May I be the first to wish you a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! You're LEGAL now, right?
Kenshin sends best wishes, too!
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Locked on 05/05/2004 8:02:10 AM PDT by Admin Moderator, reason:
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Posted on 04/06/2004 6:53:09 PM PDT by HairOfTheDog
That would be for the very finest blade. 64K layers is more likely for an "ordinary" samurai blade. Even then, what you have is a near-perfect bar of extremely high-grade steel, because all the impurities have been beaten out. That steel was as good as the best we can make today, except for rust resistance. It would rust if you looked at it sideways.
A friend has a Japanese Marine samurai sword. I learned that with the blade unsheathed, one always turned one's head aside while talking about the blade, since microscopic bits of spit would otherwise land on the blade, and start it rusting within minutes.
May I be the first to wish you a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! You're LEGAL now, right?
Kenshin sends best wishes, too!
Interesting information on the rust resistance and turning the head aside to avoid breathing on the weapon--I didn't know that!
While we're on this subject, I was wondering about something last night, perhaps you may have some insight. I do a bit of research on East-West cultural exchange in ancient times and I started wondering if there was any exchange between European, Arabic, and Asian methods of sword forging. I mention Arabic because I know Damascus was also a big sword-making city in ancient and medieval times and was on the trade route between Europe and Asia; and I believe (though don't know much about the tech aspect of it) the Damascus method of forging is akin to the Japanese method (cf. Damascus Steel: "Laminated Damascus steel had its origins in the early days of the iron age. It was found that by folding and welding iron in a carbon fire you could produce steel, a hardenable iron product capable of producing superior tools and weapons. Nearly every culture in the world developed some form of laminated steel. There are Viking era swords extant that clearly show intricately developed patterning. In Malaysia, the kris is renown for its complicated laminated patterned steels. Perhaps the highest form was developed in Japan. The Japanese through a process of forge welding wrought iron and a high carbon product called tamahagane produced swords of exceptional quality and beauty. An excellent reference for the background history of Damascus is found in A Search for Structure, by Dr. Cyril Stanley Smith, MIT Press."). Do you know anything about how the various ancient/medieval methods of forging swords compare and whether there are any methods which seem more similar to the Japanese method than others?
Better top fight it now, so he doesn't associate it as much with the babygirl! Just don't mention the baby in the negotiations!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JEN! :-) Have a Happy Birthday, that you will! :)
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The legend of the Edmund Fitzgerald remains the most mysterious and controversial of all shipwreck tales heard around the Great Lakes. . .The Edmund Fitzgerald was lost with her entire crew of 29 men on Lake Superior November 10, 1975, 17 miles north-northwest of Whitefish Point, Michigan. Whitefish Point is the site of the Whitefish Point Light Station and Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society (GLSHS) has conducted three underwater expeditions to the wreck, 1989, 1994, and 1995. At the request of family members surviving her crew, Fitzgerald's 200 lb. bronze bell was recovered by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society on July 4, 1995. This expedition was conducted jointly with the National Geographic Society, Canadian Navy, Sony Corporation, and Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. The bell is now on display in the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum as a memorial to her lost crew.
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