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Originally Posted by kai
Hello Roland,
Could you please expand on this?
Nails are usually made from very mild steel; if you anneal them, they should pose no problem to any hardened steel blade. A thick iron rod may still pose a challenge - it seems more of a test for a good edge geometry (and sword technique) to me though!
Regards,
Kai
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Hello Kai,
you are right, the iron rods for testing the "Eisenhauer" were made from pretty soft iron, "Eisenhauer" is mainly an early marketing slogan. In England they had a similar test "Guaranteed to cut iron" or so.
The "Nagelprobe" I know comes from razor blade quality testing. The master will lay the razor blade edge flat on his thumb-nail (0°, no cutting effect) and gives a little pressure on it. Because the razor blade edge is very thin and flexible a kind of wave will appear in the cutting edge. Now the master moves the blade under pressure from left to right and watch for the wave. Over the whole length of the edge the wave must be the same. Is this the case the edge has a constantly thickness which is very important for a good classic razor blade.
You are probably also right with the faux damask on the cutting edge. Many Solingen swords from 19th and early 20th ct. have only faux damask. If you are interested, I can make a scan from my Solingen-Swordmuseum book. But until now I have never seen a combination of real and faux damask. An inserted cutting edge is quite unusal on Solingen swords of the 19th ct..
best,
Roland