Created
by master smiths at the Dalian, Hanwei forge of Chen Chao-po
(Paul Chen), the Orchid Katana (1207-GT) is a superb authentic
katana. The folded steel blades are made from imported
Swiss steel and even though they are highly polished,
the nearly 1,000 folds it takes to make this blade are
visible. Like most of the Hanwei Swords, the Orchid is
Forged in the maru-gitae style, using the traditional
clay process dating from 700 AD, producing a hard cutting
edge (60 RC) while maintaining the body of the folded
steel blade at 40 RC hardness for resilience and shock
absorption.
The
blade's temper line (o-midari, meaning "turbulent
sea") is one of the most beautiful and important
features of the Japanese sword; many "temper lines"
are simply etched or ground into a blade and have no functional
value but a true temper line indicates that the edge has
been independently hardened in the traditional manner.
A sure way of checking the authenticity of a temper line
is firstly to check if the "waves" are spaced
in an exactly uniform pattern (the spacing in a true temper
line will be slightly irregular) and then to verify that
the pattern is "mirrored" on each side of the
blade, signifying that the edge is hardened through the
blade, rather than just at the surface. The iron tsuba
(guard) is a finely rendered silver inlaid Orchid with
brass leaves. The tsuka (grip) is genuine top grade ray
skin covered wood, attached securely to the nakago (tang)
with bamboo pegs. The tsuka-ito (grip wrapping) is Japanese
premium cotton cord wrapped very tightly in the traditional
pattern to display the ray skin and the menuki.
Other authentic details of the Orchid Folded Blade Katana
include a traditional Blue lacquer finished wood saya
(scabbard) with a buffalo horn kojori (end cap), koi-guchi
(throat cap) and kuri-gata (wrapping cord eyelet). The
Matching Wakizashi (1208-GT) and Tanto (1209-GT) are made
using the same traditional methods used for the Orchid
Katana.
