So Tera and I were discussing about Japanese swords and we got into the topic of sword material. The only thing he knew was folded steel was the best and the crappy stuff they sell everywhere nowadays is made of stainless steel (which looks prettier, but is pretty impractical). Not knowing what my wakazashi (or wakizashi) is made of, I went over to Cold Steel and turns out it is made with 1050 High Carbon Steel. I have no idea what that is and neither does Tera.

According to Wikipedia, Carbon Steel is a metal alloy, a combination of two elements, iron and carbon, where other elements are present in quantities too small to affect the properties. Steel with a low carbon content has the same properties as iron, soft but easily formed. As carbon content rises the metal becomes harder and stronger but less ductile.

According to What’s the difference in Sword Materials?:

High Carbon Steel / High Carbon Spring Steel – Basically a plain carbon steel, it’s also known as “Spring Steel” or “Live Steel”. Commonly made of recycled 5160, 1065, 1050, CK55 or any low alloy or plain carbon steel. If the steel is not properly heat-treated when re-smelted it will retain memory of its previous shape and be more likely to break. Most issues of quality can be found originating in India, the Philippines or in Malaysia. These materials will require oiling to prevent rusting and it’s a good idea to keep swords out of scabbards to avoid damage from moisture and corrosion from the chemicals in the leather.

From Japanese Samurai Swords Buying Guide:

The next thing to consider when choosing a sword is the type of steel that the blade is made of. There are basically 3 types of steel, 420 J2 (Stainless steel), High Carbon, and Folded steel. If you are looking for a battle ready sword you’ll want to stay away from the 420 J2 Stainless. High carbon steel is very high quality steel however folded steel is the strongest. Actually it’s not that the folded steel is a different type of steel, but how the blade is forged.

A folded steel blade is typically made from high carbon steel. The difference is that a folded steel blade is just like it says the steel is folded over and over again until the smith believes that it is adequate.

Some people say that a good high carbon steel blade can be just as strong as a folded steel blade. The smiths for the Thaitsuki Nihonto Swords claim to have mastered a form of forging high carbon steel blades that is just as strong if not stronger than many of the folded steel blades.

From Cold Steel’s FAQ:

Q: Why is Carbon V® steel better than others?

Some Cold Steel knives are made from Carbon V®, a high carbon, low alloy cutlery grade steel. This steel is superior in performance to most other steels due to its chemistry and also because of the close controls that we maintain at every stage of the manufacturing process. These controls begin at the steel mill where Cold Steel specifies the desired microstructure of the steel. Once smelted, each steel shipment is microscopically checked for structural quality, cleanliness and chemical content by an independent metallurgist not in the mill’s employ. The blades are then blanked parallel to the rolling direction of the steel plate to optimize grain flow along the length of the blade. The final step is a precise heat treatment sequence that was developed by Cold Steel specifically for this custom steel. This heat treatment process is one of our most highly guarded trade secrets. It was arrived at over several years by using an exhaustive series of practical and metallurgical tests and observations. Overall, we believe that attention to detail in every phase of the manufacturing process is the primary reason for the superiority of our blades.

THIS JUST GOT A LOT MORE INTERESTING…

According to Wikipedia’s entry on steel:

Steel is a metal alloy whose major component is iron, with carbon being the primary alloying material. Carbon acts as a hardening agent, preventing iron atoms, which are naturally arranged in a crystal lattice, from sliding past one another (dislocation). Varying the amount of carbon and its distribution in the alloy controls qualities such as the hardness, elasticity, ductility, and tensile strength of the resulting steel. Steel with increased carbon content can be made harder and stronger than iron, but is also more brittle. One classical definition is that steels are iron–carbon alloys with up to 2.1 percent carbon by weight; alloys with higher carbon content than this are known as cast iron. Steel is also to be distinguished from wrought iron with little or no carbon. It is common talk today to talk about ‘the iron and steel industry’ as if it were a single thing; it is today, but historically they were separate products.

In other words, what makes steel different from iron is the carbon. I never knew that! I thought steel was just refined iron.

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Random Crap:

Computerised judge keeps dancers on their toes (from /.) – The system, aptly named Dance Dance Dance (DDD), displays dance positions on a screen in front of a person, for them to follow in time to music. It awards points after assessing their ability to correctly mimic each silhouetted shape. Check out the video of the game in action.

I was watching xxxHOLiC and several things connected regarding the pinky. So there’s the pinky promise where 2 kids would make a promise to each other by entwining their pinkies. Then there’s the red string of fate, familiar in Asian cultures where 2 lovers are connected by the red string of fate. Although the Wikipedia states it’s a Japanese belief, many Chinese folktales also have this tidbit in it.

Apparently, these seemingly unrelated things are totally connected. Apparently the pinky is connected to your heart, therefore love and promises are connected to your pinky.

Doumeki: Since your heart is connected to your little finger, the red string of fate is also tied to it. By the way, during the Edo Period, there was even a custom where the ladies of the time would cut off their right little fingers, and give them to the person they liked. It was proof that they wouldn’t betray the one they loved. The Pinky Promise song also comes from that custom.

