The Daimyo Tamahagane blades are made using high-carbon Tamahagane iron sand, the traditional ingredient of the true Japanese sword. This sets our swords apart, as it is very rare for blades to be made outside Japan with this material. By sourcing our Tamahagane from China, we can create a superior product at a fair price. The iron sand, through a low-temperature smelting process, combines with carbon to form fairly crude high-carbon ore. The resulting material is broken into smaller pieces that are sorted by carbon content. As much as half of the extracted material contains insufficient carbon for sword-making.

Through the process of breaking and combining high- and low-carbon pieces during forging, Tamahagane becomes malleable, allowing the smith to hand-forge a blade that absorbs shock while maintaining an excellent edge. This Hada shows as an even grain in the blade's exquisitely refined surface and the clay-tempered Hamon contrasted through a careful hand-polish on Japanese stones. The steel is forge-folded 8 to 12 times, depending on how the raw steel reacts to each fold. The close adherence to a traditional esthetic, in both the blade and the fittings, is typical of Dynasty Forge's mission. All Tamahagane blades undergo the traditional clay-tempering process. The resulting white Hamon lends the steel another layer of intricacy. Each Tamahagane blade is hand-polished on imported Japanese stones. Through a process that takes over 60 hours, the blade geometry is refined and the surface brought to a fine luster. Using twelve different grades of stones, the Hada is revealed. Our work most commonly displays Hada in the Itame, Mokume and Ayasugi styles. The Hada is subtle rather than ostentatious, with a more organic feel compared to modern forge-folded methods. The Hamon is finished in the Hadori style, where the polisher uses Hazuya stones to accentuate the contrast against the Ji.