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Be aware that forge welding two dissimilar steels bars together to show a pattern is not the traditional way of making a Japanese blade. The bladesmiths started out with what they considered high carbon sections of a steel bloom, forged these out into wafers, forge welded these together, and then forged these out into a billet that was then folded back on itself as it was forged to remove impurities. The steel for the low carbon core or spine was formed in a like manner. After these two billets were formed they were combined in a number of different ways and then forged out into a blade. At the risk of starting an argument, mono steel blades are superior to forge welded blades. Forge welding does not produce a complete weld along the whole interface between the layers of steel.
Doug
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