Mad folding skills
 

not exactly origami
I recall that the metal used to make a samurai sword is folded 17 times. That's 2 to the power of 17. that's a whole lotta folds.

Yeah. And no one knows how. Or to make Damascus steel.

Isn't the metal flattened between folds, though?

jeez, I must get to spec-savers......

I could have sworn this said 'man folding skills'......

The process for Damascus steel has been reproduced. There was an article in the Smithsonian a couple of years ago.

Yes, I have some Damascus blades I posted in DoDads. ;)

I wikied "katana" and there is a lengthy, although disouted article on blade making and they set the limit at folds between 8 and 12, never more than 20.
the reason for folding has more to do with creating a homogenous mix of steel and carbon and burning out impuritites from the poor steel.

but then it is wikipedia

I thought Damascus had 144 layers? :confused:
Hmm...8 folds = 256 layers, 12 folds = 4096 layers and 20 folds = 1,048,576 layers.
Guess I was mistaken.....oh, wait....Katana....nevermind.