he's gonna smell it,lick it or hang it in the bed of course.

sorry..just keeping it ..without doing anything
I'm not that HENTAI afterall

hard and brittle.

finally the "weapon" has appeared!

The authentic Japanese sword is made from a specialized Japanese steel called "Tamahagane"[4] which consist of combinations of hard, high carbon steel and tough, low carbon steel[5]. There are advantages and setbacks to both types of steel. Having a lot of carbon within the steel allows the blade to hold a sharp edge but can be too brittle and may break in combat. Having a small amount of carbon will allow the steel to be more malleable, making it able to absorb impacts without breaking but becoming blunt in the process. The makers of a katana would use the best attributes of both kinds of steel by placing the high carbon steel in the front of the blade for a sharp edge while placing the low carbon steel in the back where it can absorb most of the impact.

The katana gets its gentle curve from quenching during forging, as it is straight prior to quenching. A process of differential tempering causes martensite to form predominantly in the edge of the blade rather than the back; as the spine has lower retained lattice strain, it cools and contracts, and the blade takes on a gently curved shape.[6]

A coating of clay mixed with ashes and a small portion of rust is applied to every surface but the edge of the blade during hardening. This provides heat insulation so that only the blade's edge will be hardened with quenching. This process also creates the distinct swerving line down the center of the blade called the hamon which can only be seen after it is polished, a katana forger's signature[7].

The hardening of steel involves altering the microstructure or crystalline structure of that material through quenching it from a heat above 800 °C (1,472 °F) (bright red glow), ideally no higher than yellow hot. If cooled slowly, the material will break back down into iron and carbon and the molecular structure will return to its previous state. However, if cooled quickly, the steel's molecular structure is permanently altered. The reason for the formation of the curve in a properly hardened Japanese blade is that iron carbide, formed during heating and retained through quenching, has a lesser density than its root materials have separately.

After the blade is forged it is then sent to be polished. The polishing takes between one and three weeks. The polisher uses finer and finer grains of polishing stones until the blade has a mirror finish in a process called glazing. This makes the blade extremely sharp and reduces drag making it easier to cut with. The blade curvature also adds to the cutting power.

wow ..thanks for the info..
I wish I could learn on making one of those katana ..here in malaysia
merru the katana smith!

That's it. I'm sick of all this "Masterwork Katana" bullshit that's going on in the Sacred Blacksmith anime right now. Broadswords deserve much better than that. Much, much better than that.

I should know what I'm talking about. I myself commissioned a genuine broadsword in England for £16,000 (that's about $8,620,000) and have been practicing with it for almost 2 years now. I can even cut slabs of solid steel with my broadsword.

English smiths spend years working on a single broadsword and fold it up to a million times to produce the finest blades known to mankind.

Broadswords are thrice as sharp as Eastern swords and thrice as hard for that matter too.

Anything a katana can cut through, a broadsword can cut through better. I'm pretty sure a broadsword could easily bisect a samurai wearing full O-yoroi with a simple vertical slash.

Ever wonder why Eastern Asia never bothered conquering the UK? That's right, they were too scared to fight the disciplined knights and their broadswords of destruction. Even in World War II, Japanese soldiers targeted the men sailing on the HMS Broadsword first because its killing power was feared and respected.

So what am I saying? broadswords are simply the best sword that the anime world has ever seen, and thus, require better stats in the Sacred Blacksmith. Here is the equip bonus I propose for

Broadswords:

(Wielded One-Handed) Average of 35 fodder character kills a minute, Can defeat up to 3 katana-wielding members of the main cast before being injured, 4 layers of plot-armour

(Wielded Two-Handed) Average of 45 fodder character kills a minute, Can defeat up to 5 katana-wielding members of the main cast before being injured, 6 layers of plot-armour

Now that seems a lot more representative of the cutting power of broadswords in the Sacred Blacksmith, don't you think?

tl;dr = Broadswords need to do more damage in Sacred Blacksmith, see my new equip bonus.

but I like a light weapon ..so katana is better for me
broadsword is far too heavy

keris podewin!

western people= larger physical, better strength, hence they can fully utilize the brutal broadsword.

japanese= physically shorter and smaller, rely too much on strength wont do them any good. Hence a lighter katana would be more suit for them, which give them more agility?

I dunno, aint a swordfan, just my thought.

Katana = for slashing and slicing attack
Broadsword = for smashing attack
Keris = for poisoning, lowering enemy stats

ditto to western smither are better than japanese one. even in armor, western breast plate has triple thin layer to gave wearer protection against musket shot in oppose to samurai armor, which basically will just pierce thru n kill the wearer.

n broadsword is not a flail/mace. its still for slashing n slicing.
u can say katana is like western sword while broadsword is like nodachi (or maybe Odaichi level only)

Well... even in RPG games. The strongest swords aren't katana-like but broadswords-like.

FF Tactics - Chaos Blade
FF series - Ultima Weapon
Shining Force Neo - Force Buster
Fate/Stay Night - Excalibur or Enuma Elish [Enuma Elish looks like a spear]
Etc etc ect....

BTW, I agree that western's sword are more powerful while the eastern's swords are smaller and lighter.

wat i mean is
Japanese - Western
Katana - Sword
Odaichi (/nodachi?) - Broadsword
Yari - Spear
Kodachi - Short sword

n dun get personal into Claymore/zeihander stuff though.

I think geographical distance plays a factor there. Maybe... JUST maybe!

juz finished watching the 3rd ep. not much going. but still it's good to watch.

Haha but IINM, broadswords did lose to Arabic sword last time? Due to the difference of technology

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Added on October 19, 2009, 1:30 pmHaha actually this is the main reason why the katana forged by Luke is stronger than the broadswords in the anime. In the anime, they did stated that most swords are made from mold, while swords that were made using traditional methods(in the anime), together with the blacksmiths who still practiced the method, becoming rare.

This post has been edited by Exiled_Gundam: Oct 19 2009, 01:30 PM

in fact if you know a little about ancient history, you would know that every culture has the traditional sword making method of folding the metal and useing high temp and adding different material to reinforce them, it's only due to the fact that wars were getting bigger that molds or other mass production are use to make them which would at the expense of the weapons durability would be produce at a higher and cheaper rate.

that's why swords and other bladed weapons for nobles and aristocrats emperors are way more expensive not just because of it's lavish decoration but mainly due to the fact that it wouldn't break when swords clashes.

and the only reason that Japanese katanas technology are slightly above that of other cultures is due to the fact that unlike other prize swords a katana is made out of 2 different alloy a hard outer edge and a more flexible metal use to reinforce the blade.

This thread becomes a really-really 'Sacred BlackSmith' thread.

now i only noticed that luke's left eye iris is different... hehe...