Japanese swordsmithing is the labour-intensive bladesmithing process developed in Japan for forging traditionally made bladed weapons (nihonto), which includes the katana, wakizashi, tantō, yari, naginata, nagamaki, tachi, uchigatana, nodachi, ōdachi, kodachi, and ya (arrow). Japanese sword blades were often forged with different profiles, different blade thicknesses, and varying amounts of grind.
In The Lost World, Japanese swordmaking is one of the subjects that Richard Levine sends Arby and Kelley to Xerox papers on at various Stanford libraries.
