In the southern foothills of The Wolf's Tooth Mountain in Hebei Province, on the banks of the Yishui River, where "the wind is cold and the water is cold", there is a blacksmith named Daniel Zhang. In the eyes of the villagers, Daniel Zhang is different from other blacksmiths in the mountains, he neither plays agricultural tools nor makes pots and shovels, and every day he clangs in the blacksmith shop at the foot of the mountain outside the village, busy from morning to night. He hit the knife.
Daniel Zhang knives are different from others'. As soon as the knife came out of its sheath, it glowed with cold light, and the body of the knife was covered with meandering patterns. Daniel Zhang said, this is called the patterned blade, and most of the ancient world-class swords are made of this patterned blade.
Craftsman workshop Damascus knife - youth forty
We often see such a scene in the novel, as soon as the sword comes out, the cold light is radiant, and the connoisseur only needs to look at the pattern on the knife to know that it is a sword. These patterns are not deliberately carved by ancient people in pursuit of beauty, but the imprints left by thousands of hammers and hammers. In ordnology, the sword with the pattern is called the patterned blade, also called the patterned steel knife. Westerners call it the Damascus knife.
Craftsman workshop Damascus knife - huai sword
Cao Pi of the Three Kingdoms recorded in his "Treatise on Classics": When Cao Pi was the crown prince, he created three "Hundred Treasure Swords", each with a different pattern. The pattern of the first knife resembles the shell of a spirit turtle, so it is named "Spirit Treasure Knife". The second knife has a pattern similar to Danxia (a cloud formed by the sun shining on the clouds) and is named "Hanzhang Knife". The pattern of the third knife resembles a collapse frost and is named "quality knife". Cao Pi also built a "Hundred Dew Strange Knife", which was patterned like the scales on a dragon's body, and was named "Dragon Scale Knife".
The production principle of the pattern blade is to stack steel A and steel B of different hardnesses together, and then repeatedly fold and forge after heating, so as to obtain a new material with different properties from A and B. Ancient people used such a "stupid method" to repeatedly experiment and explore, and finally created a world-shattering and ghost-like sword and sword.
Regrettably, this exquisite craft, which has been passed down for thousands of years in ancient times, has been lost from our country after the Republic of China. There are many historical views on the reasons for the loss of the pattern blade process. One view is that with the advent of industrial civilization, traditional handicrafts cannot meet the needs of production and life, so many handicrafts are naturally eliminated. There is also a view that with the end of the era of cold weapons, people's demand for swords is far less than before, and the sword with broken hair has lost its market. In any case, this kind of magical craftsmanship commonly used in ancient divine weapons has not been passed down to modern times, and it has to be said that it is a pity.
Craftsman workshop Damascus knife - little boy
After the founding of New China, with the development of economy and society, people began to pay attention to excavating some ancient handicrafts that have been sealed in history. "Recreating the ancient pattern blade process" has also been put on the agenda. In the 1980s, the Chinese Academy of Sciences set up a "pattern steel simulation test group" composed of metallurgical and historical experts to try to copy ancient pattern steel knives. The relevant papers of the experiment were included in the "History of Ancient Chinese Metal Smelting and Processing Engineering Technology", one of the major topics of the National "Ninth Five-Year Plan". Prior to this, in 1976, the American Bill Moran (founder of the American Association of Forgers of Swordsmiths) announced the successful reproduction of a Damascus patterned steel knife, causing a sensation at the Atlanta Knife Show in the United States.
Craftsman workshop Damascus knife - feather pattern Boy
Since the 1990s, some chinese folk knife makers have also worked to restore the ancient pattern blade process, and Daniel Zhang is one of them. Daniel Zhang was born in Baoding into a family of knife makers, and his great-grandfather founded the Shanggu Knife Factory during the Republic of China period, which was known for his ability to create patterned swords. Regrettably, however, Shanggu Daofang was forced to cease operations during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression with the fall of Baoding. Daniel Zhang father, due to special historical reasons, did not inherit the family craft and became an ordinary foundry worker. Daniel Zhang's grandfather worked in the Shanggu Knife Workshop in his early years. Daniel Zhang began to learn sword forging techniques from his grandfather in the mountains at the age of 16. Daniel Zhang has been obsessed with swords since childhood, yearning for the ancient sword and light sword shadow and heroic righteousness, determined to excavate and inherit the ancient sword skills, and become a generation of famous masters who create swords and swords. In order to restore the ancient pattern blade technology, Daniel Zhang practiced hard, consulted historical materials, collected ancient weapons, and visited experienced teachers.
More than twenty years have passed, and the so-called kung fu pays off! In 2012, the patterned steel sword "Hebi" independently designed and built by Daniel Zhang came out, causing quite a stir in the sword circle! Since then, Daniel Zhang has successively launched its own patterned blade works Changfeng, Cold Moon, Tiger Shark, Toad Palace Folding Gui, Chinese Boyi Knife, Feather Pattern Boyi Knife, etc., which are not only exquisite in pattern, but also excellent in performance.
Craftsman workshop Damascus knife - hebi
Craftsman Workshop Damascus Knife - Cold Moon 1st
In 2014, Baoding City established the "Shanggu Cold Weapons Research Association", and Daniel Zhang served as the secretary general. The following year, Daniel Zhang founded a craftsman workshop to promote the ancient forged Chinese pattern blade sword (known as Damascus knife in the West).
Craftsman workshop Damascus knife - hundreds of points
Some people may say that there are simple and fast sword production lines in modern times, why bother to spend so much energy to inherit the ancient handicrafts, is this not to seek the near and far, to cling to the shortcomings? Daniel Zhang explained that there were many great crafts and inventions in ancient times that played a huge role in history. However, modern people can often only see some empty written records, and cannot really feel the charm of these processes. Because many crafts have disappeared forever due to lack of inheritance. For example, we know zuluban of craftsmen, but we don't know his skills. We know that there were ground motion instruments to monitor earthquakes in ancient times, but we could not make imitations with the same function. I spent more than 20 years of youth to restore an ancient craft, but in fact, it preserves a piece of history, a culture. These vivid fragments of history are like dots of light in the long river of time, which can illuminate the way for us to come.