How Japanese Masters Turn Sand Into Swords
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Published 2024-03-21
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A massive thank you to John McBride for making this entire project happen. This would not have been possible without John. Please check out his japan walking tours walkjapan.com/
Massive thanks to Craig Mod, Inoue-san, everyone in the Tanabe family, and Takanashi-san. Also a massive thank you to Kevin Cashen – cashenblades.com/
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References:
Tanii, H., Inazumi, T., & Terashima, K. (2014). Mineralogical study of iron sand with different metallurgical characteristic to smelting with use of Japanese classic iron-making furnace “Tatara”. ISIJ international, 54(5), 1044-1050.
Tate, M. (2005). History of Iron and Steel Making Technology in Japan Mainly on the smelting of iron sand by Tatara. Tetsu-to-Hagane, 91(1), 2-10.
Krauss, G. (1999). Martensite in steel: strength and structure. Materials science and engineering: A, 273, 40-57.
Krauss, G., & Marder, A. R. (1971). The morphology of martensite in iron alloys. Metallurgical Transactions, 2, 2343-2357.
Yalçın, Ü. (1999). Early iron metallurgy in Anatolia. Anatolian Studies, 49, 177-187.
Kapp, L., Kapp, H., & Yoshihara, Y. (1987). The craft of the Japanese sword. Kodansha International.
Matsumoto, C., Das, A. K., Ohba, T., Morito, S., Hayashi, T., & Takami, G. (2013). Characteristics of Japanese sword produced from tatara steel. Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 577, S673-S677.
Inoue, T. (2010). Tatara and the Japanese sword: the science and technology. Acta Mechanica, 214(1), 17-30.
Images & Video:
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Directed by Petr Lebedev
Written by Petr Lebedev and Derek Muller
Edited by Trenton Oliver, Jack Saxon, Peter Nelson
Animated by Fabio Albertelli, Jakub Misiek, David Szakaly
Filmed by Petr Lebedev and Lui Kimishima
Produced by Petr Lebedev, Derek Muller, Han Evans, Giovanna Utichi, Emily Taylor
Additional research by Gregor Čavlović
Thumbnail by Peter Sheppard
Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images
Music from Epidemic Sound
All Comments (21)
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man open youtube, man see sword, man happy
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finally a video that's just about material science so a dumbass mechanical engineer like me can understand it lmao
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Props to Peter, this must've been intimidating at times and he did a great job being respectful and appreciative of the opportunity.
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"Whatever you do you should do it with deep care, attention to detail, and love for the craft" So true.
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Do you guys remember when shows like planet earth and the discovery channel pumped out interesting documentaries with this level of production quality? I miss those times. Shows just don't feel like this anymore. Thank you for bringing back that feeling veritasium. You guys can't get enough credit.
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18:20 slight error here: The combination of Ferrite and Cementite is Pearlite, not Perlite. Perlite is a volcanic glass, mostly made of silicates and used in gardening for its high porosity that helps to aerate the soil and provide microrefugia for microbes.
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such a beautiful combination of geology, chemistry, physics, history, and craftsmanship
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As a Japanese native, I can’t thank you enough for making a video on this subject. The metallurgy associated is just so fascinating and getting the neat graphics and explanations was awesome. Thanks for spreading the Japanese culture!
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Hi Veritasium and Derek. I'm a descendant of a Katana blacksmith in Japan. The craft in my family has been continued up to the end of Edo era and no one is a blacksmith anymore, but my family had swords inherited from our ancestors. Thank you very much for your appreciation for the art of sword making in Japan. I enjoyed this video more than any other videos of yours since I found you 9-10 years ago. I've watched every single one of them since then.
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What amazes me is that we're now perfectly able to explain in details all of the mechanisms involved along a process that emerged solely from trial and error. Science is amazing.
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This must be a very epic journey for him. The forging process itself is an epic ritualized group efforts
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Small correction. By folding the steel you will actually lose a lot of steel due to slag and pieces flying off, the more layers the more material loss will happen. Alec Steele on youtube who specialises in modern damascus talked about this in one of his videos
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For that price it better be brimming with haki.
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I love how they preserved the rituals involved such as praying. This takes the hardwork and output beyond physical realm, to a spiritual realm. It gives meaning to what they're doing. The level of faith and respect to the elements is astounding. Thank you for showing this to me Veritasium!
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Hi Peter, it's a great video. I liked the way you explained each process even though I knew few processes i didn't know why they are for. Thanks for the clarification. I appreciate that you are grateful and you had a huge respect for the opportunity you got. All the best. Looking forward for the next video.
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meanwhile i can craft a steel dagger in skyrim in 4 seconds. we've come so far
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Have watched several videos showing the making of Japanese swords. Always interesting to watch. This video is no exception and I'd like to say many thanks for clearly explaining the science behind how the various steels are combined to produce the swords. Very informative 👏 👌
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I absolutely enjoyed this one. I knew a little bit of the sword making but I learned so much about the steel smelting that I had never heard of before. Absolutely amazing!! Thank you for creating this!;
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"whatever you do, you should do it with deep care, attention to detail and love for the craft. Do that enough times, and you might just make something wonderful" - Veritasium
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23:38 I love that because he bowed much lower than him, he felt compelled to bow a second time. You bow at different levels depending on how respectful you're being and the context, so him doing a 90° bow was probably very unexpected. You can''t not feel bad if someone bows 90° while you didn't 😭
