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Yes, that's what I guessed from watching the video. I understood that you need at least 3 layers forged together to make a high quality knife; two relatively soft and ductile stainless alloys sandwiching a fairly brittle but hard stainless alloy. From memory, my understanding was that the japanese knife makers fold together multiple layers like this because it's a traditional technique which hardens the alloy in the centre of the sandwich, the layers towards the centre get progressively harder, more brittle and thinner and therefore easier to keep sharp. The more layers, the better the knife, up to a point. Also, the more layers you have the more beautiful the swirly patterns look :-)


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