are several: Nabe-Ghana, Stentec (銑鉄), Celets (鋳鉄). If it is interesting, then you yourself can figure out when which of these words correctly apply. Not the most important thing in our case, honestly.

The traditional Japanese method of smelting has become something highly high. It does not allow to completely get rid of slags, inevitably present in the traditionally mined ore. However, with the main task - receipt of steel - it is completely coping. At the exit, small pieces of iron-carbon alloys are obtained, similar to coins, with different content of carbon. In the further production of the sword, various varieties of alloys are involved, from soft and plastic ferrite to solid and fragile cast iron.

Composite steel

Almost all technological processes of obtaining steel for the production of swords, including Japanese, give steel from various varieties, with different carbon content and so on. Some varieties have become hard and fragile, others are soft and plastic. Armored for blacksmiths wanted to combine high carbon steel hardness with low carbon steel strength. So, independently of each other, in various parts of the world, and the idea of \u200b\u200bproducing swords of composite steel appeared.

In the midst of the fanatics of Japanese swords, the fact that the objects of their reading were traditionally made in this way, from the "set of steel layers", is extroduced as a certain achievement, a distinguished Japanese sword from others, "primitive" types of weapons. Let's try to find out why this look at things is wrong.

Elements of technology

General principle: the pieces of the necessary shape were taken, they are collected in one way or another and welded with forging. To do this, they are repeated to a soft, but not a liquid state, and drive into each other with a sledgehammer.

Piling)

Actually the formation of the workpiece from pieces of material, most often with different characteristics. Slices are welded with forging.

Typically used rods or strips of the entire length of the product so as not to create weak places in length. But you can already collect differently.

Accidentally structural assembly is the most primitive method in which the pieces of metal of arbitrary shape are collected as hit. Accidentally structural assembly is usually also accidentally compositive.

Accidentally composite assembly - such swords do not manage to identify a meaningful strategy for distributing material strips with different with carbon content and / or phosphorus.

About phosphorus was not previously mentioned. This additive is simultaneously useful, and harmful, depending on the concentration and varieties of steel. As part of the article, the properties of phosphorus in alloys with steel equal importance do not have. But in the context of the assembly it is important that the presence of phosphorus changes the visible color of the material, more precisely - its reflective properties. About this later.

Structural assembly is the opposite of randomly structural. The bands from which the workpiece is going to have clear geometric outlines. There is a certain intent in the formation of the structure. However, such blades can still be randomly composite.

Composite assembly - an attempt to reasonably arrange various varieties of steel in different areas of the blade - for example, having received a solid blade and a soft core. Composite assemblies are always structural.

It should be mentioned about which structures were usually formed.

The easiest option is three and more stripes fold with a stack, while the upper and lower bands form the surface of the blade, and the average is its core. But there was a complete opposite when the billet is going out of five or more rods lying nearby. Extreme rods form blades, and all that between them is the core. Intermediate, more complex options, also met.

For Japanese swords, the assembly is a very common reception. Although not all Japanese swords were collected equally, and not all of them were generally collected. In modern times the most common is the following option: blade - solid steel, core and spin - soft steel, side planes - middle steel. This option is called Sanamai or Honsanmai, and it can be considered a kind of standard. Speaking in the future about the structure of the Japanese sword, we will keep in mind just such an assembly.

But, in contrast to modernity, most historical swords have the structure of the Cobeus: a soft core and spin, solid blade and side planes. They really follow the Savni swords, then with a large margin - Maru, that is, swords are not made of composite steel, just solid. The remaining cunning options, such as the Orikarei Sanamai or Sosy China attributed to the legendary Blacksmith Masamun, exist in homeopathic doses and are mostly simply products of experiments.

Folding (Folding)

It is a folding in half a thinly flattened blank, hot to a soft state.

This element of technology, together with its manifestation from the next item, is probably stronger than others as the basis for the perfection of Japanese swords. All probably heard about hundreds of layers of steel, of which Japanese swords consist? So here. We take one layer, fold twice. Already two. Once again - four. And so on, by degree of twos. 27 \u003d 128 layers. Nothing special.

Packaging (Faggoting)

Homogenization of the material by multiple folding.

Packing is necessary when the material is far from perfection - that is, when working with the traditional manner obtained. In fact, under the "special Japanese folding", it is packaging, because it is for cleaning from impurities and homogenization of the slag of the workpiece of Japanese swords about 10 times. With tenfold folding, 1024 layers are obtained, so thin that they are already as it were, the metal becomes homogeneous.

Packing allows you to get rid of impurities. Each time it is thinning the workpiece, more and more of its contents turns out to be part of the surface. Temperature at which all this is happening is quite high. As a result, some slag flashes, binding to air oxygen. Not burnt pieces of multiple treatment with a sledgehammer are sprayed in a relatively even concentration throughout the workpiece. And it is better than to have one particular large slack somewhere in a certain place.

However, package has both negative sides.

First, the slag consisting of oxides does not fade - it has already burned down. Such slag is partially and remains inside the workpiece, it is impossible to get rid of it.

Secondly, along with undesirable impurities, carbon fade out of steel. This can also be considered using cast iron as raw materials for future solid steel, and for future soft steel - solid steel. However, it is already clear here that it is impossible to samp infinitely - it turns out iron.

Thirdly, in addition to slag, at temperatures on which there is a folding and package, it is lit, that is, oxidized, and iron itself. It is necessary to remove iron oxide appearing on the surface of the flakes before folding the workpiece, otherwise the marriage will be.

Fourth, iron with each subsequent folding becomes less and less. The part burns, leaving the oxide, and the part from the edge is simply falling off or requires cut. Therefore, it is necessary to immediately calculate how much the material is needed. And he is not free.

Fifth, the surface on which packaging is produced cannot be sterile, and the air in the blacksmith too. With each folding in the workpiece, new impurities fall. That is, until some point, the package reduces the percentage of pollution, but then begins to raise it.

Taking into account the above, it can be understood that folding and package - this is not some kind of super technologies that allow you to get some unprecedented properties from the metal. This is just a way to a certain extent to get rid of the material defects inherent in the traditional methods of obtaining it.

Why swords are not molded

In a variety of fantasy films, the process of producing a sword is shown with beautiful installation, usually for the main character or, on the contrary, for any evil antagonists. The usual picture of this installation: molten metal of orange colors is poured into an open form. Consider why it does not happen.

First, the molten steel has a temperature of about 1600 ° C. This means that it will glow not soft orange, but very bright yellowish-white color. In the cinema in the forms, some alloys of soft and more low-melting metals are poured.

Secondly, if you pour metal into an open form, the upper side will remain flat. Bronze swords were really cast, but in closed forms consisting of two halves - not a flat saucer, but a deep and narrow glass.

Thirdly, in the cinema it is meant that after the sword is frozen, it already has a final shape and, in general, ready. However, the material obtained in this way, without further treatment, will be too fragile for weapons. Bronze plastic and softer steel, with distinguished bronze blades everything is fine. But the steel workpiece will have to ride long and stubbornly, radically changing its size and shape. This means that the blank for further forging should not have the shape of the finished product.

In principle, you can molten steel to pour into the form of a blank with a calculation of further deformation from forging, but in this case the carbon distribution inside the blade will be very homogeneous or, at least, difficult to manage - how much it was in the frozen area of \u200b\u200bthe fluid, so much remains. In addition, we remember that it generally completely melted steel - the task is very nontrivial, who are completely solved by anything in the pre-industrial times. Therefore, no one did.

Composite steel: conclusion

Technological elements of composite steel production are not complicated or secret. The main advantage of the application of these technologies is to compensate for the deficiencies of the source material, which allows you to get a completely suitable sword from low-quality traditional steel. There are many options for assembling the sword, more and less successful.

A varieties of composite steel

Composite steel is an excellent solution that allows to collect a very high-quality sword from mediocious source materials. There are other decisions, but we will talk about them later. Now we'll figure it out where and when the composite steel was used, and how much is this technology exclusive for Japanese swords?

