How does 1060 steel compare to 1045 or 1095 in a tanto?

The number in each steel designation refers to its carbon content in hundredths of a percent - so 1045 contains roughly 0.45% carbon, 1060 around 0.60%, and 1095 approximately 0.95%. For a display tanto, 1060 occupies a practical middle ground. It is harder and holds edge geometry more crisply than 1045, which is often considered an entry-level carbon steel. Compared to 1095, it is somewhat more forgiving during the forging and heat-treatment stages, with slightly lower brittleness - a meaningful consideration when producing tanto with the precise geometry and consistent blade profile that collectors value in finished display pieces.

What is a hamon, and how do I identify a real one?

Updated Mar 2026

A hamon is the visible temper line that appears along the edge of a blade that has been clay tempered and quenched. During clay tempering, a refractory clay mixture is applied along the spine and left off the edge before the blade is heated and plunged into water. The edge cools rapidly and becomes hard martensitic steel, while the clay-insulated spine cools slowly into softer pearlitic steel. The boundary between these two zones appears as a white, cloud-like line running the length of the blade — the hamon. On T10 tanto in this collection, the hamon is produced through this actual differential hardening process, making each one unique in its pattern. A genuine hamon has depth and variation when examined in raking light; a simulated (acid-etched) hamon, by contrast, looks flat and uniform under close inspection.