The process of making the hightest quality swords, is beeing held as it was ever, even nowadays no electrical "helpers" of any kind were used.
First there is to be gained a certain steel (some sort of iron-sand, only found in a specific area in Japan) wich is melted with 13 tons (!) of wooden coal in a 5-day-process. The result is a large block of app. 2 x 3 meters steel.
From this block there are delivered small pieces of the steel to the last about 60 craftsmen, who need this rare material.
In the doc. this was Sadatoshi Gassan, an expert in sword-making. Most interesting point was the tempering: different thinknesses of special sorts of sands all over the surface of the sword lead to different characteristics of the sword, the core flexible, "like bamboo", the sharp edge as hard, as it can be. With the sand all over it, it is heatend once more, until it "looks right", then cooled in water. you have only 1 try...
The master says, only 1 of 10 swords will be "beyond all others".
After that, the sword is to be sharpend. There are plenty of different materials, stones, ect. with that the sword is getting sharper, and sharper. The expert is doing it in the 14th generation! And still all by hand, he said: Yes, even in my high age I'm still feared of cutting me. The last steps are done with the plain fingers (!) and a fine, wet sand-mixture in the hands.
Wonderful craftsmenship! I wonder, what a masterpiece like that would cost.
Greetings,
Jens