Chinese Jian huge double-edged sword with sanmei hamon, Ming dynasty or earlier, black & gold scabbard. • This massive and long sword belonged to a tall athletic soldier or general, right-handed or possibly hold by both hands. • Strong fighting Jian sword with sanmei layered steel hamon. • Hamon on sharp edge: 87 cm; • Hamon on dull edge: 10” = 26 cm; • Sharp part of “dull edge” from the blade point: 7.5” = 19 cm; • So, this sword was designed for both: cutting and thrusting. • Black and gold wooden lacquered scabbard with metal fittings. • Iron fittings with some silvered finish. • Total length in scabbard: 41 1/2” = 105.41 cm; • Total Blade Length 40 ½” = 102.87 cm; • Blade Length 34 1/4” = 87 cm; • Blade Width: 1 1/2” = 3.8 cm; • Total weight of sword in scabbard: 3 lb. 8.3 oz. = 1595 g = 1 kg 595 g; • Weight of the sword (without scabbard): 2 lb. 10.1 oz. = 1194 g = 1 kg 194 g; • Weight of wooden scabbard: 14.1 oz. = 401 g; • Sword perfectly fits into scabbard only one way; • The blade has 2 deep fullers and one shallow fuller in between. • There are 8 X crosses embedded at the spine of the blade. Traditional jian blades are usually of sanmei (three plate) construction, which involved sandwiching a core of hard steel between two plates of softer steel. The central plate protrudes slightly from its surrounding pieces, allowing for a sharp edge, while the softer spine protects the brittle core. Some blades had wumei or five plate construction, with two more soft plates being used at the central ridge.[9] Bronze jian were often made in a somewhat similar manner: in this case an alloy with a high copper content would be used to make a resilient core and spine, while the edge would be made from a high-tin-content alloy for sharpness and welded onto the rest of the blade. The sword smiths of China are often credited with the forging technologies that traveled to Vietnam, Japan and Korea to allow sword smiths there to create such weapons as the katana. These technologies include folding, inserted alloys, and differential hardening of the edge.[10][11] While the Japanese would be more influenced by the Chinese dāo (single-edged swords of various forms), the early Japanese swords known as ken are often based on jian. The Korean version of the jian is known as the geom or gum, and these swords often preserve features found in Ming-era jian, such as openwork pommels and sharply angled tips.