Making Tanjiro's Katana from [Demon Slayer]

[Music] today we've partnered up with funimation to bring to you tanjiro's katana from demon slayer the beginning of the foundation forge starts out with taking your piece of bloomery steel flattening it and breaking the breaking indicates that the steel you have has actually high carbon content because you can examine the breaking point for cleanliness as well as grain growth next comes the sorting stage where you sort those broken tiles based on the rough approximated carbon content and cleanliness once you sorted your pieces out you start stacking them on the takocani or the paddle attached to the holding stick both the paddle and the holding stick are made from previously processed pieces of tamahagani or bloomery steel and therefore avoid any sort of contamination of the initial billet once the tiles are all stacked together on the taco connie they're wrapped in paper and ash to prevent them from falling apart in the forge and coated with clay which further helps the structure from collapsing as well as gets converted to flux under very high heat [Music] [Music] the art of the japanese sword is embedded in a long-standing tradition of appreciating the calligraphic arts which are primarily painted on paper paper unlike canvas or unlike the sculptural medium that we're used to in the west has a unique sensibility lafcario hearn for example contemplates the influence of the prints and as well as the use of paper instead of glass on the imagination and the approach to art that the japanese uniquely developed he describes the movement of shadows and the impermanence of the visual presentation that every single person sitting inside the home experiences the passing of the seasons you can view the japanese sword specifically as if it's a person dressed up in a kimono the terms of appraisal of the blade itself are very somatic the meat of the blade nico or when we're looking at the hada or the gigani we call it the skin uh when we're looking at the edge it's called teeth or mouth now what happens is when we move to the kosher eye the fittings those are usually described and created using the techniques employed in calligraphy in fact i have an antique book that writes down some of the designs for the fittings kosherite tsuba fushikashira minooki and so on and they are laid out like a scroll which the artist has to imagine wrapping around the handle so you can look at the sword as if it's a embodied individual that has a soul that is wrapped up in a silk painted kimono [Music] the connection of ink painting as well as silk screen prints to the japanese sword as well as many other artists we imagine nowadays the connection to the medium of anime and manga is quite obvious but relatively few people know that the entire invention of the western impressionist movement started out as being inspired by the movement called japanese and the movement of japanese in western painting started out with people in the monmart district buying pottery but in fact the pottery that would come in from japan would be wrapped in hokusai prints that painters like monet monet and so on would appreciate and try to copy in oil and therefore the connection between the long-standing tradition of painting and calligraphy the japanese sword anime as well as modern western art is quite intimate and tied together [Music] after the steels are assembled together that begins the next stage of forging called the cenova the sonoma is the preform for the sword this and the latter stages are when the smith truly can introduce his or her artistic refinement because our synovial preform has a grain direction especially since we're working with bloomery steel it is proper to make sure that the grain follows the entire geometry of the edge and therefore i have to cut off the tip of it at an angle and forge it back and have the hada as well as the grain follow the entire geometry of the future blade and from this point we can now begin [Music] beveling the art of the japanese sword blade co-evolved with a system of its own appraisal in the sense that as if a student co-evolves with the teacher grading him so what happens is in the appraisal system it is very common to catalog a given sword or a set of swords with a piece of paper known as the oshagata where a very talented artist tries to paint every single key and unique feature to that sword and therefore when a sword maker is making the sword he is already thinking about the features in terms of the oshagata because he has studied those features of previous smiths very often through reprinted or repainted or shigata or paintings of pre-existing swords and therefore the entire framework of imagining the features of future swords as well as comparing them is very tightly connected to the calligraphic hand after the forging is complete the next stage is to prepare the blade surface for the heat treat and set up the basic sword geometry take note that at this stage most often the sword is actually straight and only the heat treat that introduces the basic curvature of the sword as you imagine it with some corrections possible later on [Music] so [Music] uh [Music] bloomery steel actually does not like a long soaking period like modern steel's wood so the smith has to by eye measure the evenness of the heat or where he wants it and immediately as soon as the areas that are necessary to bring up the heat are at the necessary temperature go into water to solidify the martensite that forms within the steel [Music] so [Music] so from what it appears tangiero's sword is very likely to have had a two-piece hibaki and this is going to be my first time attempting such a habakkuk construction now with the 2p sabaki it is very clear that there is an inheritance of the japanese woodworking technique and the way pieces fit together as if they're legos you can see very similar way of fitting pieces and joinery in the traditional japanese architecture now the function of the habakkuk is very interesting you see the shoulder of the