Up to modern times, a lot of samples of ancient steel swords from Northern Europe came out. We are talking about really old weapons made for 400-200 years before our era. These are the times of Alexander the Macedonian and Roman Republic. In Japan, the period of Yoyo began, in the go there were bronze blades and spear tips, social differentiation appeared and the first progress-country education arose.

The study of these ancient Celtic swords showed that forging welding was used already. At the same time, the distribution of solid and soft material was quite diverse. Apparently, it was the era of empirical experiments, since it was not entirely clear what options are more useful.

For example, one option is completely dick. The central part of the sword was a thin strip of steel, on which iron strips were attracted from all sides, forming the surface planes and the blades themselves. Taki yes, a solid core with soft blades. It is possible to explain this by means that the soft blade is easy to straighten with a hammer on the privala, and the solid core, made of steel with still not too much carbon content, keeps the sword from deformation. Or the fact that the blacksmith was not in himself.

But more often the Celtic blacksmiths simply as planted strips of iron and soft steel, or they did not bother with multi-layered. In those days, too little knowledge was accumulated for the formation of concrete traditions. For example, not found traces of hardening, and this is a very important point in the production of high-quality sword.

In principle, on the issue of exclusivity of composite steel for Japanese swords, it would be possible to finish here. But continue, the topic is interesting.

Roman swords

Roman writers mocked the quality of Celtic swords, arguing that their domestic is much cooler. Surely not all these claims were based only on propaganda. Although, of course, the success of the Military Machine of Rome was mainly obliged not to the quality of equipment, but to the general superiority in the preparation, tactics, logistics, and so on.

Composite steel in Roman swords, of course, was used, while much more ordered than in Celtic. There was already an understanding that the blade should be more hard, and the core is rather soft. In addition, many Roman swords were hardened.

At least one of the Kuznetsov, who worked about 50 years of our era, used in its production all the components of the perfect composite steel. He selected various varieties of steel, homogenized them with a multi-layer fold, intelligently collected strips of solid and soft steel, was well blunting it into one product, I knew how to order and either used the vacation, or hardening very accurately, not overdo it.

In Japan, the period of Yoya continued. Before the appearance of the original traditions of the production of steel swords of the famous Japanese type, about 700-900 years have passed.

The traditions of the production of Roman swords, despite the presence of all necessary knowledge, at the beginning of our era were not perfect. There was not enough systemicity, explaining the results of empirical observations. It was not engineering work, but an almost biological evolution with mutations and the rejection of unsuccessful results. Nevertheless, taking all this into account, the Romans produced very high-quality swords for several centuries. Barbarians who conquered the Roman Empire were adopted and subsequently improved their technology.

Somewhere between 300 and 100 years BC, Celtic blacksmiths have developed the technology of so-called patterned welding, Pattern Welding. We had a lot of swords from Northern Europe made in 200-800 of our era in Northern Europe with the use of this technology. Patterned welding used both Celts and Romans and, later, almost all residents of Europe. Only with the occurrence of the "Viking" era, this Fashion ended, giving way to simple and practical products.

Watching swords compounded with patterned welding, very unusual. It is quite easy in principle to understand how to achieve such an effect. We take a few (many) thin rods consisting of various varieties of steel. They may differ in the amount of carbon, but the best visual effect gives the addition of phosphorus into some of the rods: such steel turns on the usual. We collect this thing in a bundle, heated and twist it into the spiral. Then make the second the same bundle, but we launch the spiral to the other side. Cut the spiral to the parallelepiped bars, weld them with forging and give the desired shape flattening. As a result, after polishing on the surface of the sword, there will be part of the rods of one variety, then another - respectively, of different colors.

But actually make such a thing - it is very difficult. Especially if you are interested in not chaotic stripes, but some beautiful ornament. In fact, there are not some rods there, but pre-packaged (with a dozen times folded and cited) thin layers of different-sized steel, neatly assembled into a kind of layer pie. On the sides of the final structure, rods from conventional solid steel, forming blades are riveted. In particularly launched cases, several flat plates with ornaments were made, which were riveted to the core of the blade of the medium steel. Etc.

It looked like a very dog \u200b\u200band joyful. Technical nuances not important to understand the general essence, but necessary for the production of real products - a lot. One error, one metal element is not in the right place, one extra blow hammer, a spraying pattern - and everything is gone, the artistic intention is ruined.

But one and a half thousand years ago somehow coped.

The effect of patterned welding on the properties of the sword

It is now believed that this technology does not give any advantages compared to the usual high-quality composite steel, in addition to aesthetic. However, there is one essential nuance.

It is obvious that the creation of a sword decorated with patterned welding is much more expensive and time consuming than the manufacture of simply ordinary sword, even if you have a full-fledged composite assembly, but without all these decorative beams. So, this complication and appreciation of the product led to the fact that the blacksmiths in the manufacture of weapons with patterned welding behaved much more carefully and thoughtfully. The technology itself does not carry any advantages, but the fact of its use led to increased control at all stages of the process.

To spoil the ordinary sword is not particularly scary, there is anything in production, some percentage of marriage is admissible and inevitable. But the detachment of work that went into the blade with patterned welding is insulting. That is why swords with patterned welding on average were better than ordinary swords, and the technology of patterned welding to the quality had only an indirect attitude.

The same nuance should be kept in mind when it comes to any similar impaired technology, magical way improving the quality of weapons. Most often, the secret is not in decorative tricks, but in increased quality control.

It is no secret that people often use certain words, without understanding their meaning. For example, the so-called "Damascus" or "Damascus" steel has nothing to do with the capital of Syria. Someone illiterate once decided something for himself, and others repeated. The version of the "blades of steel of such a species came to Europe from Syria" does not withstand critics, since the steel of such a variety in Europe will not surprise anyone.

What do I mean by "Damascus"?

In most cases, variations on the theme of patterned weaving. It is absolutely optionally to stop on the "layer test" from thin layers of steel with different content of carbon and phosphorus. The blacksmiths in different parts of the world came up with very diverse ways to achieve a beautiful visual effect on the surface of expensive blades. For example, in modern times, when they want to get "Damascus", usually do not use phosphoric steel and soft iron, since these materials are not very good. Instead, you can take normal carbon steel and notch the manganese, titanium and other alloying additives. Steel, doped with understanding of the case and / or on a competent recipe, will not be worse than ordinary carbon, but may differ visually.

Speaking about the quality of the weapon made from such steel, remember the causes of high quality swords with patterned welding. Dear beautiful swords were made carefully and carefully. It would be possible to make the same high-quality sword from "ordinary" steel, without all these beautiful patterns, but it would be more difficult for it for very much money.

Bulat

With boulock steel due, probably no less legends than with Japanese swords. And even more. It is attributed to completely inconceivable properties, and it is believed that the secrets of its manufacture are not known to anyone. An unprepared mind at a collision with such rusks is blurred and begins to wander dreamily, in particularly severe cases reaching ideas from the category "But to learn how to make bouling steel and make tank armor from it!"

Bulat is a crucible steel made in the older times using various tricks that allow you to bring the iron carbon mixture to melt and not turn it into cast iron. Crucible means fully melted in a core, ceramic pot, isolating it from fuel decomposition products and other contaminants inside the furnace.

It is important. Bulat steel, in contrast to the "usual", is not easy to be somehow restored from oxides long baking, like the same Tamahagana and other vintage varieties of steel from cheese furnaces, namely brought to a liquid state. Full melting makes it easy to get rid of unwanted impurities. Almost everyone.

There is no need to do without chart of iron carbon. All of us are not interested in us, we look only on the top.

The curve line coming from A to B, and then to C, indicates the temperature of the complete melting of the iron-carbon mass. Not just iron, namely iron with carbon. Because, as can be seen from the diagram, with the addition of carbon, up to 4.3% (eutectics, "light melting") melting point drops.

Ancient blacksmiths could not heat their stoves up to 1540 ° C. But up to 1200 ° C - quite. But it is enough to heat iron from 4.3% carbon to about 1150 ° C so that the liquid turns out! But, unfortunately, when frozen, the eutectic mixture is completely not suitable for the production of swords. Because it turns out not steel, but a fragile cast iron, from which nothing can not even - he is simply broken into pieces.

