San Mai / Damascus

San Mai ('three-layer') is the classic Japanese lamination: a hard carbon steel core (hagane) forge-welded between two layers of softer iron or steel (jigane). This produces a blade that takes a razor edge while the body provides toughness to resist chipping. Damascus refers to visible pattern-welded variants with dozens of alternating layers. Both traditions originate in functional necessity; the patterns visible in polished Damascus are a by-product of functional metallurgy, not decoration.