Samurai Swords

Samurai Swords

Samurai swords are often shown in films slashing through solid stone statues, thivk beams of wood, etc?

What is the densist material a weapon like this could realistically cut through in the right hands? LInks appreciated.

A samurai sword is an extraordinary feet of metalurgy. Basically they are made to cut like a razor and still be flexible enough to resist impact damage(bending or breaking). The technique of making such a blade is very complex and basically involves different sheets of steel being folded and welded onto one another(a sword generally contains between 120-200 folds) then they are differentially hardened through the use of a clay treatment this means that the edge is very hard but also brittle and the back is very soft but resistant: hard steel has the advantage of being able to be sharpened razor sharp but it is brittle soft steel hardly holds an edge but is very flexible. This way the Japanese developed a weapon that has the best of both ways. However one must take in to consideration that no matter how sharp the fact that the blade is farely slim in design does not make it as suitable for hard chopping as for example a european broad sword. I have been able to cut of some not too thick branches 1-2 inches of an oak tree near my house without any damage to my katana. And cutting practice with these swords is usually done with bamboo(though light a very hard material) and in the olden days a samurai had to be able to cut off someones head in one blow with their sword. I believe thats about as heavy duty as you will get out of a katana it is more of a cutting weapon.

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Aikido Weapons Techniques : Aikido Samurai Swords