Samurai’s swords, a non-invasive investigation by neutron techniques

A synergic combination of neutron techniques was applied to characterize non-invasively the laminated structure of a set of ancient katana, part of the East Asian Collection of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (MAAS) in Sydney. Neutron tomography, diffraction, residual stress and Bragg-edge transmission analyses were undertaken on samples of well-known origin, time period and authorship to create a reference database on the main manufacturing methods developed by Japanese swordsmiths. In the attempt to attribute mumei (no-signature) blades basing on a scientific analytical method rather than a stylistic analysis, data from the reference samples were benchmarked against the results obtained from the unknown blade to identify differences and commonalities in the production process. © 2020 by Trans Tech Publications Ltd.

Keywords

Diffraction, Archaeology, Tomography, Residual stresses, Japan, Fabrication

Citation

Salvemini, F., Luzin, V., Avdeev, M., Tremsin, A., Sokolova, A., Gregg, A., Wensrich, C. M., Gatenby, S., Kim, M. J., & Grazzi, F. (2020). Samurai’s swords, a non-invasive investigation by neutron techniques. Materials Science Forum, 983,15-23. doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.983.15