Hanwei Celestial Katana with Wootz Crucible Steel Blade – Last Ones

The celestial bodies pull at the water’s edge and create the tide, the ebb and flow of waves that bring time and balance to our world. As the samurai warrior must give and take with the ever-flowing tides of life, the Celestial Katana reflects all the harmonious aspects of the heavens and the sea.

The kashira and tsuba juxtaposes the hamon with a depiction of turbulent sea with waves crashing against the rocks. The tsuka features black cotton sageo over black same with multi-finish planetary menuki. The saya sparkles with a beautiful silver flake with a gloss polish with a buffalo horn kojiri, kurikata and koiguchi adorned with a navy and white sageo.

This special Celestial Katana is made in the crucible Wootz steel and has been differentially hardened. Swords made from genuine Wootz in the crucible steel process are comparatively rare and stand out from most new swords available. Wootz steel is widely regarded as being the “real” and more historical damascus steel and is different from most of the standard steels listed as damascus. What is called damascus is actually a form of pattern-welded steel and the general purpose of mixing and melding different steels together in modern damascus is to imitate the patterning of Wootz.

What makes Wootz steel different from the outset is that its patterning is not made by the smith while forging a blade billet, but is instead created when an ingot of Wootz is created in a crucible as the raw iron is heated with carbon and other ingredients to produce steel that is not only a high carbon steel, but a high carbon steel infused with crystalline bands of hard martensite and pearlite steel to create a composite steel that in effect functions as an early “alloy” steel with a distinctive appearance – an appearance that was later mimicked in later centuries by the modern damascus method, though this method does not create a blade with the famed properties of wootz. Wootz steel was highly prized for its resilience and ductibility and was a premier steel that was being made as early as the 5th century BC in India.  By the later Medieval period the city of Damascus was famed for its swords made from Wootz, with ingots of the precious and premium sword blade Wootz crucible steel being imported from India.

Please Note: Scabbard has an sparkling and near-iridescent hue to it that looks both like silver or olive depending on angle and lighting