comments on this barung lamenation?

RSWORD · 1st June 2005, 12:56 AM

I will take a poke at these two pieces. Spunjers example appears to be of pile construction. That is where various bars of steel/iron are used, "piled" upon one another and forged out. The lamination that is seen is a result of the different metals etching out in different ways. In Rick's example, I believe the blade is of sandwhich construction. The center portion or body of the blade is lamellar steel with a long forging flaw down the center. The cutting edge is probably a higher carbon steel that has been sandwhiched and then heat treated. I believe it was then put to a post-quench annealing. The edge has a hamon-like feature(even has a bit of a cloudy appearance) and this is typical in the sandwhich lamination. There seem to be small isolated islands just above the "temper" line in a few spots. I believe the Japanese call these Utsuri(?) and this is a result of a post-quench annealing. I think there might be a seperate spine welded to the body to complete the blade. Overall, a fairly complicated forging with beautiful lines and I imagine quite a sharp and hard edge.

1st June 2005, 12:56 AM	#9
RSWORD Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Greensboro, NC Posts: 1,086	I will take a poke at these two pieces. Spunjers example appears to be of pile construction. That is where various bars of steel/iron are used, "piled" upon one another and forged out. The lamination that is seen is a result of the different metals etching out in different ways. In Rick's example, I believe the blade is of sandwhich construction. The center portion or body of the blade is lamellar steel with a long forging flaw down the center. The cutting edge is probably a higher carbon steel that has been sandwhiched and then heat treated. I believe it was then put to a post-quench annealing. The edge has a hamon-like feature(even has a bit of a cloudy appearance) and this is typical in the sandwhich lamination. There seem to be small isolated islands just above the "temper" line in a few spots. I believe the Japanese call these Utsuri(?) and this is a result of a post-quench annealing. I think there might be a seperate spine welded to the body to complete the blade. Overall, a fairly complicated forging with beautiful lines and I imagine quite a sharp and hard edge.