What is it about a genuinely handmade knife that will cause the pulse to run and the breath to become quicker? Sword shapes and materials might be created and manipulated by means of a machine or they might be handmade with anvil, coal, and fire.There has to be much more to producing a quality blade than only the means of forming and the type of steel used. There must definitely be a little more to it.
I feel that a fragment of the blacksmith's life-force is hammered into each blade. The primeval craft of crafting knives carries a spark from the energy of each blacksmith into the labor. The romance of the bladesmithing craft, steeped in mystery and secrecy for eons, lends a kind of metaphysical essence into the steel. A wide variety of people observe the difference concerning a hand forged sword and a machine made sword. There is a distinct change in the blade, and the perceptible change I notice even within the smith himself when forging a sword. It is as if a part of me goes into each blade completed. Just maybe the extraordinary abilities of such legendary swords as Zulfiqar and The Seven-Branched Sword comes from the energy and life force of the blacksmith that created them.
It is a fascinating sensation. One that I tend not to detect when just grinding out a sword. Is it a connection to the past? I confess to being enormously passionate about history in particular. I have always enjoyed historical reenacting. This is a hobby I've been engaged in for numerous years and I must say that it is a very rewarding experience. I am certainly not solitary in noting a distinction in the quality of a handmade blade. Scores of people appear to think that the sensation of wielding a hand forged knife is a positive one. I am writing this to represent myself as an expert on something esoteric or otherwise sacred in nature. My particular views on this topic are fairly skeptical at best, then again I cannot avoid noticing a kind of sensation. A number of folks will admit the sensation as “desirable” or otherwise “good” even as some other people appear to consider it as a charge or an adrenaline rush. Is it an appeal to an aspect of human spirit and our collective history? What about the nature of reality itself? Other lives? Is it a connection to something basic in our genetic composition? We too, reminiscent of steel, have iron as well as carbon into our development. Is it a biological affiliation then?
Mayhaps it is an fusion of these dissimilar components. A number of swords I have held just do not feel right. More investigation has more often than not revealed that these were not hand forged or handmade. Machine made swords just don’t suit me. They don't seem to be as fascinating or unique. Whereas they might be nearly mechanically “ideal” in it's design, they nevertheless by some means lack the poise and feel of a high-quality hand forged knife.
Those little feelings not noticeable by the eye are what create the true difference. Even, between two superior-quality blades, one handmade, another machine made, the handmade knife seems distinctive; it feels better. That sensation is what makes you wish to fight the denizens of evil, even if it's in your own garden. It quickens your pulse then places a spring in your stride. Your nostrils flare and your muscles contract. Slicing vegetables or make-believe trolls. Defending hearth and home. Even as not every hand forged sword is always physically superb, the power inside could be the genuine beauty.