I would like a good handmade katana @ a reasonable prize. Anyone knows how to make a good choice & anyone knows if katanas auctioned on ebay are of good quality? thanks
2006-12-14 12:21:42 · 7 answers · asked by Chris C 2 in Sports ➔ Martial Arts
Shinwa is ok, but none that I have seen are close to great. They're quite structurally unsound. You could try Paul Chen's stuff if you want. My first shinken was a Hanwei piece. The practical pro, to be exact. You could go with Masahiro and Ryumon if you want a good looker that can cut without the Hanwei name to jack the price up.
A company that I am quite interested in right now and am working on a contract with is Oni Forge. They start at $199 for a through hardened piece and move all the way to folded pieces at $799 and even L6 (not yet priced). Some of there blades are differentially tempered, but you get to choose if you want to pay the price for it. I would.
Last Legend is a good place if you want a good tameshigiri blade. The price for the quality isn't half bad. Youre looking at an almost entirely customizable blade.
As a final note, DO NOT BUY FROM E-BAY!!! While there may be some great blades and good deals, there are too many frauds that take place on e-bay. If you do decide to go that route, be very careful.
Hope this helps. Contact me if you need more info.
2006-12-15 12:54:36 · answer #1 · answered by thetsugiosan 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There are other people on here who probably know way more about this than I do. But from my experience Paul Chen is a reasonable priced good blade. Carbon steel is stronger, than say stainless steel, but it is also more brittle. A higher quality of steel doesn't need to be as thick. There are more knowledgeable people about folding vs. forged. I know older Japanese Katanas were folded because they included different types of steel within the blades (softer denser steel inside for flexibility). Tsuba's being interchangable, honestly I don't know. It would depend on how the sword was made, I know most swords are made so that the Tsuba can be interchangeable back in the day (as sometimes Tsuba's were heirlooms) my assumption is that with a blade that is allowed to be fully disassembled, that the Tsuba can be interchangeable. As my experience with most of Paul Chen's blades are, they should be interchangeable because they can be taken apart and cleaned properly.
2016-05-24 06:46:42 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
BudK.com has some good ones. Shinwa is a decent brand of handmade swords. As for eBay the motto is basically Caveat Emptor.
2006-12-14 12:31:04 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The best place to find swords is truthfully heading to a place like chinatown in San Francisco or in New York. You can get the best quality swords in some of the shoppes there also the swords are real steel not fake galvinized. Also they come sharpened and usually with a great case.
2006-12-15 00:53:05 · answer #4 · answered by Dragon 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
at the reasonably good handmade katana shop thers one coming to a street near you soon.
2006-12-14 22:10:57 · answer #5 · answered by BUSHIDO 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Paul Chen, Chinese hand-forged folded swords, with hammon lines, vary between $180.00-$240.00 depending on your patience.
2006-12-15 11:48:17 · answer #6 · answered by Tim D 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
japan
2006-12-15 01:47:33 · answer #7 · answered by 4vAtaR 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