samurai swords
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The samurai sword, which is forged from, heated metal by skilled artisans, these weapons of destruction brought honor to the warrior that carried it. The samurai sword was thought to have powers and lives of their own, and as a result of this a strict code of etiquette was developed for handling and maintaining the sword. Samurai's even often gave names to their swords believing that their sword was the soul of their warrior ship.
The oldest swords were straight and their early design in Korea and China. The samurai's desire for tougher, and sharper swords for battle gave rise to the curved blade, which is still around today. Before forging of samurai blades could begin, the sword smiths underwent fasting and ritual purification. The sword smiths worked at their anvils wearing white robes much like the robes of high priests.
To make super sharp and strong blades the sword smiths had to over come one obstacle. Sword smiths could make steel very hard which would hold a sharp edge for long periods of time, but this came with a down side. Very hard swords where also very brittle and it was common to have your sword break during a battle...