Master descends to earth

Chapter 51

The next day, after three poles in the sun, Su Yuan got up and basically returned to normal. He took a hot bath, woke up Xu Kui, and began to eat.

"What are we doing today?" Yagyu Huimei watched Su Yuan finish her carefully prepared breakfast, and asked curiously, "One more day off?"

Su Yuan shook his head and said with a smile: "Strike while the iron is hot, you guys have a rest today, I'm going to open the spine of the sword!"

Xu Kui and Liu Sheng Huimei looked at each other and became excited again. After yesterday's personal experience, he has seen Su Yuan's unfathomable level of sword casting. Rest?
What a waste of life!

After eating and drinking, Su Yuan came to the backyard, took out the sword embryo, and observed it carefully. Although it was golden in his eyes, it was a bit scattered, as if it was running around without thinking.

"It should be the reason why the sword spine was not opened!"

A thought flashed in Su Yuan's mind, the so-called sword spine is the spine of the sword, which can enhance the strength of the sword body, and can also adjust the weight distribution of the sword body to make it even.

There are single ridges, double ridges or three ridges, so swords are also divided into four-sided swords, six-sided swords, and eight-sided swords.During production, the sword spine should be straight and the blades should be symmetrical on both sides to maintain the balance of the sword. The most difficult thing to master is the grinding of the sword spine.

During the Han and Tang Dynasties, steel swords basically replaced bronze swords, and knives gradually replaced swords on the battlefield; steel swords were mostly forged, and the style of the sword was mostly inherited from the bronze swords from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty to the pre-Qin Dynasty, with a long and narrow blade and a flat stem with folded shoulders.Only the sword spine is different, the sword spine is slightly thicker.The early Han swords were mostly eight-sided and six-sided, while the mid-term swords had four sides with small convex edges.

In the later stages of development, the shape of the sword spine became more concise. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, swords mostly had two types: ridged spine and rounded spine. Many of them had single or double health slots on the sword body to increase the lethality.

Generally speaking, thick-ridged swords are usually edged close to the edge of the sword body to enhance the firmness when cutting, while thin-ridged swords are mostly edged by grinding directly from the spine to the edge of the sword body to make the blade sharper. Sharper to improve the cutting performance of the sword.

It is like the backbone of a person, supporting the weight of the whole body, standing upright with the head held high, standing proudly between the heaven and the earth.

"These are whetstones just delivered, and I often use them to polish." Emi Yagyu took out a large bag of black stones brought in by air, square and square, with a delicate and smooth feel.

Su Yuan took it, sprinkled it with water, it was instantly absorbed, and nodded secretly. It is indeed a high-end product worth two thousand dollars, a whetstone specially used for local tyrants.

According to Emi Yagyu's introduction, sword casting has a high status in the island country, and an industrial chain has been formed. From the initial iron ore collection to the final decoration of the scabbard, there are special masters in charge, and the top works are of great value.

In the book "Yan Shu Shi", which records the rituals and systems in the palace in the early Heian Dynasty, it specifically describes the production method of the bird-mounted horizontal sword. You can see the general form of the grinding process at that time, deer grinding, burning and grinding, fine grinding and Ying's various processes.

Regarding these processes, Shui Xinzi Masahide, a swordsmith at the end of the Bakura, explained in his book "The Secret Biography of Sword Craftsman" that: deer stones are barren stones. Burning and grinding are equivalent to common temple-type stones. The latter two are used in modern grinding. There is no corresponding process in the craft, which is roughly equivalent to the middle part of Shishangken.

"Integral grinding is an untold secret, a skill that only true masters can master." Emi Yagyu explained: "Especially wiping this step can make the blade emit a color like the cloudless sky in autumn, while the ground texture It has a bluish-black color to it.”

"This is the legendary sky blue and earth black, which represents the way of yin and yang in the world, and is a supreme treasure!"

After speaking, he picked up a whetstone and said, "Master, please look, this is a diamond whetstone with rough grains, used for large-area rusted swords."

"This is Bishui stone, produced in Amakusa, Kumamoto Prefecture. It is yellow-white in color, with a fineness of about 400. The stone is medium-hard and has medium cutting ability."

"Corrected stones produced in Yamagata Prefecture are brown in color with a fineness of about 600. The stone is hard and the cutting ability is medium."

"Nakakura stones are produced in Minamishitara County, Aichi Prefecture. The color is yellow and white mixed, the fineness is 800-1200, the stone is hard, and the cutting ability is medium."

"There is also the ground stone, which is cut from the Mingtaki stone produced in the Kyoto area. It is yellow and gray-green, and has a hard texture. It is specially used for sharpening knives..."

Xu Kui looked at seven or eight kinds of whetstones, scratched his head and said, "You guys are hypocritical, why is it so troublesome to sharpen a knife?"

Liu Shenghui gave a silly look, and said dissatisfied: "This is a sacred thing, of course we must take it seriously. If it wasn't for the tight schedule, I would fly back to China and find the best for Master..."

Su Yuan waved his hand, looked at it once, it was basically enough, and asked curiously, "How do you polish it?"

Emi Yagyu quickly stood up, took out a whole set of tools, knelt down, and demonstrated: "First put the whetstone on a thick wooden block. The wooden block has a groove that can stop the whetstone from sliding."

"The grinder takes a kneeling position, stepping on the bent wood with his left foot to press the whetstone tightly. The thick wooden block is inclined at 35 degrees, and the grinding will only grind half of the whetstone. In this way, if the whetstone is changed back and forth, the middle will not be concave. It is also one of the criteria for evaluating a grinder's skills."

"Sword grinding can be divided into Shigamiken and Shishangken. Shigamiken is the basic shaping and grinding of swords with whetstones, and Shishangken is the process of finely grinding swords to further beautify the blade."

"The best master is Myo, the ancestor of the Honami family. His craftsmanship has been passed down for thousands of years during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. His family has served the Ashikaga, Toyotomi, and Tokugawa families for generations, and has carried out samurai sword grinding and appraisal work. Now Honami Koetsu is the most famous."

Emi Yagyu took out a samurai sword and demonstrated it attentively. First, she polished the sword body with a diamond whetstone, about 180-220 mesh.Then prepare the water stone, grind the shape of the blade, 400-600 mesh.

Then use the correction stone (900 mesh), the middle name warehouse stone (1200 mesh), and the fine name warehouse stone (1500 mesh) for rough grinding, and slowly trim the sword spine.

The last is Nai Tanto, which is very famous. It is divided into the blade and the ground, which grind the blade and the ground respectively.The natural whetstone produced near Kyoto can show ground texture and subtle texture changes, about 4000-6000 mesh.

"This is Yanyan!" Yagyu Emi held down a small piece of Nai Tanto with her fingers, and grinded it on the blade until it felt smooth.He explained: "Use about 10-20 pieces of Mingtaki Toshi, cut into small pieces and rub them with your fingers, so that the subtle changes of the knife can be revealed."

"Wipe, mix the oxide skin powder that appeared during the forging process of the knife with oil to form a black paste, and wipe it back and forth on the knife body with cotton. The fine powder will seep into the knife body, and the knife will appear black. Bright luster. And the ground muscles will become clear..."

"Finally, cut the whetstone used in the blade-brightening process into discs, and the blade grain will emerge when the blade grain is rubbed. The blade grain part seen from the side is whitish. This process can show the personality and characteristics of the knife sharpening craftsman... ..."

After a complete set of craftsmanship, Xu Kui was stunned. Thinking that he only used a few stones to polish each time, he secretly said: He is worthy of being a little devil.

What a pervert!
(End of this chapter)