Musashi "Tora" (Tiger) Katana

From the Musashi Platinum Series comes this intricately hand crafted “Tora” Katana. By using Gomai-kitae hand forged technique and combining 1060 and 1095 high carbon steel, the Tora blade is a beautiful and resilient blade with a unique Gunome style hamon pattern. With Gomai-kitae the blade is compose of 3 main layers, in the center is the hard steel, a medium strength steel is the wrapped around the center, and finally another hard steel layer wraps it all together making the Tora Katana both strong and flexible. Gomai-kitae is a method of forging using five layers of steel which consists of two outer layers, hagane and shingane which are forged around a base hagane or kawagane core. The results are cross section of five layers of high carbon steel. The detailed iron tsuba depicts a samurai warrior fighting a Tora (Tiger), in the wilderness. With gold accent colors around the tsuba it is really a work of art. The wood handle is real ray skin wrapped in traditional black cotton cord.