Where to purchase swords?

Tamahagane is just the steel that is smelted out of the ore sands using a traditional Japanese process. It is not the laminated/pattern welded/damascus steel used in blades. It goes into making the billets that are then forged to blades.

I've helped make tamahagane. We've done it a couple of times at hammer-ins. The process is time consuming and requires continual attention. The smelting process is very particular and we joke about it being like building burning hot trifle inside a vertical smelter using charcoal and iron sands and some other bits and snips. After all the work that goes into making the smelter and the continual attention to firing and feeding it you'd think a bunch of smiths would be reluctant to bust it apart to get to the bloom of steel inside it's base, but it's more like little kids waiting for Christmas morning to tear into the packages to get to the present inside. That "present" is more like the contents of a piñata with slag and wrought iron and the various grades of carbon steel to be sorted by hand and file. And in all that is the tamahagane, the steel with just the right amount of carbon and manganese and silicon. The jewel in the stone set free in the fire of the smelter.

Even then the real art and science in making a blade is in using the tamahagane forged with the low carbon steel to make a laminated steel blade with anything from a complex layering to a relatively simple high carbon hard core sandwiched between softer low carbon "bread" making a 3 layer laminate that has the characteristics of strength and flexibility and resilience along with edge hardness to withstand impact and still cut with minimal bending of the blade or chipping of the edge. Follow that with the plunge into water of the hot blade after clay is carefully applied to differentially quench the blade to bring out all the desirable properties the combination of steels. A blade forged just from tamahagane wouldn't have all the same benefits because it is after all just a simple carbon steel. Essentially the same steels and same techniques of laminating different steels to produce a composite structure with all these desirable properties when properly heat treated have been discovered in many places across the globe in other cultures. Viking, Indian, SE Asia produced knives and swords with composite structures using simple carbon steels in combination.

OTOH, there are modern smiths currently working using modern steels producing sword blades superior to the revered ancient blades. Some use laminates and others use single steels. As far as I know the best of the best for performance is still the L6 Bainite blades produced by Howard Clark.

Having been putzing around knives and swords for over 30 years I've been fortunate to have been around a few hammer-ins and conventions with these folks. I'm also lucky to own both ancient and modern pieces and I've seen and handled scores of them. I've seen them cut and while no one doesn't honor the traditional smiths working with the materials available to them there's nothing magical about what they were able to produce (except maybe wootz).

Unfortunately you probably won't be able to find a wootz rapier blank. As a primitive crucible steel wootz is even tougher to make than tamahagane (although I've been around for it too) and I've never seen a rapier made from it (that doesn't mean it hasn't).

Get a good rapier blank from Cas and see what you can build up with it. I'd be interested to see your work. http://casiberia.com/prod_List.aspx?q=rapier

KD,

The Bergers are usually set up at Blade Show (next weekend in Atlanta), but I don't remember their offering anything in wootz. I've seen "damascus" before, though.

Which model on their website are you referring to.

KD,

Ancient blades broke just like modern blades will break. The best modern blade steels are better than the best ancient blade steels and the best modern blades of composite and monolithic structure are better than the ancient blades of composite structure. Thats just modern metallurgy over ancient metallurgy and incorporation of the knowledge from intense study of those ancient swords by that handful of today's master makers.

Where myth isn't overcome by metallurgy is in the vast majority of modern manufactured swords. They may not incorporate the differential heat treat of carefully selected steels so that their blades have both a softer spine and the hard cutting edge of the ancient swords. The need to be truly functional just isn't in each and every one unlike the ancient sword. They bear pretty much the same resemblance to "real" swords that airsoft guns bear to "real" Schofields and Colts. They might look right and they might even function in a similar manner, but they aren't fully functional weapons.

Again, the mythology around 900-1700 AD Japanese swords is enormous. They performed in a manner that most modern blades can't, but the understanding of how that was accomplished is available and has been duplicated by modern master smiths and a few of them have improved upon that performance using modern materials and techniques. The awareness of modern master smiths who make blades inspired by them is pretty small though and the vast majority of people are only aware of the far lesser junk chromed pot metal and "stainless" steel and the slightly better "combat ready" through-temper simple carbon steel blades. Just as ancient blade smiths were of different classes modern blade smiths rank themselves into journeymen and masters and with the advantage of modern materials and modern technologies they can move the art of blade making forward of those ancient masters that inspire them.

You're feelings are the same that I held when I first started getting really interested in swords. it took until I started hanging out with real blade smiths who had devoted a lifetime of study and experimentation that I began to change that opinion to "the vast majority of modern blades you can buy don't compare to ancient blades" when I saw modern blades made by master blade smiths that equal and exceed ancient blades. Don Fogg, Howard Clark, Louie Mills and a few others are every bit as good as the legendary ancient smiths and they have the advantage of modern materials and technology at hand to produce superior blades.

I don't think anyone could do that today.

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I've been present when it's been done. More than once. You just have to get into the real knifemaking community instead of the bulk of what's shown to people and then meet the people who actually hand craft swords. If you're lucky, as I have been, they'll let you hang around and watch it being done. Find a hammer-in as soon as you can and it will open your eyes. You really need to get with some of the American Bladesmith Society smiths and you'll change your mind about this stuff. There are no Master Smiths listed for AK, but there are 3 Journeyman Smiths there. Try here for starters = http://alaskablades.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=56&Itemid=61 If you get to the lower 48 you can find several in WA state. Bob Kramer, Tom Ferry, Bruce Bump, and others are there.

It isn't logical to think that something that has been done by man can't be done by someone else and probably has been. Also, there's nothing that has been done that can't be improved upon as technology and technique advances.

This sort of conversation has been had throughout the ages. Ogg says Sprig is the best chipped point maker "ever" until Sprig shows him Urg's point and sighs, "I just don't know how he does it. I don't know where he gets the material and what he does to it and how he flakes it. I've never seen anything like it!". As it has been, so will it be throughout time. Things get better because people push them forward.

I'd be surprised if Berger isn't making their own since they started out making knives and swords and then switched to sword canes to set themselves apart.

You can buy one of a variety of swords from Himalayan Imports. Some are authentic Nepalese swords, like the tarwar, and others are based on designs from other countries. In all cases, the swords are capable of being used as real fighting weapons, not wall hangers. With only one or two exceptions (Napoleon sword, still useful for fighting), the HI products are also extremely sturdy (and usually overbuilt).

Many of the tarwars have functional guards, and sometimes are on sale for $150 or so (check the HI forum at BladeForums.com). Many forum members have chopped trees down with theirs (something I would never suggest with most fighting swords, but it does show the strength of the blade). A tarwar is a real, sturdy, and very useful sword and a blade with an authentic history, as well. I would take one as soon as anything else, and in preference to most other swords.

John

Caveat emptor. If you don't know what you're looking for, I wouldn't suggest it.

Gotta agree with John, if you don't know enough to identify "real" swords from shiny (or not even shiny) junk I wouldn't dive into ebay.

OTOH, You will find reliable dealers there who sell real blades. They won't be selling shiny junk with their swords. You can also find real makers who sell on ebay (our own Fuad Acawi does), but, again, you have to know who you're dealing with and what you're buying. Be very careful and very skeptical if you don't have KodiakBeer's knowledge of western military blades. Be very skeptical of anything with the word "samurai" in the title or name.