village made shuang shou jian

RSWORD · 1st February 2008, 07:18 PM

Even though there are no close up shots of the blade one can still see some distinct layering along the edge in one of the pictures. Have you put a file to the edge to test the hardness? A sword of this period would certainly have hardened edges but given the nice layering in the one shot I suspect the edges will be hardened.

josh stout · 2nd February 2008, 02:46 PM

I have never been very good at testing edge hardness, but a few times when I have polished things I have noticed when edges are super hard. In this case I was not planning any polishing or etching because I would be afraid it would make the small cracks along the edge more noticeable.

There is certainly lamination along the body of the blade and the typical sanmai edge plate. There is also a lighter area along each edge that looks like the effects of differential heat-treating. I have never quite understood why the Chinese did this belt and suspenders approach to edge hardness, when it seems that either high carbon or differential heating/cooling would have the same result. Still it is quite typical. In this case I suspect the edges will be quite hard. The small cracks are what one tends to see on very hard steel. Also the cracks all stop when they hit the softer body of the blade.
Josh

1st February 2008, 07:18 PM	#1
RSWORD Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Greensboro, NC Posts: 1,087	Even though there are no close up shots of the blade one can still see some distinct layering along the edge in one of the pictures. Have you put a file to the edge to test the hardness? A sword of this period would certainly have hardened edges but given the nice layering in the one shot I suspect the edges will be hardened.

2nd February 2008, 02:46 PM	#2
josh stout Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 407	I have never been very good at testing edge hardness, but a few times when I have polished things I have noticed when edges are super hard. In this case I was not planning any polishing or etching because I would be afraid it would make the small cracks along the edge more noticeable. There is certainly lamination along the body of the blade and the typical sanmai edge plate. There is also a lighter area along each edge that looks like the effects of differential heat-treating. I have never quite understood why the Chinese did this belt and suspenders approach to edge hardness, when it seems that either high carbon or differential heating/cooling would have the same result. Still it is quite typical. In this case I suspect the edges will be quite hard. The small cracks are what one tends to see on very hard steel. Also the cracks all stop when they hit the softer body of the blade. Josh