sword is a funnel for stress because the sword goes from being this wide to the tank meaning it loses width and therefore this notch the mooney machine hamachi or the shoulder and western sword traps the impact and converts it to stress western swords uh had a solution of tightly fitting the guard permanently around that area in hopes that the guard absorbs some of that stress the problem is the guard also imparts a lot of stress on that particular area of the blade the japanese came up with an ingenious solution why don't we create a spacer out of soft metal that eats up and absorbs the stress that is imparted on the sword and therefore all we have to do as that soft metal slowly deforms with time is add up washers behind the guard or suba and therefore keep the blade that is very expensive and is considered a work of art intact the second function of the habakki will be obvious later in this build but i would like to mention it to you now you see the japanese cavern is designed to protect the blade from the contact with the wood itself and the way it is accomplished is by having the scabbard pinch the blade just at the tip and at the habakki where the habakki creates an airtight seal between the scabbard and the rest of the sword i'm going to be making tanjiro sabaki based on the rough example of an old habakkuk that i have that is attached to a 15th century short sword that habakkuk clearly displays how two-part or multi-piece habakki are made although it is a much more luxurious example compared to the one i'm planning on making [Music] [Music] uh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] in the manga in the anime tantra sword displays fairly plain simple eye but in reality the fittings koshurai were a place where the samurai can display his personality aspirations or uh things that he values in life so they can be very fancy so for example uh at a certain point in japanese history christianity was prohibited so the samurai would come up with very novel ways of displaying their allegiance to their specific religion in hidden code that would be commonly found on suba or inside the fittings on the other hand the fusha and kashara for example could be tailor-made to a specific occasion remember the japanese sword is just the blade and the kosher eye of the garnisher so a given sword could have a sunday suit so to speak or an everyday sort of suit a sword that would pass down to his son might in fact come with a specially made set of kosherite that would depict a carp for example or means the coming-of-age ceremony and so on so i have for example two sets of push and kasra that are quite nice one displays shoki a chinese healer who later on became known as the main exorcist the person who wards off demons it is quite easy to imagine how the association with demonic possession and disease came about in an age before modern medicine the other set of features fushin kashra that i have are the depiction of the battle at the uc river which was a very popular motif for the samurai to appreciate and now it's time to form the fusion crusher i'm showing you my method which i'm pretty sure is not quite traditional but in the past as well as in the future it has worked and will work for me quite well so [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] from what i see tajiro sword does not seem to have the minuki or ornaments that are hidden inside the handle but i've never seen a katana or even hitachi that does not have a set of nuki so what i'm going to do i'm going to make very simple minuki depicting bamboo after all the flask from which the gag for his sister is made the flask is made from a bamboo stem so the theme should work quite well unlike steel copper gets softer when you heat it up to red and quench it and that allows me to work it to much greater detail than i otherwise would and you'll see me do it several times throughout the process [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] now the handle is formed it accounts for the size and the shape of the fusion crusher as well as the expected differences in thickness within the sami or race can wrap it is very important that these nodules here are on the presentation side of the handle and fairly centered [Music] [Applause] at a certain time in japanese history the sami wrap was as expensive as its own weight and gold and therefore sophisticated methods of appraising it and appreciating it have developed and that led to a set of etiquette where you properly position the semi-wrap [Music] so [Music] one often overlooked detail when wrapping the katana handle of a hishikami or the small paper wedges they set up the handle geometry quite robustly and give you a better grip [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] baby an important part of making the scavenge is the iacocci or the horn or soft metal material that covers the scabbard mouth opening the reason for that piece being there is that the horn as well as copper gold or silver don't slice as readily as soft wood does and therefore protect the samurai with a sword bearer's hand upon a drawcup so [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Music] well that was a very labor intensive and fun build make sure to check out funimation for all your latest anime episodes and updates check out the link below if you enjoyed that build as much as i did be sure to give the video a thumbs up and as always we ask you to consider subscribing to this channel that works and don't forget watch demon slayer and other anime sub and dub only on funimation by clicking the link in the description below

Channel: That Works

Views: 8,777,784

Rating: 4.9426594 out of 5

Keywords: Tanjiro, katana, demon slayer, making tanjiro's katana, nichirin blade, making a katana, katana documentary, anime sword, ilya alekseyev, forged in fire champion, man at arms reforged

Id: V7swQ2qWJPE

Length: 31min 11sec (1871 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 13 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/BurntCake24]

Cool katana