Practical vs Functional

Cloudhammer/Byzer differentiates its products between Functional and Practical swords.

All of our swords are Functional, which is to say they are full tang and are sharpened (or can be sharpened), and will perform against soft targets like pool noodles.

However, many of our historically inspired swords, including folded steel, differentially-hardened edges, lamination (like sanmai, kobuse, etc), and some Damascus were practical based on materials and technologies available during their own time period; but they are less practical than modern day, through-hardened industrial steels.

The latter are designed to take a beating, whether that is being able to avoid warping from cuts with bad edge alignment, or repeated strikes against hard surfaces.

Having already blended a practical Damascus pattern steel, Cloudhammer/Byzer is currently working on a product line that will make differentially-hardened swords more practical.