Correlation between weight and school, period or smith

[Christophe]

Stupide question :

During the cleaning of the swords that I own, I'm wondering if there was a correlation between the weight of the blade and the school, the period it has been made or perhaps the smith or if it's only the type of blade we must take into account

There is a size classification, but I have found nothing about weight on internet.

Thanks in advance.

Christophe

[nagamaki - Franco]

Skip the weight and go straight to shape, which if done correctly gets you to period, and from there follow remaining kantei steps to solve the puzzle.

[b.hennick]

Weight varies with too many factors to be a significant consideration. Length, width, point size, polishes, suriage vs ubu and so on. Having said that some smiths do make more substantial blades. Tadakuni the Hizen smith made "heavier" blades than all the other Hizen smiths that I have seen. There is a wakizashi by him that I own that was written up in the JSSUS Newsletter that mentions that this blade is heavier than most katana. The katana I have by him is heavier still.

[Lingonberry]

I think I read somewhere that many gentaito tend to have a heavy "meat cleaver" feel to them. I believe it was in a thread or website discussing the use of nihonto for tameshigiri. Someone was saying it is better to stick with WW2 at the absolute oldest blade one would want to use for cutting but with the caveat that they tend to be rather blade heavy and feel like meat cleavers compared to some older swords.

[cabowen]

Whether from design or polish, most older swords have a marked narrowing from moto-haba to saki-haba whereas the blades made during WWII show much less narrowing and most of today's shinsakuto and iaito show even less. This adds weight to the tip of the blade and gives them the "meat cleaver" look and feel. Many of those that I have talked to that practice tameshigiri like the wide, thin blades as they tell me they cut well through tatami, etc.

[Lingonberry]

In hindsight, saying the newer swords handle like "meat cleavers" wasn't the best choice of words.

 

I wonder what is is about the wider blades cutting more easily. This is probably a terrible analogy, but I'm imagining the difference between something like a hacksaw and a regular hand saw. The hacksaw has a narrower blade which allows the user to cut curves and so on whereas the hand saw is fairly wide and can only cut in a straight line (more or less). The wide hand saw blade prevents it from turning or changing the "angle of attack" while cutting. I imagine a wider sword would similarly resist turning during the cut and make it a bit easier to keep the cut nice and straight, thus making the cut in general a bit easier. Of course, I've never actually done tameshigiri so I could be dead wrong.

 

In general, though, I imagine they are also much better able to resist the shock or impact of hitting something than an older blade with a narrower monouchi.

[cabowen]

The wide, narrow blade has a shallower edge angle-less blunt, which may make it cut soft targets better....

[Lingonberry]

That certainly makes more sense than what I was thinking! :lol:

[ROKUJURO]

The wide, narrow blade has a shallower edge angle.......

Chris,

 

just a question for better understanding as I am not a native English speaker: Would'nt a 'wide, thin blade' be more appropriate?

[cabowen]

Chris,

 

just a question for better understanding as I am not a native English speaker: Would'nt a 'wide, thin blade' be more appropriate?

 

 

Hahaha, yes! Shame on me!