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Post by swordsmithjacob on Feb 9, 2018 22:18:38 GMT
As you might have seen, I have been asking questions about katana sword making a lot. Right now I am just trying to perfect making katanas with steel billets, but in the future, I think it would be fun to make a traditional blade. Is there anyone who knows how to get hold of satetsu in order to make tamahagane? I could always just buy refined iron sand off of alibaba, but again, I would eventually like to go fully traditional.
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Post by Adrian Jordan on Feb 10, 2018 0:03:42 GMT
There are videos on YouTube on how to build small tatara's. There's also a video of I think Walter Sorrells and Jesus Hernandez(two very big fish in the sword making pond) using one to make Tamahagane. Also, I don't think it can be referred to(or at least recognized officially) as Tamahagane unless it's made from Japanese materials in Japan by the Japanese. They're pretty fastidious about keeping there stuff on lock-down culturally. I think it's referred to as Orishigane or something similar.
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Post by Timo Nieminen on Feb 10, 2018 0:13:47 GMT
I could always just buy refined iron sand off of alibaba, but again, I would eventually like to go fully traditional. Refined sand is what goes into the smelter (i.e., tatara). Traditionally, the grains of ore were separated from the rest of the sand by washing, and modernly by magnetic separation, but the end result is basically the same: grains of magnetite. If you want to go fully traditional - not just smelting ore, but also mining your own ore - iron sand is a good choice, because separating the ore by washing/panning is so much easier than hard-rock mining (especially with traditional technology). The other easy choice (if you go beyond Japanese swords) is bog iron; again, easier than hard-rock mining. Presumably you would also want to make your own charcoal (would seem silly to do your own mining, and then buy charcoal).
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Post by swordsmithjacob on Feb 10, 2018 1:50:10 GMT
I could always just buy refined iron sand off of alibaba, but again, I would eventually like to go fully traditional. Refined sand is what goes into the smelter (i.e., tatara). Traditionally, the grains of ore were separated from the rest of the sand by washing, and modernly by magnetic separation, but the end result is basically the same: grains of magnetite. If you want to go fully traditional - not just smelting ore, but also mining your own ore - iron sand is a good choice, because separating the ore by washing/panning is so much easier than hard-rock mining (especially with traditional technology). The other easy choice (if you go beyond Japanese swords) is bog iron; again, easier than hard-rock mining. Presumably you would also want to make your own charcoal (would seem silly to do your own mining, and then buy charcoal). Thank you so much for your help!
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