1. The Folding of Katana Blades Thousands of Times is a Myth
Katana makers solved the dilemma of a sword that had to be both sharp and hard-edged via the use of four metal bars. A soft iron bar to guard against breakage, sandwiched by two hard iron bars to prevent bending, and rounded off with a steel bar to take the cutting edge. The result was a sword that had a hard enough blade, and a sharp cutting edge. However, contra many a WWII tall tale, no katana was ever hard enough, or sharp enough, to cut through machine gun barrels. The four metal bars of which katanas were made were heated at high temperatures, then hammered into a long bar that would become the blade.
Contrary to myth, katana blades were not folded thousands of times. So many folds would be counterproductive, and render the steel useless for a sword. Instead, katana blades were folded between eight to sixteen times. When the sword was sharpened, the steel took a razor-sharp edge, while the softer iron kept the blade from breaking. Well-crafted katanas became prized heirlooms, passed down generations of samurai families for centuries. Magnificent specimens of centuries-old katanas can be seen in the Tokugawa Art Museum in Nagoya, Japan.
_________________
Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading
Atkin, Ronald – Pillar of Fire: Dunkirk 1940 (2000)
Automatic Ballpoint – Operation Tannenbaum
Clark, Alan – Barbarossa: The Russian-German Conflict, 1941-1945 (1985)
Encyclopedia Britannica – Donation of Constantine
Encyclopedia Britannica – Montezuma II
History Collection – Myths and Mysteries From J. Edgar Hoover’s Personal Files
Japan Talk – 8 Common Ninja Myths
Military History Now – Enter the Ninja: Facts and Myths About Japan’s Most Mysterious Warriors
Murphy, David E. – What Stalin Knew: The Enigma of Barbarossa (2005)
Natural History Museum – Piltdown Man
New German Critique, No. 90 (Autumn, 2003) – The Fascination of a Fake: The Hitler Diaries
New Yorker, The, April 25th, 2013 – Diary of the Hitler Diary Hoax
PBS, American Experience – Ford’s Anti-Semitism
Robinson, H. Russell – Japanese Arms and Armor (1969)
Swords of Northshire – 5 Myths About Japanese and Samurai Swords
Time Magazine, June 9th, 2021 – We’ve Been Telling the Alamo Story Wrong for Nearly 200 Years
Urner, Klaus – Let’s Swallow Switzerland: Hitler’s Plans Against the Swiss Confederation
Walsh, John E. – Unraveling Piltdown (1996)