Happy 250th Independence Day, Luzon Sword, Do You Like Hamon?

[Roland_M]

First a Happy Independence Day to all US American forum members. Here is my kind of present for your Independence Day, an interesting Philippine sword. I think it is inspired by Spanish colonial Espadas Anchas type swords. The hilt seems to be made from albino horn with a tiny guard, a thick brass plate and a strong rivet at the end. The sheath is made from leather and has a deep sword cut right in its middle. The most interesting part on this sword is without question its blade. Although it looks like mono steel, it is extremely tight laminated steel, too tight to make its structure visible. What makes this blade a bit special is its spectacular differential hardening. Many people believe, such dramatic contrasts from hardening the blade are exclusive to Japanese blades, they are not. Here is one clear evidence and I have a few more. That edge is indeed extremely hard. Grinding such edges feels like walking on ice, very slippery somehow, a huge difference to the softer parts of the blade. When I handled it for the first time, I was wondering, why the shape, the curves along the blade were almost as perfect as on Japanese blades, but the finish was awful, grinding marks in all directions. I thought, that might be because the steel is nasty to polish and indeed, it was hard very work to turn it into the current state, without usage of modern machinery. In every of the up to 12 stages of grinding and polishing, the hardening pattern was clear to see. At the basic grinding stages, the edge appears to be significantly darker than the rest of the blade, the darker the harder (that one was nearly black), during the progress, the edge becomes increasingly brighter. I have no idea how they created this temperline, perhaps some kind of clay cover, that leaves the edge free.

The length of the blade excluding the hilt is exactly 27 inches, it weighs 780 grams. The thickness distribution is 5mm (five) at the base, 6mm (six) at 30% of its length, again 5mm at the beginning of the semi false edge, converging from that on in a slight curve down to zero at the tip.

I made something new in that restoration, i treated the deformations on the back edge like a normal part of the blade. Grinding and polishing below that tiny overhangs at the false edge was not too easy. It is my illusion, that this will cause some confusion among future collectors. Partly a joke and partly because I really like that more authentic look and concept

I hope you like what you see. If so, I have a few more worth on this level or above to show.


Greetings
Roland

[Roland_M]

More pictures.