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  and Tanto  are made using the same traditional methods used for the Orchid Katana. The sword comes complete with sword bag.

 

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