That is one bloody myth! Human blood is bad for metal. Blood is like seawater to metals. It makes the metal prone to oxidation, which gives you rust among other things. Why do think kenjutsu has a technique for "flicking" away the blood spatter from the weapon? I've heard of the sword being tested on bodies, but I remember that it was used on corpses. The sword is cut through several dead bodies to test the sharpness and toughness of the blade. I have doubts about this because getting unmolested corpses in any day and age is impractical (ghoulish too).
all the sword styles i can think of (based off the samurai sword that is) involve the motion to clean the blood from the sword. part of is u dont really want to get the guts and crap inside ur scabbard
There is a video on ebay right now that goes through the whole process. I have seen this video elsewhere as well. dwj
What you have been told is not surprising, since the Japanese have a penchant for having a ceremony on almost anything. Japanese sword making techniques have a lot of myths attached to it, which is usually the fault of popular media. You may have been told this by a professor, but the fact is, such testing techniques are extremely impractical for the following reaons: 1. The swordsmith would have to live in an area near condemned prisoners or corpses. 2. There would have to be a lot of bodies to test one sword. (Where would they get the bodies? From peasants? ) It is also funny to think that the remarks made to you by this professor (whether true or not) reflects the brutality of the Japanese. One reason why I do not believe in samurai practice practice their bushido (but that is for another thread).
He seems to really know his stuff, i mean, he was born and raised in japan. Unless his "japanese" senseis lied to him or something. You'd think a japanese would know more about japanese. I dont think they would have these types of info publicized.
If you would quote an article or maybe even a name for this japanese professor maybe it would raise the credibility of what your claiming. Incredible claims require incredible evidence... Incidentally, I heard the Irish ate the hearts of any prisoners they captured back in the 16th Century and no you wont find any information about this in any history books or any other books for that matter because we hardly want that kind of information publicised. But I am Irish and I mean you would think an "Irish" person should know more about the Irish than anyone else... oh yeah and if you ask other Irish people they wont have heard of this because its only because my mates dad is from the "Mc Murphy" Clan that I have this information. (Sorry about the sarcasm)
There is a difference of just being Irish and knowing. He is raised in Japan and studied thoroughly to become a professor of Japanese. I dont think you can find what he teaches in textbooks or internet. A lot of professors that i have been taught by in college is from their personal experience rather than sources. It's hard for people to believe, when i just post on a forum, rather than you meet the guy in person and he tells you about it. From what I've been taught, he knows more about japanese than anyone I can think of.
Well in fairness he only seems to know more about 'japanese' than anyone else because you believe what he says above everyone else despite the fact that there seems to be no other corroborating evidence for what he says from any historical studies or for that matter from any other Japanese people... And incidentally what do you mean a professor of 'Japanese'? What exactly does he teach? What university does he teach at? Has he written any books? Is he respected by any other 'Japanese' professors? Answers to some of those questions might make what your saying verifiable- but as it is, it sounds like someone is making up fanciful tales and your eating up... maybe thats not how it is but Im just saying thats how it seems. (Oh and if you could even provide a web link that would be satisfactory, it doesnt even matter if its in Japanese...)
He was a professor at CSU Chico for 20 years, 1970-1990. My new Japanese Professor Kimihiko Nomura, started teaching in Chico in 1991, so they never met. I'm not exactly sure if he has written any books, but I'll check when i see him next week. When he was in Chico, he taught Martial Arts, Japanese History, and Japanese.
This is very amusing. Anybody experienced in metal work will tell you the effects of blood on metal. That's why it is not strange to see those samurai clean their swords in films. This is not just because it is their "soul," it is also to care for an invaluable tool of war. I watched a show about making katanas in National Geographic a while ago. There was nothing in there about killing people to temper a sword. The people interviewed were those who have ben in business of making swords for several generations. Your "professor" is feeding you a line.
But wait even if blood was good for swords. Don't you want to keep them blood free til you need to. There's always the myth of if a sword that has killed is used for testing it gets bloodthristy and tries to kill the student.
That's ridiculous. Long before James L. Acord became involved with nuclear science, he worked for a period as a jeweller. He had long had an interest in alchemical practices - was familiar with the writings, not only of Frazer, but of Paracelsus and the sixteenth century metallurgist Vannoccio Biringuccio - and making jewellery gave him an opportunity to incorporate some of them into his own work. Some of these turned of these turn out to have a sound scientific basis. For example, certain alchemical rituals call for the use of blood or semen to 'inoculate' metals when making an alloy: 'You know when you read Beowulf and the Icelandic sagas they talk about the hero's blood-quenched sword, and everybody thought poetic license, right? Blood's extremely rich in nitrogen. And we now purposely dissolve nitrogen in water when we quench steels to make them harder than they would be when they were quenched in brine and pure water. A blood quenched sword is a stronger sword - it's nitrogen quenching.' Modern industrial alloying makes good use of chemical inoculates which are added to the moulds just before the ductile metal is poured in. As it vaporises, it imparts information to the metal which instructs the crystals on the way in which they should arrange themselves as they cool.
Even if blood is nitrogen-rich, it is also oxygen and iron-rich (plus the usual mix of water, zinc, magnesium...). When iron oxidizes it becomes rust. This is why blood-quenching is not used as an actual tempering method. Also, the blood-quenched swords in beowulf does not refer to anything about sword making. It is just used to describe the violence of the time. If a hero has to kill a man (or monster) one after the other to live then you could say his sword would have some "quenching" to do. Brine contains nitrates as well as salts that is better for hard-quenching than blood.
I forgot to mention, i quoted this from some website. But that was the only thing i found that is pro on blood-quenching. Like that quote said, it is Beowolf "icelandic saga". To an extent, it does. The iron in our blood is used to carry oxygen from our lungs to the other tissues of the body. To do this, each iron atom is bound to a large, multiringed molecule to form heme. Each heme is, in turn, bound to a subunit of a protein called hemoglobin. There are four of these subunits per hemoglobin protein, so each whole hemoglobin contains four bound iron atoms that allow it to carry four oxygen molecules. In order to bind the heme ring and still have electrons available to bind oxygen, the iron atoms must be oxidized to Fe(II), or ferrous, atoms. That is, the iron in our blood is not metallic iron, but is already oxidized ("rusted") before it even sees oxygen. As it binds oxygen in the lungs, the ferrous iron atom donates an electron and becomes a Fe(III), or ferric, atom.
You make some interesting points but you seem to have neglected the iron (or steel) of the sword itself. Using blood as tempering medium means that you are giving more oppurtunity for the corruption of the sword's heat treatment. I don't think there is anymore cold treatment for the weapon and "washing" it in blood is unlikely to have beneficial effects. Besides, even if blood is used for metal treatment while the sword is hot, the purity of the metal would be compromised. Blood sticks, unlike water, oil or brine. When blood is used as quench, you cannot be sure of the quality of your steel anymore. And if what another post here says is true about the quality of Japanese iron (poor), would you think this is practical for the smith who spent hours (maybe even days), hammering and folidng the metal? The main problem I have with the internet is that it so easy to make a website, put anything on it and pass it off as truth. Nitrogen quenching may be good, but the nitrogen in blood is hardly worth it.
Have you tried it? Well you seem to know the effect of blood quenching so well, i have never heard of any refutations in any sources, besides from other people. I personally never tried it myself, but it sounds interesting. Even though it may sound hokey pokey, there is really nothing to disprove it in any grounds.
