Sharpening: While hand-forged katanas retain their sharpness for a long time, regular maintenance of the edge is necessary ...

Despite being incredibly sharp, a Japanese katana is very light, necessitating a significant amount of force from the bearer to cut through rigid materials. This contrasts, for example ...

The inimitable [Joe Scotto] has happened upon the katana layout, which has an inverse left-hand row stagger that lends symmetry to the design, and Scotto-ized it into a 33-key build that he says ...

Cutting from bottom to top with the point of the katana facing downwards is called kiriage. The reverse move of making a long cut downwards is called kesagiri. That's what I liked about it.