Australian blade 4th edition

the rare exception of a small
With
of Swedish cutlery steel, the
amount
commonly used steel for
most
high-performance knives in
forging
come from Hitachi Metal
Japan
in Yasugi, Shimane, Japan.
Works
the handful of products Hitachi
Of
known for, the two types of steel
is
frequently encountered are
most
steel and Blue steel. How
White
two steels came to be named
these
steeped in a bit of folklore, for
is
long-time employees at
even
will tell you slightly
Hitachi
versions of the story. The
different
explanation being that
simple
of the newly smelted steel
bundles
wrapped with either blue or
were
paper labelling to identify
white
I personally don’t think it
them.
that white steel, free
coincidence
alloys and perhaps the
from
factory steel in the world in
cleanest
of included phosphorus and
terms
is named the color
sulphur,
with sacred ritual and
associated
Japanese just love their snow-white rice, white bread and white clothing for swordsmiths and the
The
The naming of blue steel is a bit more of a mystery, and even adding to the confusion is the fact
like.
the word for blue in Japanese “ao”, is also the word for green! Whatever the original intent, to be
that
Hitachi white and blue steels are the envy of the cutlery industry.
sure,
White Steel, Blue Steel,
Hot Steel, Cold Steel!
Murray Carter
purity.