But let's see more carefully on the process of frozen liquid steel, that is, crystallization. Here we have a pot closed with a lid with a small hole for gases. The molten mixture of iron and carbon is splashing in proportion close to eutectic. We took out the pot from the furnace and left it to cool. If you think a little bit, it will become obvious that the frost will go unevenly. First, the pot itself is cooled, then part of the melt adjacent to its walls, and only gradually frozen and the formation of crystals will reach the center of the mixture.

Somewhere near the inner wall, the pot arises unevenness and the crystal begins to form. This happens immediately in a variety of points, but now some one is worried about any of them. It is easiest that the eutectic mixture is pouring, but the distribution of carbon in the mixture is not quite evenly. And the process of frost makes it even less uniform.

We look at the diagram again. From point C, the smelting line goes both to the right, to the D - the melting point of cementite - and to the left, to B and A. When some region froze the first, it can be assumed that it was the eutectic proportion that froze. The crystal begins to spread, "absorbing" easily frozen mixture with 4.3% carbon.

But in addition to eutectic regions, there are also areas with a different proportion, more refractory. And, if we did not overdo it with carbon, then rather, it will be more refractory areas with a lower carbon content than the opposite. Moreover: the frozen crystal "steals" carbon from the adjacent areas of the molten mixture. Therefore, as a result, the farther from the walls of the vessel, the less carbon will be in the frozen chushka.

Unfortunately, if everything is done like it is, it will still get a cast iron, from which it is not possible to solve the possible small areas suitable for the forging steel. But you can stern further. There are so-called fluxes or floats, substances that, when adding to the mixture, reduce its melting point. Moreover, some of them, such as manganese, in a reasonable proportion are an additive that improves the properties of steel.

Now Hope will shut down! And right. So, we take the iron, obtained before this in the cheese furnace such as the same Tatars, which was in a row. Maximally fragment him. Ideally, bring to the state of dust, but this is very difficult to achieve ancient technologies, so there is. We add carbon to iron: you can use both ready-made coal and not yet checked vegetable mass. Do not forget the correct amount of flux. In a certain way, we distribute all this inside the pot Tigel. As precisely - depends on the recipe, there may be different options.

With the use of these and some other tricks after melting and proper cooling in the central part of the crucible mass, the carbon content can be increased to 2%. Strictly speaking, it's still cast iron. But with the help of certain tricks, which are already completely obsessing here, the ancient metallurgists obtained interesting structures of the distribution of crystals in this 2% of the material, allowing certain difficulties and precautions, but still a swords from it.

This is a bouquet steel - very solid, very fragile, but much more durable than cast iron. Not containing virtually no unnecessary impurities. In comparison with the cheese steel type of the same Tamahagan - yes, Bulat had certain interesting properties, and a specially trained blacksmith could create an impressive weapon from it. Moreover, this weapon, like almost all swords from Celtic times, was composite, included not only crucible bouquet steel, but also the old good strips of relatively soft material.

The more advanced processes of smelting, with which you can warm up the furnace to 1540 ° C and above, simply remove the need in the makeup. There is nothing mythic in it. In the XIX century, in Russia, it was produced for some time, from historical nostalgia, and then they abandoned. Now you can also produce it, but it is not particularly necessary for anyone.

Caroling type swords, often called Viking's swords, were distributed throughout Europe from 800 to about 1050. The name "Wiking Sword", which has become commonly used in modern times, does not correctly convey the origin of this weapon. Vikings were not authors of the design of this sword - he logically evolves from Roman gladus through the Spato and the so-called muddle sword.

Vikings were not the only users of weapons of this type - it was distributed throughout Europe. And finally, the Vikings were not seen in the mass production of such swords, nor in the creation of some particularly prominent specimens - the best "swords of the Vikings" were caught in the territory of the future France and Germany, and Vikings preferred just imported swords. Imported, understandable, robbery.

But the term "sword of Vikings" is distributed, clear and convenient. Therefore, we will use it.

Patterned welding in the swords of this era was not used, so that the composite assembly became easier. But it was not degradation, but on the contrary. Viking swords were fully made of carbon steel. Neither soft iron nor steel with a large content of phosphorus. Forging technologies have already achieved perfection during patterned welding, and there has been nowhere to develop in this direction. Therefore, the development went to the direction of improving the quality of the starting material - the technologies of obtaining the steel itself developed.

In this era, he received widespread distribution of weapons. Early swords have also choke, but not always. The problem was in the material. All-string blades of a qualitatively prepared metal could already be guaranteed to withstand hardening for some reasonable recipes, whereas in earlier times, the imperfection of the metal could bring a blacksmith at the very last moment.

The blades of Wiking swords differed from the older weapons not only with the material, but also geometry. Universally used dol, facilitating the sword. The blade had a lateral and distal narrowing, that is, it was already thinner near the tile and, accordingly, wider and thicker near the crosses. These geometric techniques in aggregate with a more advanced material made it possible to make a solid all-grade blade quite strongly and at the same time easy.

In the future, composite steel in Europe did not go anywhere. Moreover, periodically forgotten sampling welding emerged from non-existence. For example, in the XIX century, a kind of "Renaissance of the Early Middle Ages" originated, in which even a firearm was performed with patterned welding, not to mention blades.

So what about Japan? Nothing special.

Fragments of the future blank are packaged from pieces-coins of steel coins with different carbon content. Then the preparation of a particular composition is going, it is given the desired form. Then the blade is harnessed, and then polished - we will talk about these steps later. Moreover, if you are measured by technological, then on the "technological level" of the material, the bouquet steel deals with all, including the Japanese. By perfection of the assembly, patterned welding acts no worse, or even better.

At the stage of assembly and actually, the sword is there there is no specificity that allows you to allocate Japanese blades against the backdrop of weapons of other cultures and epochs.

Composite steel: one more conclusion

Steel packing, which makes it possible to achieve a homogeneous material with an acceptable amount and slag distribution, was used all over the world almost from the very beginning of the Iron Age. The thoughtful composite assembly of the blade in Europe appeared no later than two thousand years ago. It is the combination of these two techniques that gives the legendary "multilayer steel", of which, of course, Japanese swords were made - like many other swords from all over the world.

Hardening and vacation

After the blade from one or another began to become, work on it does not end. There is a very interesting way to get significantly more solid material than ordinary perlite, from which the blade is made more or less perfect sword. This method is called hardening.

Surely you saw in the movies, like a split blade lowered into a liquid, it hits and boils, and the blade cools quickly. This is the hardening. Now let's try to understand what happens with the material. You can take a look at the already familiar chart of iron-carbon, this time we are interested in the left lower corner.

For further hardening, the steel blade must be heatled to austenitic state. The line from G to S denotes the temperature of the transition to the austenite of conventional steel, without too much carbon. It can be seen that further from S to E the line grows steeply, that is, with an excessive addition of carbon, the problem becomes more complicated - but it is already an excessive fragile cast iron, so we are about smaller concentrations of carbon. If the steel contains from 0 to 1.2% carbon, the transition to austenitic state is reached at a temperature of up to 911 ° C. For the composition with a carbon content of 0.5 to 0.9%, there is a sufficient temperature of 769 ° C.

In modern conditions, measure the temperature of the workpiece is quite easy - there is thermometers. In addition, Austenite, unlike ferrite, not magnetite, so you can simply apply a magnet to the workpiece and when it stops sticking, it becomes clear that we have steel in austenitic state. But in the Middle Ages, the blacksmiths did not possess neither thermometers nor sufficient knowledge about the magnetic properties of various phases of steel. Therefore, it was necessary to measure the eye temperature in the literal sense of the word. The body, heated to a temperature above 500 ° C, begins to emit in a visible spectrum. The radiation color is quite possible to approximately determine the body temperature. For steel heated to austenite, the color will be orange, like the Sun during the sunset. Due to these subtleties, hardening, which includes pre-heating, was often held at night. In the absence of unnecessary sources of lighting, it is easier to determine whether the temperature is sufficient.

