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Yes, Japanese blacksmithing and metal industry is very highly skilled to compensate the poor quality of iron ore available in the region. The "ore" (called Tam

by exDM69 6y ago

Yes, Japanese blacksmithing and metal industry is very highly skilled to compensate the poor quality of iron ore available in the region. The "ore" (called Tamahagane) is sandy/rocky stone material which needs to be forged repeatedly to remove impurities and get a higher carbon content in the steel. Then the forged bars are broken down, pieces sorted by carbon content and forge welded back together. This is a very labor and skill intensive process. There was a really good blacksmithing video in YouTube about making a Katana from Tamahagane. Unfortunately I can't find it now, but my searches come up with many low quality vids on the subject. If you're feeling adventurous, you can buy some Tamahagane sword steel ore from here: https://www.dictum.com/en/steel-cca/japanese-sword-steel-tamahagane-750-1000-g-719608 https://www.dictum.com/en/steel-cca/japanese-sword-steel-tam...

masklinn 6y ago
> The "ore" (called Tamahagane) is sandy/rocky stone material which needs to be forged repeatedly to remove impurities and get a higher carbon content in the steel. FWIW tamagahane is already a steel, made from processing ironsand. Tamahagane is not the raw material. Ironsand is found throughout the world, but outside of the japanese few made actual iron (or steel) out of it historically, because there are usually better sources of iron available. NZ is an other country which is very poor in iron ore but it has a lot of ironsand, some of its beaches are ironsand (which is genuinely dangerous: it heats up quickly and very high in the sun). While the japanese were largely the only historical users of ironsand, I think NZ is the only one which industrially smelts ironsand.
- exDM69 6y ago
  Thanks for clarification! There aren't any iron ore mines in my corner of the world either. The material traditionally used was called "lake ore", which is iron-rich stones collected from lakes that are the result of activity from iron-consuming freshwater bacteria. Some blacksmithing enthusiasts still work with lake ore for a fun challenge.

by exDM69 6y ago

masklinn 6y ago

> The "ore" (called Tamahagane) is sandy/rocky stone material which needs to be forged repeatedly to remove impurities and get a higher carbon content in the steel. FWIW tamagahane is already a steel, made from processing ironsand. Tamahagane is not the raw material. Ironsand is found throughout the world, but outside of the japanese few made actual iron (or steel) out of it historically, because there are usually better sources of iron available. NZ is an other country which is very poor in iron ore but it has a lot of ironsand, some of its beaches are ironsand (which is genuinely dangerous: it heats up quickly and very high in the sun). While the japanese were largely the only historical users of ironsand, I think NZ is the only one which industrially smelts ironsand.

exDM69 6y ago
Thanks for clarification! There aren't any iron ore mines in my corner of the world either. The material traditionally used was called "lake ore", which is iron-rich stones collected from lakes that are the result of activity from iron-consuming freshwater bacteria. Some blacksmithing enthusiasts still work with lake ore for a fun challenge.