-Scraping and polishing to make its surface smooth;
-decoration, such as embedding colored glass and turquoise in the cast pattern groove, or embedding wrong red copper wire, gold wire and silver wire, or even further carving patterns on the device surface. Mosaic was a common decorative craft at that time. It is to cast or carve patterns on the surface of bronzes, then inlay gold, silver and copper wires (or pieces), and polish the surface with staggered stones, showing a vivid image with bright colors and clear lines.
—— Device accessories with swords;
-sharpen the blade.
In this way, the production of bronze sword was finally completed. However, in the process of use, the sword should be tempered from time to time, so there may be a class of craftsmen specializing in this work at that time. In the Han Dynasty, such craftsmen were called "sharpening knives" and their skills were also called "sprinkling". Grinding means grinding; Sprinkling refers to sharpening knives and sprinkling water, and generally refers to repairing swords.
In the Western Han Dynasty, Yuan Ang, a minister, was stabbed and his body was abandoned with a weapon. This is a newly repaired sword. When the government visited the sharpening workers in Chang 'an, a craftsman said: This sword was repaired by a Langguan in Liang Wang. Liang Xiaowang, the mastermind, was discovered.
To sum up, we can summarize the whole process of bronze sword casting with a passage from the great scholar Xunzi at the end of the Warring States Period:
The punishment (type) is gold, skillful work, fire (agent) and sentence termination. However, you can't break the rope without peeling and sharpening; Peel it off, grind it, put a plate on it, and the cows and horses immediately heard it.
Warring States swordsmen once said: white is strong, yellow is tough, yellow and white are strong and tough, and a good sword is also good.
This excellent sword is what we call compound sword today. During the Warring States period, the application of bronze swords reached its peak. In this context, sword casting has been developing and progressing, and some scientific and advanced technologies have appeared, and outstanding achievements have been made, especially the technology of casting compound swords.
The so-called composite sword refers to a bronze sword in which the ridge and blade are cast with bronze alloys with different composition ratios. Its sword ridge is made of bronze alloy with low tin content, which has strong toughness and is not easy to break; The blade is made of bronze alloy with high tin content, which has high hardness and is particularly sharp. Therefore, it is a masterpiece of ancient bronze swords. Its casting method is also different from the general bronze sword. The body of the common sword is cast once, while the composite sword is cast twice: first, the ridge is cast with a special ridge model, and embedded grooves are reserved on both sides of the ridge; Then put the cast ridge in another mold to cast the blade, and the blade and ridge are embedded together to form the whole sword.
From some composite swords detected by metallurgical history researchers, it can be known that the copper content of the sword ridge is higher than that of the general copper sword, but the tin content is lower than that of the general copper sword; On the contrary, the blade has lower copper content and higher tin content than the general copper sword. If the whole sword is made of only the material of ridge or blade, it will be too soft or too rigid and too brittle, but if the ridge and blade are made of it separately, it will get better performance than the general bronze sword. This is a superb technology that creatively uses the composition ratio law of bronze alloy, which shows that the ancient craftsmen have reached a very high level in controlling the composition ratio of bronze sword alloy.
The ridge of the compound sword contains more copper, so it is yellow; The blade contains much tin, so it is white. The ridge and blade of a sword are different colors, just as the fortuneteller said, so some people call it a "two-color sword". Because the surface of this sword looks like the ridge of the sword is inlaid, some people call it "bronze inlaid sword" or "heart inserted sword", which are not scientific names.
The China Dynasty in the Middle Ages made great progress in metallurgy. For example, the ability to produce cast iron far exceeds the European technology in this respect. Another example is the control and management of high-efficiency and large-scale steel production, which made the Tang and Song Dynasties become the main military forces in East Asia.
As most collectors of Asian weapons know, the forging and tempering technology developed in China is the basis for re-understanding Japanese Dao. This technology was first introduced to Japan during the Sui and Tang Dynasties (before 589 AD).
The appreciation of Japanese swords has flourished for centuries and has become the international trend of our time. Today, Japanese blades are collected as works of art, but unfortunately, even in the motherland, the appreciation of the swords made by China's "father" blacksmiths has been lost. Excellent blades are made in China, but in fact, in the imperial era, close combat with sharp blades proved to be the key to victory, which was ignored.
Sadly, even the practitioners who are keen on China Wushu art do not know the history, manufacture and aesthetic tradition of the weapons they practice every day. Not to mention people from other countries. It's difficult to distinguish the beautiful specimens displayed in the Forbidden City, Musedel'Arme in Paris or Moscow Castle from the fakes of "Boxer Winning" or touristic (cheap new imitations of tourist attractions) that are often seen in antique shops or gun exhibitions.