About what the crystal lattices of Austenite and Ferrite are distinguished, already mentioned in one of the previous cycle articles. In short: Austenite - a grain-centered lattice, ferrite - volume-centered. Taking into account the thermal expansion of Austenite allows carbon atoms to travel inside its crystal lattice, while ferrite is not. It was also discussed, what happens during slow cooling: Austenite is quietly moving into ferrite, while the carbon is existing inside the material diverges the cementite strips, resulting in perlite - ordinary steel.

And now we finally got to hardening. What happens if you do not give a time material for slow cooling with the usual carbon consumption on the cementite strips in perlite? Take, it means that our soldered to Austenite workpiece, and put it into ice water, just like in the movies! ..

... Most likely, the result will be splitting the workpiece. Especially if we use traditional steel, that is, imperfect, with a bunch of impurities. The reason is extreme stresses as a result of thermal compression, with which the metal simply cannot cope. Although, of course, if the material is rather clean, it is possible in ice water. But traditionally more often used either boiling water so as not to lower the temperature too low, or at all boiling oil. The temperature of boiling water is 100 ° C, oils - from 150 ° to 230 ° C. It is also very cool compared to the temperature of austenitic workpiece, so there is nothing paradoxical in cooling with such hot substances.

So, imagine that everything is good with the quality of the material, and the water is not too cold. In this case, the following will happen. Austenite, inside which carbon travels, will immediately turn into ferrite, while no bundle on the pearlity bands will occur, carbon on the micro level will be distributed quite uniformly. But the crystal lattice will not be ordinary for ferrite smooth cubic, but wildly broken due to the fact that it is simultaneously formed, compressed from cooling and has inside carbon.

The resulting variety of steel is called martensite. This material, full of internal stresses due to the features of the formation of the grid, more fragile than perlite with the same carbon content. But Martensit is significantly superior to all other types of hardness. It is from Martensite tool steel, that is, tools designed for steel work.

If you look at cementite in the composition of the perlite, then it can be noted that its inclusions exist separately and do not touch each other. In Martensite, the lines of crystals are confused as a wire from headphones who have broken in his pocket all day. Perlite has flexibility, because the areas of solid cementite dissolved in soft ferrite, with bending, simply shifted relative to each other. But in Martensite, nothing like this happens, the areas cling to each other - therefore it is not inclined to change the form, that is, it has a high firmness.

Hardness is good, but fragility is bad. There are several ways to compensate or reduce the fragility of martensite.

Zonal quenching

Even if you have a hardening sword as described above, the blade will not be all entirely of homogeneous martensite. The blade (or blades, for a double-edged sword) is cooled quickly because of its subtlety. But the blade in a thicker part, whether it is a back or middle, cannot cool at the same speed. The surface is quite, but there is no longer inside. However, this is not enough of this, all the same weapon, tempered in this way without additional tricks, is excessively fragile. But, since the cooling goes inhomogeneously, you can try to control its speed. And this is exactly what the Japanese apply the zonal hardening.

The workpiece is taken - it is clear, already with the right composite assembly formed by the blade and so on. Then, before heating for further hardening, the workpiece is cooked with a special heat-resistant clay, that is, ceramic composition. Modern ceramic compounds are kept in a solid state of temperature in thousands of degrees. The medieval was simpler, but the temperature is needed down. No exotic is required, it is almost ordinary clay.

Clay is applied to the blade unevenly. The blade either remains at all without clay, or is covered with a very thin layer. Side planes and backs that do not need to turn into martensite, on the contrary, are cooked from the soul. Further, everything is as usual: we split and cool. As a result, the blade without thermal insulation will cool very quickly, turning into martensite, and everything else calmly will form perlite or even ferrite, but it already depends on the build-ups used in the assembly.

The resulting blade has a very hard blade, the same as if he was all made from Martensit. But, due to the fact that most of the weapon consists of perlite and ferrite, it is much less fragile. With inaccurate impact or in a collision with something excessively, a purely martensitic blade can operate in pressure, because there are too many voltages inside it, and if you slightly overdo it, then the material simply will not stand it. The sword of Japanese type will simply bent, perhaps with the advent of the elevated on the blade - a piece of martensite will nevertheless break, but the blade will generally retain its structure. The bent sword to fight is not very convenient, but better than broken. And then it can be fixed.

Dispel the myth on the exclusiveness of zonal quenching: it meets on ancient Roman sword. This technology was known at all everywhere, but did not always use it, because there was an alternative.

Hamon

A distinctive feature of the Japanese swords made and polished in the traditional way is the Hamon line, that is, the visible border between different varieties of steel. Zonal hardening professionals were able to make a Hamon of various beautiful shapes, even with ornaments - the question is only how to shake clay.

Not every good sword and not even every Japanese sword has a visible Hamon. It is impossible to see it without a specific procedure: a special "Japanese" polishing. Its essence lies in a consistent polishing of the material by stones of various hardness. If you simply polish everything that is very hard, then no hamon will be distinguished, since the entire surface will be smooth. But if you then take a stone, softer than martensite, but more solid than ferrite, and polish the blade surface to them, then there will be only ferrite. Martensite will remain untouched, and in the perlite they can be preserved by convex cementite lines. As a result, the surface of the blade on the micro level ceases to be perfectly smooth, creating the game of light and shadows, aesthetically pleasant.

Japanese polishing in general and Hamon in particular do not at all have any influence on the quality of the sword.

Vacation and spring steel

In Martensite, due to its structure there are a large number of internal stresses. There is a way to reset these voltages: vacation. Vacation is heating steel to a much smaller temperature than the one at which it turns into austenite. That is, about 400 ° C. When the steel becomes blue, it is warmed enough, the vacation occurred. Next, she gives slowly cool. As a result, the voltage is partially leaving, the steel acquires the plasticity, flexibility and springness, but loses hardness. Therefore, the spring steel cannot be as hard as instrumental steel - it is no longer Martensit. And, by the way, therefore overheated tools lose their hardening.

Spring steel is called such due to the fact that they make springs from it. Its main distinctive property is elasticity. The blade made of high-quality spring steel, with a blow to shock, but immediately returns its form.

Flexible, springing swords are monostasites - that is, they are entirely consisting of steel, without inserts of pure ferrite. Moreover, they fully harnessed to the state of martensite, and then discharged entirely. If the blade structure includes fragments not from martensit, then the spring will not work.

Japanese swords usually have such fragments: perlite on planes and ferrite in the middle of the blade. It is generally mainly made of iron and soft steel, Martensita is quite small there, only on the blade. So how Kanana temper and do not let go, it will not spring. Therefore, the Japanese sword is either bent and remains bent, either breaks, but does not spring, like the European monostal blade from the released Martensite. A slightly bent katana can be accelerated without significant consequences, but often pieces of martensite blades are simply chipped during bends, forming a jar.

Katana, unlike the European blade, is not subjected to at least full vacation, so on its blades, the solid martensite steel is preserved, the hardness of EDA 60 by Rockwell. And the steel of the European sword can be around 48 by Rockwell.

There are several traditional ways to form a Japanese sword's layer structure. In two of them, ferrite is not used. First - Maru, just solid high carbon steel throughout the blade. Of course, a local hardening is needed for such a sword, otherwise it will break at the first blow. The second - Vicha Tutsu, where the body of the blade, with the exception of the tip, consists of steel hardness, that is, from perlite.

Why Marru and Varia did not make the Tutsu spring? Exactly unknown. Maybe in Japan, they did not know about the properties of the steel. Or they simply did not consider it necessary to make swords from spring. Do not forget that for Japan, even more than for the rest of the world, it was important to follow the traditions. A significant number of variations in the design of Japanese (and not only) swords does not make any sense from a practical point of view, pure aesthetics. For example, a wide dol on one side of the blade and three narrow dollars on the other side, or generally swords with asymmetric geometry on the cut. Not everything can and should be explained rationally, as applied, purely to the battle.

Modern blacksmiths make swords of Japanese-type with spring base of blade and martensite blade. The most famous American Howard Clark, using steel L6. The basis of his sword consists of Bainita, and not from Perlit and Ferrite. Blade, of course, martensite. Bainite - the steel structure that was not revealed until 1920, has high hardness and durability at high plasticity. Spring steel is Bainite or something close to him. With all the external similarity with Sichonto, such a weapon can no longer be considered a traditional Japanese sword, it is much better than historical prototypes.

