Talk:Blind Justice/@comment-107.220.138.4-20150906091130/@comment-192.76.8.46-20151103220922

Sociologically, it's probably because the "katana" is attached to romanticism of the Edo Period - people saw it as a slice of medieval life that was quaint and enchanting in the colonial era. So it acquired this whole bunch of mysticism.

Then, on top of that, you've got an unequal comparison. People see the Japanese swords as comparable to western weapons made for essentially early mass production, outfitting cavalry and so forth - which weren't particularly well made (eg they rarely underwent extensive heat treating) because it wasn't necessary for them to be sharp and fancy, and were much less highly tempered - which makes them less sharp and clean-cutting, but also means they don't shatter like glass when you hit dense, high quality steel armour (which was less common in the heyday of Japanese swords).

Finally, there's a lack of understanding of the limitations of the technique; the swords weren't commonly used in battle because they required very precise, straight motions else the blade would bind in the target. Weapons made like this have very specific cutting planes - angles at which the edge is effective, which the weapon will curve towards. It's easy to get it stuck in a person if used wrongly - and the blades that people think of as katanas were typically very sharp with very narrow edges, which are great for soft targets but will chip or fold when used against armour, meaning they are almost ceremonial in purpose.

Also, for reference, Celtic pattern welding and the Japanese swordsmithing methods are similar but not the same technique. The height of Celtic pattern welds were layered over iron cores to give the blades a "shock absorber" and prevent them bending or breaking when hit against other swords or metal armour. By comparison, Japanese swords are not supposed to be used for that - because they alternate layers of steel with different carbon contents, essentially, the Japanese technique is optimising for hardness, which produces an extraordinarily sharp but highly brittle edge.