Yuuko: It might exist. But, you can’t guarantee that the string is tied to only one person. (contrary from what I’ve always believed, I had always thought there was only 1 red thread and the person connected to it would be your soul mate)

So the pinky was a promise for eternal love between 2 people. However, as it slowly changed, it became a gestured used by kids to refer to any promise they make.

From Wikipedia entry on the little finger: A pinky promise (also known as a pinky swear) is made when a person wraps one of their pinky fingers around the other person’s pinky and makes a promise. Traditionally, it’s considered binding and the idea was originally that the person who breaks the promise must cut off their pinky finger. In a similar vein, among members of the Japanese yakuza (gangsters), the penalty for various offenses is removal of parts of the little finger (known as yubitsume).

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Random Crap:

Click image to start the animation or view it in the gallery.
(from Tera)

Oddball: The pain game (from MS newsgroup) – The No. 261 reason Japanese television is better than ours: when you mess up a tongue-twister on a Japanese game show the punishment is swift and brutal. Yet another crazy video from Hey Hey Hey.

Doctors offer to maim beggars in TV sting – Secretly filmed footage taken by the CNN-IBN news channel and broadcast Saturday showed one of the doctors asking for 10,000 rupees (about $215) to amputate a lower leg, leaving a stump that may draw sympathy — and a few rupees — from passersby.

Magic Revolution (from Artemyst) – I showed you a video with the magic hamburger awhile back. Apparently this guy has another similar magic trick on video. This time instead of a hamburger, he produces ice coffee! Pretty neat!

I was watching Your Safety First from Vintage ToonCast and somewhere along the line, they said how we used to drive on the other side. This peaked my interest and I searched for more information.

From Why do some countries drive on the right and others on the left?

About a quarter of the world drives on the left, and the countries that do are mostly old British colonies. This strange quirk perplexes the rest of the world; but there is a perfectly good reason.

In the past, almost everybody travelled on the left side of the road because that was the most sensible option for feudal, violent societies. Since most people are right-handed, swordsmen preferred to keep to the left in order to have their right arm nearer to an opponent and their scabbard further from him. Moreover, it reduced the chance of the scabbard (worn on the left) hitting other people.

Furthermore, a right-handed person finds it easier to mount a horse from the left side of the horse, and it would be very difficult to do otherwise if wearing a sword (which would be worn on the left). It is safer to mount and dismount towards the side of the road, rather than in the middle of traffic, so if one mounts on the left, then the horse should be ridden on the left side of the road.

In the late 1700s, however, teamsters in France and the United States began hauling farm products in big wagons pulled by several pairs of horses. These wagons had no driver’s seat; instead the driver sat on the left rear horse, so he could keep his right arm free to lash the team. Since he was sitting on the left, he naturally wanted everybody to pass on the left so he could look down and make sure he kept clear of the oncoming wagon’s wheels. Therefore he kept to the right side of the road.

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Random Crap:

Hundreds expected to come to Masturbate-a-thon – Hundreds of Britons are being urged to attend what is being branded as Europe’s first “Masturbate-a-thon”, a leading reproductive healthcare charity said on Friday.

Apparently Sylvester Stalone must be running low on money. He’s making another Rocky movie which features him as an old guy trying to come back to fight against the reigning champion of today. What the heck is that storyline!?!? Then there’s Rambo IV…

ImReallySad.com (from Esca) – At first, I thought these were suppose to be pictures of sad animals. But it’s really pictures of cute animals to cheer you up when you’re sad.

Ah, this should certainly put him in the mood… – Police in the German city of Aachen received an unusual call for help late Wednesday when a woman telephoned to complain her husband was not fulfilling his sexual obligations.

Police offered prizes for most tickets – Charlotte-Mecklenburg police supervisors offered prizes to officers who wrote the most traffic tickets during an eight-day period over the July Fourth holiday.

So CDMCC tells me that IKEA owns a charity that is even bigger than Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. I search for it online and find an article on the Economist: IKEA – Flat-pack accounting. Of course it must’ve been in the Econimist, this is CDMCC. He reads movie reviews from the Economist.

Anyway, the article is a very interesting read on how the entire IKEA business is setup and how they move money around to avoid taxation.

It’s sickening actually, that because of different charity foundation laws in different countires, IKEA has found a loophole to do the following:

IKEA says only that this money is used for charitable purposes and “for investing long-term in order to build a reserve for securing the IKEA group, in case of any future capital requirements.” IKEA adds that in the past two years donations have been concentrated on the Lund Institute of Technology in Sweden. The Lund Institute says it has recently received SKr12.5m ($1.7m) a year from Stichting Ikea (which also gave the institute a lump sum of SKr55m in the late 1990s). That is barely a rounding error in the foundation’s assets. Clearly, the world of interior design is being tragically deprived, as the foundation devotes itself to building its own reserves in case IKEA needs capital.