The main reason for this situation is the lack of literature in this field, which affects the understanding of students today. This lack of reference materials is not confined to China. A survey of technical and artistic papers shows that most of the works about steel-edged knives were first published in the 4th century A.D. (giving people a deep impression similar to early bronze weapons). However, 1644 after the demise of the Ming Dynasty, the publication of such works suddenly decreased.
There are different opinions about why the Qing Dynasty, the last dynasty that died in191,lacked reference materials about swords. It is generally accepted that Manchu only accounts for a small proportion of the empire under its rule, and all military works are banned in order to avoid the rebellion of the majority Han Chinese.
In the early Qing Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty Military Encyclopedia and other specific works were censored and restricted. Nevertheless, the investigation of the technical literature in Qing Dynasty shows that a considerable number of works with new themes were created and published during this period. After all, the Qing dynasty still needed its military strength (mainly composed of Han people). The study also shows that the rulers of the Qing Dynasty attached great importance to the effectiveness of the army dominated by ordinary people: for example, the well-known Emperor Kangxi rejected an official's request to disarm the people of Shandong Province.
Interestingly, however, the military works published during the Qing Dynasty still involved fire, guns, cannons and explosive weapons. These articles began in the middle of19th century, when the empire was invaded by rebellion. Even in the modern classical encyclopedia of the Ming Dynasty, Wu Beizhi's Wu Beizhi paid little attention to blade weapons. Why not pay so much attention to the sword as the mainstay of the imperial arsenal? Perhaps it is because the skill of the sword was considered "old-fashioned" at that time. Those who want to master this skill must have copied it in books and won't make any contribution to the new technology.
Interestingly, aestheticians in the Ming Dynasty regarded the sword as an art form. Although, there is almost no evidence that this appreciation was still popular in the Qing Dynasty. One possible explanation is that at the turn of the century, the taste of the essence of China's culture tends to be narrow, and the mysterious projects of art forms that a few audiences like, such as painting, ceramics and jade, have become unprecedentedly enthusiastic. This can draw a balance line with the decline of furniture tradition in the late Qing Dynasty. Finally, we should also pay attention to the influence of Confucian values that belittle the military and praise literature. During the rule of Manchu, the indifference of scholars to the army was a realistic choice.
The research of China sword tradition has become a real challenge, because people who study this subject in our time must be explorers and pioneers, not passive consumers. In the process of exposing and translating these surviving articles, there are still many things we need to do. What is exciting is that from the previous research results, we have got a new look of the blade after careful polishing and repair.
So far, our research shows that in the past 20 centuries, China's swordsmen have skillfully made blades with the following characteristics:
A hard and durable blade.
An elastic blade that can withstand a blow without breaking.
These features are mutually exclusive on the knife. Hard steel is fragile. Elastic and elastic steel is soft and cannot keep the blade sharp. Blacksmiths in China solved these problems in various ways and combined hard steel with soft steel. There are three basic ways to do this. One of them is called Baotou Steel. The sharp blade is made of hard steel with high carbon content, and in cross section, it becomes a soft steel core like a "V". Core metal is usually folded to improve strength, or layered with wrought iron to achieve the same effect. The blade of Baotou Steel must use a fairly thick hard steel sleeve, otherwise it will lose its hardness after repeated grinding.
The more common form of forged blades is "embedded steel". A blade with high carbon content is the core, and two layers of low carbon steel skins are sandwiched in the middle. The skin is made of iron and steel stacked alternately, so that the blade will form a pattern on the surface when polishing. Skilled blacksmiths can skillfully handle layering, which can not only increase the structural strength of knives, but also make beautiful patterns.
The last main forging method is the famous "rotary welding" in the west. It is a parallel bar made of hard steel and mild steel, which is welded into a simple body under heating and hammering. When forging and polishing, its surface will appear feather-like, star-like or vortex-like arrangement.
Secondly, the blacksmith in China showed great originality in forging the blade by heating and quenching in liquid. This technology is applied to almost all fields of blade manufacturing. China is one of the few places that invented the heating treatment technology different from the whole blade. This method increases the strength and cutting ability of the blade. The Japanese developed it to the highest level by using the technology of blacksmiths in China and North Korea.
The exquisite skill of China swordsman is an art form that has just been rediscovered in China or other places. We live in an era when new inventions appear every day. When we started to see beautiful patterns from the combination of form and function, and created a blade made of excellent steel, we just started to study China's armor technology. From their decorative graphics and symbolism to the ingenious combination of blade aesthetics and function, there are many other research fields to be explored here.