From the Musashi Platinum Collection comes this truly RARE Kobuse Kitae Katana. Hand made by Master Sword Smith Rich (Takemoto) Chen is forged using the traditional Japanese forging technique known as Kobuse Kitae. This method uses a soft steel core in a hard steel jacket. By using a flexible core the overall shock absorption is improved throughout the blade. The blade itself is forged from Tamahagane steel. Tamahagane is a high quality Japanese metal. The word "tama" means "round and precious," like a gem or jewel. The word "hagane" means "steel." Typically, this type of metal costs 50 times greater than traditional carbon steel due to the difficulty to make. The process of making tamahagane is a an arduous 36 to 72 hour task that varies depending on how much metal is created. Iron rich river sand is added every 10 minutes to the mixture and is constantly turned. Tamahagane steel is commonly used to make extremely high end Japanese katanas, knives and other tools. Good tamahagne container around 1% of carbon, but does not exceed 1.5%. The blade also features a Mino style gunome midare hamon. The gunome hamon was used from the Kamakura period, but different varations were developed during the Shinto period, such as the gunome doran hamon used by the Sukehiro School. Kanemoto made the sanbon sug (3 cedar zig-zag) gunome hamon famous for its cutting ability during the Muromachi period.
- 43" overall length
- Tamahagane steel blade
- Gunome midare hamon
- Ray skin handle
- Iron tsuba