STEEL TYPES THAT WILL FIT YOU NEEDS
A. Low Carbon Steels: Common low carbon steel is a kind of "soft material", Hardness and flexibility are both low comparing with other materials. A blade made from this material is suitable for decorated, tatami mats cutting practice, and it is good to be used as a practice sword for beginner of Dojo. It can't be used to cut bamboos, wood, and other hard things because of the strength, or you will bend it.
B. Folded Steels (Damascus): Folded steel actually is made by forging the low carbon steel many times. 11-13 times fold will make the blade contains 4000-16000 layers. This folded forge will get rid of the impurity of the low carbon steel and make the blade looks charming with fine wavy lines. So this kind of blade is also called Damascus steel. This is a middle class strength blade, suitable for mats cutting, bamboo cutting, but not suitable to cut very hard thing such as bone, iron wire and so on.
C. High Carbon Steels: High carbon steel is also called tool steel in some countries, this is a strong material. A blade made from this material is not only for practice but also cutting. This is a real functional sword and it can cut bamboo, bone, iron wire and so on if the cutting edge are designed into right style.
D. Combined Materials (Blade Lamination/ Multi-steel): This is high class productions and the technology of combining different material is the core of ancient making process. This kind of swords are not only a "sword", they are a kind of "collection" as well. They are the combination of art and craftsmanship.
E. Spring Steels: is generally classified as a low alloy, medium carbon steel or high carbon steel with a very high yield strength. This allows the shaped material to return to their original shape despite significant bending or twisting.
KNIFE EDGE TYPES / GRINDS