In a monostal sword, you can also get differentiation of hardness zones. If, after hardening the martensite workpiece, it is not evenly uniform, and heated only the blade plane is directly, the heat that has come down to the edges will be insufficient to turn the martensite blades into spring steel. At least in the modern production of knives and some tools, such tricks are used. It is not known how to make in practice an increase in the brittleness of the blades of such weapons.

What is better: High hardness without flexibility or decline in hardness with the acquisition of flexibility?

The main advantage of the solid blade is that it is better holding sharpening. The main advantage of the flexible blade is the increased probability of its survival during deformations. When hitting too hard goal, the blade of Katana is likely to sleep, but thanks to the softness of the rest of the blade, the sword will not break, rather will simply be bent. Monostal flexible blade if it breaks, then it is usually inadvertent - but it is very difficult to break it with adequate operation.

Theoretically, solid steel should be able to cut more materials than soft, but in the practice of bones, it turns normally and European swords, and the steel of armor will not work with any rubbing sword.

If we talk about work with a blade against the Latt Armor, then nobody will chop there: there will be a prick of unprotected areas of the body, which are still covered with at least a gambezon, or even kolchug. For the injection, the very high flexibility of the spring blade is not suitable, but special European swords for the struggle against the worldwide armor were not flexible. Then, on the contrary, supplied with additional ribs of rigidity. That is, special anti-mordes have always been inflexible, no matter what steel did they do.

In my opinion, in battle it is better to have a more durable sword, which is difficult to spoil. It is not so important that he rubs a little worse than the more hard. A hard blade with a zonal tempering can be more convenient in calm, managed situations, for example, when Timesiigiri, when there is enough time for aiming and no one is trying to hit the sword from a weak side.

Quenching and vacation: conclusion

The Japanese had an order technology, which was also known in ancient Rome since the beginning of our era. There is no extraordinary in zonal pumping. In medieval Europe, they used other technologies to combat fragility of steel, consciously refusing a zonal quenching.

The blade of the Japanese swing is more than most European - that is, it is not necessary to sharpen it so often. However, with active operation with a high probability, the Japanese sword will have to be repaired.

Design and geometry

From a practical point of view, it is important that the sword is good enough. It must perform the tasks for which it is created - whether it is priority for the power of a chopping strike, improved injections, reliability, strength, and so on. And when he is good enough, it is not as important as it is made.

Approval of the type "Real Katana must be made precisely the traditional way" unfair. Japanese sword has certain characteristics, including advantages. And it doesn't matter how they can achieve these advantages. Yes, Japanese banite swords from Howard Clark are not traditionally manufactured by Katan. But they are definitely katanas in the broad sense of the word.

It's time to move to more familiar to discussion aspects of a sword, such as the geometry of the blade, balance, Ephesus, and so on.

The effectiveness of the chopping strike

Katana is famous for the fact that she rubs it well. Of course, on the basis of this simple fact, fanatics coolas the whole mythology, but we will not like them. Yes, the truth - the items are well chopped by Katana. But what does this mean that "good", why does Nichonto rubites objects well, in comparison with what?

Let's start in order. What is "good" - the question of something is philosophical, itifies subjectivism from it. In my opinion, this is what the good chopping qualities add up:

Weapon just simply apply a resulting blow, even a person without training will be able to cut the goal of low difficulty.
Destruction does not require a huge strength and / or impact energy, it is based on the severity of the combat part and it is on the division of the goal into two parts, and not on the gap.
With proper operation, the yoke outlet is unlikely, that is, it is strong enough. Preferably, of course, have a margin of strength and not too correct operation. When the sword is worn as a writer, it is not as impressive as when it cuts up a tree with several careless blows.
The Japanese sword is really very easy to chop. Causes will be discussed below, but so far only remember this fact. I note that a significant proportion of mythologization of Japanese swords stems from him. With an inexperienced, but a diligent person, next other things, will be easier to cut the goal of katana than a European long sword, simply because Katana is more patient to small errors. An experienced practitioner will not notice a special difference.

For the very destroying, and not a rupture of the goal, you need to have a fairly sharp cutting edge. Here the Japanese sword has everything in perfect order. Sharpening with traditional Japanese methods is very perfect. In addition, the Martensite blade, being sharpened, retains its sharpness for a long time, although it is more likely to be the next item. However, it should be noted that the sword even without a martensite blade can be molded and made it very sharp. It just fastens it faster, that is, it will be necessary to rewrite before. In any case, the number of blows, after which the Sword must be sharpened, is measured with tens and hundreds, so from a practical point of view in a separate episode, the weight of the Martensite blade does not give anything special, since two freshly sufficient sword will go on a hypothetical comparison.

But with durability of the Japanese sword, things are much worse than those of European analogues. First, from a sufficiently strong impact on an overly solid surface, the martensite blade will simply break, leaving the scuba on the blade. Secondly, with a combination of excessive force and low impact accuracy, you can easily smack the sword even when you hit a fairly soft target. Thirdly, the stress inside the material is such that the Japanese sword still has a high strength when hitting the blade forward, but when he strikes his back, it has every chance to break, even if the blow will seem very weak.

Voltage

To understand what stresses are, we will draw a mental experiment. You can also look at its schematic display on the illustration. Imagine a rod from not very important what material - let it be an elastic tree. Place it horizontally, fasten the ends and leave the middle of hanging in the air. The appearance of the letter "H", where the horizontal jumper is our rod. The vertical columns are not fixed too much, they can bend toward each other. (Position 1).

If we neglect the gravity, which can be done, since the rod is very lung, then the voltage known to us in the material of the rod is small. They, if any, are clearly balanced each other. Prut is in a stable state.

Let's try to bend it in different directions. The columns, between which it is fixed, will bend in the direction of the rod, but if you release it, it will return to the starting position, plugging the columns to the sides. If it does not bend it too much, then nothing special from such deformations will not happen, and, more importantly, we do not feel any difference between what way the rod is bent. (Position 2).

Now having a significant cargo to the middle of the rod. Under his weight, the rod will be rejected towards the Earth and will remain in such a state. Now in our prude there is an obvious tension: its material "wants" to return to a direct state, that is, get a rake from the ground, to the side opposite bending. But can not, the cargo interferes. (Position 3).

If you make a sufficient effort in this side, the opposite cargo and the corresponding direction of stress, then the rod may raise. However, as soon as the effort is discontinued, it will return to the previous bent state. (Position 4).

If you attach a relatively slight force toward the cargo opposite to the direction of voltages, then the rod may break - the stresses will need to break somewhere, the material strength is not enough. At the same time, the same or even much more powerful effort towards the direction of stresses will not cause damage. (Position 5).

With a rod, the same. The impact in the direction from the blade to the back goes towards the stresses, "raising the cargo" and, you can say, temporarily relaxing the material of the blade. Impact on the back to the blade comes against stresses. The strength of the weapon in this direction is very low, so it can easily break like a rod, on which too much cargo hung.

Again the effectiveness of a chopping strike

Let's return to the previous topic. Let us now try to figure out that in principle you need to destroy the goal.

You must apply a correctly oriented hit.
The blade of the sword should be sharp enough to launch the goal, and not just flush and move it.
It is necessary to give a clinch a sufficient amount of kinetic energy, otherwise they will have to chop, namely cutting.
It is necessary to insert enough strength to punch, which is achieved both by the acceleration of the blade and its weighting, including through the optimization of the balance for cutting, is perhaps even to the detriment of other qualities.

Blink orientation when hit

If you ever tried Timesiigiri, that is, the cutting of the objects with a sharp sword, then you should be clear what we are talking about. The orientation of the blade at shock is the correspondence of the blade plane and the shock plane. Obviously, if you slam the plane in the goal, it will not be completely cut, right? So, much smaller deviations from perfectly accurate orientation already lead to problems. That is, when attacking the sword, you must follow the orientation of the blade, otherwise the blow will not be effective. With batons, this question is not worth it, there is still some side to beat - but the blow will turn out shock-crushing, not a scarce-cutting.

