Forge a Japanese Sword
As a family with three boys, when we discovered a sword making experience with a traditional Japanese blacksmith outside of Kyoto we just HAD to do it! There are a couple of places that offer this experience, see below for details.
Samurai and swords are synonymous with Japan and Japanese culture. Today there are still some traditional blacksmiths that are passionate about their craft and very willing to share their art.
To completely make a traditional sword takes months and months of working the metal. For this experience much of that work has been done so that we could walk away with a small completed sword by the end of the day!
First our Sensei Masahiro, taught us how to appreciate the beauty of a sword blade. To appreciate a blade, first look at the shape or curve of the sword, then look at the steel and then at the hamon (blade pattern produced when tempering/hardening the steel).
After our lesson we were keen to get to the forge and start shaping the blade. The metal was repeatedly heated and hammered to create the shape. This was hard work but satisfying seeing the blade take form.
It took a lot of hammering, heating, hammering, turning, heating, hammering, turning to shape it and create a thinner cutting edge.
The blades were then cooled slowly by sitting in the ashes of grass.
Next step was to cover the blade in a slurry of ash and water which we painted on in a pattern, this would give the final hamon pattern. The slurry was thicker on the spine and thinner on the cutting blade. Where the slurry was thicker the blade would heat less in the final stage and the thinner area would cool faster in the quenching stage, making the cutting edge harder but more brittle.
The blades were heated again in the forge. Our blacksmith could tell when they were the right temperate according to the colour of the glow, so the lights were turned off to make sure he could see the glow from the blade.
They were then quickly quenched in water and the mud scraped off, revealing the hamon.
A final polish and sharpening and our swords were complete, what an amazing experience! Thank you Masahiro!
Who would enjoy this…
The sword making process is hard work, however, it is really satisfying to create something with your own hands and an amazing souvenir. Our boys were 14, 12 and 10 at the time and managed perfectly fine. Some places only allow children over 10 to participate, younger kids may lose interest as it’s a long process. Our session was for four hours, although it took closer to six hours for all five of us to finish.
Note – we had no issues bringing our swords back home to Australia – just make sure it’s not in your hand luggage!
Bookings
Masahiro Tantoujou Kyoto Half day session – this is the one we did.
Asano Kajiya, near Nagoya. Full day session