Lamination Question

tom hyle · 18th March 2005, 01:23 PM

BTW, I can't tell in the photo, but that may be a welded edge or it may be a hardening line. If it is a sandwich/"san mai" type constuction, the edge steel (an antiquitous term is the "bit") will be visible running down the center of the spine as well. On the other hand, it could be an inlaid (dogged-in, pinch-welded, qiangong) edge that was welded into a slit in the blade. It seems like a fairly light etch (?) and while I could probably tell you if I examined the sword, I just can't be sure from the photo. Moro swords I've seen the temper lines on tend to be hardened in a wider zone than that line, and to be fairly straight lines formed by the blade being only quenched to that depth. If this is a temper line it would have pretty much had to be made with the clay method, but very similar temper lines are seen on Visayan swords, and things have a way of getting around the neighborhood. Is this a very old sword? It doesn't look like most of the old ones I've seen, and I don't see any folding, which is what I was expecting before your photos came up, but that's something that, if fairly homogenous, often only becomes clear on a deeper etch.

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18th March 2005, 01:23 PM	#5
tom hyle Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Houston, TX, USA Posts: 1,254	BTW, I can't tell in the photo, but that may be a welded edge or it may be a hardening line. If it is a sandwich/"san mai" type constuction, the edge steel (an antiquitous term is the "bit") will be visible running down the center of the spine as well. On the other hand, it could be an inlaid (dogged-in, pinch-welded, qiangong) edge that was welded into a slit in the blade. It seems like a fairly light etch (?) and while I could probably tell you if I examined the sword, I just can't be sure from the photo. Moro swords I've seen the temper lines on tend to be hardened in a wider zone than that line, and to be fairly straight lines formed by the blade being only quenched to that depth. If this is a temper line it would have pretty much had to be made with the clay method, but very similar temper lines are seen on Visayan swords, and things have a way of getting around the neighborhood. Is this a very old sword? It doesn't look like most of the old ones I've seen, and I don't see any folding, which is what I was expecting before your photos came up, but that's something that, if fairly homogenous, often only becomes clear on a deeper etch.