In general, let's compare the blade and shock-crushing weapons without tosing to specific samples. What are their mutual advantages and disadvantages?

Benefits of the sword:

A chopping blow to unprotected armor part of the body is much more dangerous than just a battle. Although the closets (a bobbin with spikes) and a boulava (a metallic baton with a developed combat part) and cause significant damage, but the sword is still more dangerous.
Usually there is any developed ephes that protects the hand. Even the crosses or the casing is better than a completely smooth handle.
Geometry and balance with acutely allowed to make the weapon relatively longer without reveling or loss of shock force. The knight's sword and a bulweral of the same mass differ along the length of one and a half or twice. You can make a long light baton, but the blow will be much less dangerous to the sword.
Significantly the best opportunities to apply stitching.
Advantages of a blunkey:

Easy manufacturing and low cost. This is especially true for primitive dump and the blind.
Developed varieties of shock-crushing weapons (Bulava, six-mounting, combat hammer) are specifically sharpened to fight opponents in armor. The knight or long sword against the Lakenka is much less effective than the sixteen.
In general, excluding the highly specialized combat hammers and cloves - the baton or the mace easier to apply a resulting blow to a fairly close target. There is no need to follow the orientation of the blade when hitting.
Again, pay attention to the last of the listed advantages of the shock-crushing weapon, which, accordingly, is a lack of blade weapons.

What can I say about the orientation of the blade when you hit the roller? The fact that everything is fine with her.

A small bend slightly increases the surface of the surface: lead the Japanese sword forward to the plane, and not a blade or back is slightly more difficult than the straight blade of the same dimensions. Thanks to this sail, the air resistance when hitting helps the blade correctly turn around. For the sake of justice, it should be noted that this effect is very weak and can easily be reduced to the insignificance to the use of the principle of "the power is - the mind is not necessary." But if the mind is still applied, then you should first work the Japanese sword by air - slowly, then quickly, then again slowly. This will help you feel when it goes at all without tangible resistance, cutting the air, and when something is slightly interferes with him.

The Japanese sword has one blade, and the thickness of the blade at the back is large enough. These geometrical characteristics, as well as the materials used in Nichontto, increase the rigidity, that is, "non-flexibility". Katana is a sword that does not appear as easily as European analogues, which at some point began to be made from spring steel (bainita) to increase strength.

High rigidity, coupled with a very hard blade leads to an interesting effect, which just makes a ripping rod as simple. It is clear that when you hit, deviations from the ideal orientation are likely. If deviations are completely or almost absent, then Japanese and European swords destroy the goal equally well. If deviations are significant, then neither one, no other swords will be able to cut the goal, while the probability of spoiling the Japanese sword above.

But if there are already deviations already, but they are not too high, then Japanese martensitic-ferritious and European bantice swords behave differently. The European Sword will be bludging, will sprinkle and bounce off the goal, practically without damaging it - as if the deviation was higher. The Japanese sword in this case will destroy the goal anything happened. The blade, which was included in the target at an angle, can not highlight and jump out due to hardness and rigidity, so it combats under the angle, as it may, and even to some extent corrects the orientation of the blade.

Once again: this effect works only with small errors. A completely bad blow is better to apply a European sword than Japanese - he is more likely to survive.

Sharpening blade

The blade sharpness depends on how the cutting edge is formed at what angle. And here the Japanese sword has a potential advantage over European double-edged - however, as any other one-sided blade.

Take a look at an illustration. It depicts sections of profiles of various blades. All (for obvious exceptions) can be inscribed in a rectangle of 6x30 mm, that is, the blades in the location of the cut and analysis have a maximum thickness of 6 mm and a width of 30 mm. In the upper row there are sections of one-sided blades, for example - a schonto or some saber, and in the lower - double-edged swords. Now let's delve.

Look at swords 1, 2 and 3 - which one is sharper? It is obvious that 1, because the angle of its cutting edge is the most acute. Why is that? Because the edge is formed in 20 mm to the blade. This is a very deep sharpening, and it is rare enough. Why? Because this sharp blade becomes too fragile. When quenching Martensita, it turns out more than I would like to have on a sword, calculated by more than one strike. Of course, you can adjust the formation of martensite using ceramic isolation when quenching, but still such a cutting edge will be less durable than more stupid options.

Sword 2 - already normal, more durable option for which you do not need to worry at every blow. Sword 3 - very good, reliable tool. The lack of one: he is still quite stupid and nothing can be done about it. More precisely, it is possible to do something, sharpening, but reliability just goes away. Swords 2 and especially 1 well chop targets at Timesiigi competitions, and a sword 3 - to train before the competition. It is difficult to learn - easy to "battle", where there are in mind the competition. If we talk about the battle on combat weapons, the sword 3 is preferable again, as it is much stronger than 2 and especially 1. Although the sword 2 may be considered something universal, but it is necessary to carry out much more serious research before This is approved.

The most interesting in sword 3 is the designated blue lines of blade narrowing, which are not yet cutting edge. If they were not, and the edge remained as short, in 5 mm, then its angle would be 62 °, and not more or less decent 43 °. Very many Japanese and not only swords are made with the use of such a narrowing, turning into the "blissful" blade, as this is a great way to make a weapon at the same time quite light, reliable and not too stupid. The blade with the length of the edge is not 5, and at least 10 mm, like the sword 2, with the same narrowing to 4 mm at the beginning of the blade will already have a sharpness of 22 ° - quite well.

Sword 4 - abstraction, geometrically the most acute blade in the given dimensions. It has all the problems of the sword 1 in a more severe form. Acute, yes, this does not take away, but fragile is unused. It is unlikely that the martensitic-ferritic design will withstand such geometry. If you take the spring steel, it is possible and will endure, but it will be very fast to stupid.

Let's turn to double-edged blades. Sword 6 is made in the above-mentioned dimensions of the Viking type blade, which has a profile of a split hexagon with shames. Does do not have any influence on the sharpness of the blades, are displayed on the illustrations for some integrity of images. So, in sharpness, this blade corresponds to a unilateral sword 2. What is not so bad. And even better, that historically swords of the Viking type had completely different proportions, being more subtle and wide - what can be seen along the sword 7, which in sharpness corresponds to a sword. Because instead of the martensitic-ferritic design, other materials are used here. The sword 6 will faster faster than the sword 1, but he is less likely to break.

The disadvantage of the sword 6 is very low rigidity - this is the most flexible blades presented here. Excessive flexibility interferes with a swinging strike, but it can be live with it, but when she has a penny. Therefore, in the late Middle Ages, the Blade's profile changed to the rhombic, like a sword 7. It is more or less acute, although it does not reach swords 1 and 6. However, unlike the sword 6, it is much less flexible. The maximum thickness of the blade of 6 mm makes it more rigid, which is wonderful when the checker. Compared to a sword 6, in a sword 7, the victim of the discrepancy in favor of cigrier is obvious.

The sword 8 has a purebring blade. Despite the sharpness of 17 °, normally chop such a weapon will not be released. After penetration into a goal to a depth of 13 mm, the blow will slow down the ribbies of the ribbon, having an angle of 90 °. But the mass of this blade is clearly less than that of the sword 7, and the rigidity is even higher.

As a result, we have the following consideration: Yes, Katana in principle can have a very sharp blade due to the geometry of a one-sided blade, which allows you to start sharpening or narrowing not from the middle, but from the back, while not losing rigidity. However, the martensitic-ferritic blades of Japanese swords do not have sufficient strength qualities to implement a maximum of what is capable of a single-sided blade geometry. It can be said that according to the sharpness of the Japanese sword does not exceed European - especially if we consider that in Europe, there were also one-sided blades, often from more suitable for acute sharpening materials.

Kinetic energy

E \u003d 1 / 2mv2, that is, the kinetic energy linearly depends on the mass and quadratically from the speed of impact.

The mass of katana is ordinary, maybe a little higher than the European swords of the same dimensions (and not vice versa). Of course, with a common external similarity, there are Japanese swords of very different masses, which is not visible in the pictures. But Katana is predominantly two-handed weapons, so the increased mass does not particularly interfere with the clock to high speed.

