There’s something about forging a sword that’s deeply satisfying. The banging of the red-hot steel with hammers. The hissing of steam as the steel’s cooled in a pool of water. Grinding the blade down so it’s razor sharp and deft at slicing and stabbing. It’s all deeply gratifying to our inner smithies. Which is exactly why you should watch this glorious video of a rusty chain link being forged into a katana.
Pakistani bladesmith and YouTuber, Random Hands, posted the above chain-into-weapon transformation. Random Hands, who’s made countless other forging videos like this one, says this katana turned out perfectly. He notes in the video’s description that it was a difficult build, however. And that forming the blade alone took three days.
In the video, Random Hands shows every step of the forging process, beginning with his taking a link from a giant, rusty iron chain; one that looks like it may have belonged to a Navy vessel. Or perhaps King Kong’s boat coming over from Skull Island. (We all knew that wasn’t going to end well.)
After hammering the link into a strip of steel—the transformation from iron to steel takes place in the blast furnace—the bladesmith clips it into the iconic katana shape. (You know, the shape that’s juuuuust right for killing zombies ad infinitum.) Random Hands then also shows he crafts the sword’s wood handle, its guard piece (or tsuba), and its blade collar.
Approximately 13 minutes into the video, the bladesmith assembles the katana, and the final product is incredible. All the pieces do indeed fit together perfectly, and Random Hands even offers a brief cutting demonstration using a few soda bottles. And while we’re not sure if this smithy YouTuber actually sells his swords, we’re certainly now in the mood to wield a blade and roam the countryside as a lone samurai. Or at least watch some Yasuke.
Random Hands
Feature image: Random Hands