At the high temperatures that are needed for welding, a phenomenon called carbon migration begins to take place. This, combined with the extreme thinness of the layers and the repeated welding, can produce a block of material that has very little variation in carbon content between the layers. Those blades that have layer counts of less than two hundred seem to have the best qualities as weapons. Experience has shown that pattern welded blades that have a layer count between 100 and 200 will exhibit the most vivid patterns. The resulting knives vary in size and style.
All forging is done using traditional methods, employing a coal fire.
Although an air hammer is used to speed the process of drawing out the billets, all the shaping is done by hand hammering. All welds are percussion welds from the fire, rather than torch welding. Heat treating steps are done by eye, producing some variation in edge hardness, but generally yields a superior blade to those heat treated in ovens. Special pieces may utilise layers of wrought iron or nickel. The standard practice is to layer two decorative layered slabs on to a solid high carbon steel core.