Kinetic energy - the question is not a sword, but its owner. If there are at least basic work skills with weapons, everything will be fine. Here, the Japanese sword has no tangible advantages or disadvantages compared to European counterparts.

Stroke strength: Balance

F \u003d MA, that is, the strength linearly depends on the mass and from acceleration. About the mass already mentioned, but you need to add something about the balance.

Imagine an object in the form of weighting weights on the handle of 1 meter long, the Edaki Belav. Obviously, if you take this subject for the far from the weight, the end of the handle, it is pretty breathtically swollen and cut off the gayurian overclocked at the end of the handle, then the blow will succeed. If you take this subject for handle immediately near the weights and hit your empty end, then the blow strength will not be at all, despite the fact that the subject of the same mass is used.

All because when you hit the manual weapon, not all the mass of the weapon turns into force, but only a certain part of it. A significant impact on what will be this part will have the balance of weapons. The closer the balance point, the center of gravity of the weapon, to the enemy, the more mass it will be possible to attach. Grows M, growing and F.

However, usually, in use "well balanced", they call swords with a balance close to the owner of the weapon, and not to the enemy. The fact is that a well-balanced sword is much more convenient to fencing. Let's return mentally to our horses. It is clear that at the first embodiment of the grip to perform high-speed and unpredictable movements of this to the gun will be very problematic due to the monstrous inertia. With the second, there are practically no problems, the massive mace will not have to move, it will only be slightly spinning near the fists, but a light empty end to swing not difficult.

That is, the optimal balance for cutting and for fencing is different. If you need to damage, the balance should be closer to the enemy. If maneuverability is needed, and the striking the ability of weapons is not applicable or, in the case of modern non-measure modeling, undesirable, the balance is better to have closer to the owner.

Katana with a balance for cutting everything is in perfect order. Nuonto, as a rule, have a very massive blade without a significant distal narrowing, typical of many European swords. In addition, they do not have a massive apple and weightlifting, and these parts of the Ephesus very much displaced the balance to the owner. Therefore, it is somewhat more complicated to fencing a Japanese sword, as it is felt more severe and inertial compared to the European analogue of the identical mass. However, if the question of thin maneuvers is not put and you just need to swear, the balance of the katana turns out to be more convenient.

Bend blade

Everyone knows that a small curved is characteristic of Japanese swords, but not everyone knows where she is taken from. Since when hardening the blade is cooled unevenly, the thermal compression is also unevenly compressed. First, the blade is cooled, and it is immediately compressed, so in the first seconds of the process of hardening the blade of the future Japanese sword has a reverse bend, like the kum and other cops. But after a few seconds, the rest of the blade is cooled, and it also begins to bend. It is clear that the blade is thinner than the rest of the blade, that is, the material in the middle and on the back more. Therefore, as a result, the spin blade is compressed stronger than the blade.

By the way, this effect just distributes stresses inside the Japanese sword blade so that he keeps the blow from the blade normally, but there is no longer on the side of the back.

When quenching a double-edged blade, the curvature does not appear by itself, because at all phases of this process, compression on one side is compensated by compression on the other side. Symmetry remains, the sword remains direct. Katana can also be made straight. To do this, before hardening the workpiece, you need to make compensating reverse bending. Such swords were found, of them, the truth was not too much.

It's time to compare straight and curved blades.

Advantages of straight blades:

With the same mass, the large length, with the same length of a smaller mass.
It is much easier and better prick. Curvions with blades can be pricking on an arc, but it is not such a quick and common effect, as a direct injection.
The straight sword is often double-edged. If the Ephesus is not specialized in one direction of grip, then when damaged blades, it is easy to take the sword "back to upper" and continue to fight.
Advantages of curved blades:

When applying a chopping strike on the side surface of a cylindrical target (and a person is a totality of cylinders and similar figures) than the blade is more bent, with the greater the ability to blow goes into the cutting. That is, using a sword curved, you can put a wasting blow by putting less strength than required for direct sword.
Upon contact, a slightly smaller surface of the blade enters into contact with the goal, which increases the pressure and makes it possible to hand over, overcoming the surface. For the depth of penetration, this advantage does not play roles.
Thanks to a slightly larger sail, the blade curve is easier to keep the blade forward, correctly oriented it when hitting it.
In addition, both the other blades have specific fencing capabilities. For example, the curved bladed is more convenient to cover in some racks, and its concave back can be in an interesting way to affect the enemy weapon. The straight blade has the possibility of hitting the false blade and is somewhat more intuitive. But these are already details, you can say that balancing each other.

The following differences are essential: the advantage of straight blades by weight / length, optimization of application of injections and, accordingly, the advantage of blast curves on the simplicity of the appreciation of the resulting cutting strike. That is, if you need to apply damage to rubbish-cutting blows, then the curve blade is better direct. If you are more like a fentellite in non-fatal modeling, where "damage" is taken into account very conditionally, it will be more convenient to work with a straight blade. I note that this does not mean that the straight blade is a gaming-training weapon, and the curve is a real combat. And those and others can be fighting and train, simply their strengths show themselves in various situations.

The Japanese sword usually has a very small bend. Therefore, oddly enough, he in a sense may generally be considered direct. Prick in direct it is quite comfortable, although rapiir, of course, is better. Sharpening on the reverse side is usually no, but so it can not be at all sorts of the groa. Mass - Well, yes, she is quite large and the sword is still with a chopping balance.

It is believed that the direct version of the Japanese sword would be better than traditional curves. I do not share this opinion. The arguments of the defenders of this opinion did not take into account the main advantage of the bend - the strengthening of the scanning possibility of the blade. More precisely, took into account, but guided by incorrect prerequisites. Even a small bend of the sword already helps to apply rubbish-cutting strikes with greater ease, and for a specialized sword, which is Katana, it is necessary. At the same time, special loss of opportunities inherent in direct swords, with such a small bend. It is not enough that the double-edged sharpening, but it would not be katana with her. Although, by the way, some of them have a sharpening one-time sharpening, that is, the back on the first third of the blade is reduced into the cutting edge and is sharpened - like late European sabers. Why it did not become the standard - I do not know.

Hilt

Japanese sword has a very bad Garda. Fanatics begin to shout "But after all, the technique of work does not imply the protection of Garda, it is necessary to steal blows with a blade" - Well, yes, of course not implies. In the same way, the absence of a body armor does not imply readiness for the adoption of bullets in the stomach. Such technique is because there is no normal gard.

If you take the katana and fasten instead of the traditional approximately oval zuba, the edaki "Zubovina", with the Kyonami protracks, will already work better, verified.

Most of the swords of Garda are much better than Japanese. Cross protects the hand reliable than the zuba. About the handle, twisted efes, a cup or a basket in generally silent. There are no significant deficiencies in the developed Ephesus.

You can call a couple of ears attracted. For example, the price is yes, of course developed Ephesus is more expensive primitive, but compared with the cost of the blade itself is a penny. You can still say something about changing the balance - but most Japanese swords do not hurt, only fencing them easier. The words about the fact that the developed Ephesus will interfere with the implementation of some techniques are nonsense. If there are such techniques, they can still be performed with a cross. In addition, the lack of developed Ephesus interferes with the implementation of a significantly larger number of receptions.

Why do Japanese swords, with the exception of a short period of imitation of the sabers of the Western Sample (Kyu-Gunto, the end of the XIX and the beginning of the 20th century), did not appear in the developed Ephesus?

First, I will answer the question to the question: why did the developed Ephesians appear in Europe so late, only in the XVI century? The swords there are waving much longer than in Japan. Briefly - did not have time to think before, simply did not make the appropriate invention.

Secondly, traditionalism and conservatism. The Japanese saw European swords, but did not find it necessary to copy the ideas of these round-eyed barbarians. National pride, symbolism and all that. The correct sword in understanding the Japanese looked like Katana.

