To see the blade construction of a
Japanese sword is not always easy. One way to understand the terminology is
to look at cross sections of the blades. The drawings below assume perfect
construction and this is never true. The layers can migrate into each other
and show through when polished many times. An example would be Hizen Blades
that are a two piece construction. When the layers are not perfectly even
the thickness from the skin into the inner layer can be different on both
sides. In general the higher quality swords have a more complicated
construction.
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