Thirdly, Nuonto, like most other swords - auxiliary weapons, secondary. In battle, the sword was used in powerful gloves. In the peaceful time when Katana just appeared from more ancient tati - see the item two. Samurai, would think of the developed Ephesus, would not be understood by breasts. The consequences can be thought of themselves.

Interestingly, after the short era Kyu-Gunto, constructively more perfect weapons than ordinary Siepho, the Japanese returned to the grades of the traditional type. Probably the reason for this was the same second point. A country with fastening unhealthy nationalism and imperialist sacks could not afford a refusal of such a significant symbol as the traditional shape of the sword. In addition, the sword on this era did not solve anything on the battlefield.

Once again: Japanese sword has a very bad Garda. It is impossible to object to this fact.

Design and Geometry: Conclusion

The Japanese sword has very good characteristics caused by its design. It is great and easily rubs the goal, more tolerate to small imperfections of shocks. The bore balance, the martensite blade and the curvature of the blade is an excellent combination that allows you to achieve very high results with controlled impact.

Unfortunately, in the design of Japanese sword there are also several tangible flaws. The zomba protects the hand only a little better than the absence of gard. The strength of the blade with deviations from the perfect strike leaves much to be desired. The balance sheet is that it is fencing by the Japanese sword is not too comfortable.

Conclusion

If you consider a roller exclusively traditionally made by the Japanese sword, with all these inclusions in Tamahagana, with a martensitic-ferritic blade and jeep, then Katana is very old and, spectacular, a fairly flawed sword, which does not stand comparison with newer similar sharpened glands, which Can perform all its functions and even more. Katana is a very far from perfect weapons, despite the high chopping properties of its blade.

On the other hand, a sword as a sword. Chick well, sufficient strength. Not ideal, but not complete sucks.

Finally, you can look at Katana on another side. In the form in which it exists - with this small jeep, with a light bend, with a hamon, visible during the traditional polishing, with a skating skin and competent laptop on the handle - it looks very beautiful. Purely aesthetically, nice eye subject looking not too utilitarian. Surely, largely popularity is due to the appearance. It's not worth the shy of it, people generally love all sorts of beautiful things. And Katana - in any form - really beautiful.

Collect tree blocks. Hover your mouse to the tree, clamp the left button. After some time, the tree will campack on the tree blocks that will automatically fall into your inventory (if you are standing close enough). Repeat the process several times.

• Type of wood value does not play.

Open inventory. If you have not changed anything in the settings, then the E Key is responsible for it. You will see a square size of 2 x 2 cells next to the image of the character. This is the object creation menu.

Drag the tree blocks in the object creation menu. So you create boards. Drag the boards back to the inventory. Now you have boards, not just a tree blocks.

Switching two boards on sticks. Place one of the created boards to the bottom row of the menu of creating objects, the second place over it. You will have sticks that will need to take back to the inventory.

Make a workbench. To do this, fill in all 4 menu cells to create objects of boards. Drag the workbench on the quick access menu at the bottom of the screen, close the inventory and put a workbench to the ground (select a block and right-click where you want to install the workbench).

• Do not confuse the boards and tree blocks - it is necessary for this recipe for this recipe.

Open the workbench. To do this, simply click on it right-click. You will get access to the menu of creating objects that will be more than 3 x 3 cells.

Create a wooden sword. Creating a sword takes three cells vertically, while all ingredients must be in one column (which is not important).

• Board from above
• Board in the middle (immediately under the top)
• Stick bottom (right under the sticks)

Use the sword. Drag the sword in the quick access menu and select it to take into hand. Now the left click of the mouse will activate the sword, and not your hands, which is much more efficient in the murder of enemies and animals. However, be careful and do not get carried away - wooden swords are rather fragile and weak. Read on to learn about more powerful swords.

Wooden Sword (console, Pocket Edition)

1. Collect tree blocks. In the game Minecraft tree can be broken even with bare hands. In the Pocket Edition version, it is enough to clamp a finger on the tree until it turns into separate blocks, and on the console versions of the game you need to click on the right trigger.

   Learn to create objects. In these versions of the game everything is quite simple. In the Creation Menu there is a list of available recipes, any of which can be clicked and if you have the necessary items in the inventory, the final result will immediately appear. That's what to do to create a sword:

   • Pocket Edition: Click on the icon in the form of three points and select "Craft".
   • Xbox: Press X.
   • PlayStation: Click on the square.
   • Xperia Play: Click Select.

2. Create a workbench. With the help of the workbench you will get access to more advanced recipes, including the recipes of swords. So:

   • From wood blocks make boards.
   • Of the four boards, collect workbenches.
   • Choose a workbench and put it on the ground (in games for consoles for this, the left trigger is responsible).

3. Make a wooden sword. For this:

   Use the sword. When the sword is in the shortcut slot, click on the screen or the activation of the left trigger will activate the attack by the sword. So you will apply animals and enemies much more damage than bare hands.

More qualitative swords

Collect picky the necessary materials. To collect stone or metals, you will need Kirk, and it still needs to be done ... However, this is the topic of another article, and we will tell about other materials for swords:

• Stone is the most affordable material that can be found in the mountains or in several blocks under any surface. You can collect stone with a wooden pickaxe.
• Iron (its blocks are similar to a stone with beige specks) is also quite common, it is underground and requires stone kirk.
• Gold and diamonds are extremely rare, are very deep underground.

1. Create a stone sword. For this you need two stones and one stick. Such a sword causes 6 units of damage, its margin of strength - 132 impact (wooden sword is 5 and 60, respectively).

From a long time, the players of Hitech servers used Nano Sable and thought that there was nothing more powerful. But they were mistaken, such a sword really exists and I will tell you how to do it. I present to your attention - the top sword!

Section 1 - 7 of the main edits.

Let's start with simple. What is the top sword (definition)?

The top sword is a diamond sword that contains 7 maximum entries, namely: Vorpal IV., Sharp V., Return II. , Mining III., Plot of fire II, Disjunction V. and strength III.

What do all these shocks give?

Vorpal - in version 1.4.7 knocks heads (the chance of making a head depends on the enchantment level), in version 1.6.4 gives additional. The chance of obtaining trophy, and in 1.7.10 is absent.

Acid - gives additional damage.

Return - throws up mobs and players for a certain distance.

Production - increases production from mobs (in version 1.6.4 and 1.7.10 makes it possible to knock the head of the mob or player).

Conspiracy of fire - mowing mobs and players.

Disjunction - applies additional damage to eddermen (in version 1.6.4 and 1.7.10 is missing).

Strength - with some chances the tool breaks slower.

With the confirmation characteristic, we figured out, we turn to the creation of the top of the sword.

Section 2 - How to get the right books?

First, we need to make 4 diamond swords. After you make them, you will need books with the desired shrackers. But minus is that they will not immediately be maximal, for example, the sharpness of V. You will need to connect them with swords so that the enchantment level increases. There are 2 more minus. The first is that you must first shock the sword on Disjunction and vorpal, because if you connect them at the end, then you just can not do it. First, we will need a certain number of enchanted books. We will need: ,,, if you play version 1.4.7, then you will also need Disjunction [You will need 4 books on Disjunction III, or 8 books on Disjunction II], [You will need 2 books for strength II, or 1 book for strength III]. We start enchanting!

Section 3 - Creating Top Sword!

Let's start connecting the sword and enchanted books!

1.) Connect 4 books on DISJUNCTION III. To do this, we will need 2 diamond swords. Charrim each of them on Disjunction IV, connecting 2 books on every sword on Disjunction III.

After that, we connect 2 of these sword in the anvil and we have a sword that is enchanted on Disjunction V.

2.) We connect 4 books on Vorpal II. Say: "Why"? Because Vorpal III books rarely can be obtained in the Conference Desk, and Vorpal II get easy. Connect the same principle as Disjunction V. As a result, we obtain Vorpal IV.

3.) More diamond swords will not need. We attach 2 books to the resulting sword 2 books, or 4 books on sharpness III.

4.) We connect 1 book for return II with a sword.

5.) We connect 1 book for mining III with a sword.

6.) We connect 1 book on the plot of fire II with a sword.

7.) And the last success is strength. We connect 1 book for strength III with a sword.