Considering buying a Katana sword

I am looking into buyina a full length Katana sword as a wall hanger. Though I don't have any plans to use it to drive off hordes of mongols, I would like it to be truly battle worthy. The thought of hanging up a pretty piece of junk does not appeal to me. I'm not looking for anything very fancy, just servicable. My budget is not really established though I would like to keep the price less than $500. I considered the Cold Steel series and there seems to be some nice prices for these on Ebay, such as this: http://cgi.ebay.com/Cold-Steel-Japanese-Katana-Imperial-Sword-88K-NEW_W0QQitemZ180051279393QQihZ008QQcategoryZ20272QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I know that Cold Steel has a more plain version: http://cgi.ebay.com/COLD-STEEL-40-JAPANESE-KATANA-WARRIOR-SWORD-88BK-NEW_W0QQitemZ230047952302QQihZ013QQcategoryZ43338QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Perhaps some of the more cutlery savvy members here might know of an alternative that may offer better value than the Cold Steel offerings. Thanks for looking.

Re: Considering buying a Katana sword [edit]

I looked into this too, a little while ago. I came to the conclusion that for my budget (I was shopping for a halloween costume, but would have been willing to pay a few hundred bucks to get the real thing) it just wasn't possible. Ebay is flooded with crappy Chinese knock-offs, and the real Japanese items start at $500 for the busted up ones, and go up (way up) from there. Real katanas from a dealer (I didn't actually look, but got the impression) start higher, and you're not looking at a quality sword until you're talking about several thousand dollars.

The Chinese ones look "real" in the sense that they have that rustic, "made by hand" feel to them in the pictures, but I would expect them to break the first time you tried to lop off a horde-member's head. They also have extravagantly odd pricing, like $10, plus $150 shipping.

I haven't looked into the Cold Steel ones very seriously, but they looked like good contenders. Certainly I've been impressed with the Cold Steel blades I've had, but that's been limited to a couple of small fixies. I don't imagine their swords would suck, but who really knows?

[edit]
Looking over the Cold Steel links you posted: the tsukamaki (handle wrapping) on the pricier one looks odd, since the cord they used is too wide (handles are normally wrapped in 7mm wide cord, commonly silk, this leads to more and narrower "diamonds" per handle). The yokote (the part where the sharp edge goes from lengthwise to diagonal, right near the tip) is too rounded, they're usually a bit more tanto shaped. The shinogi-ji (side of the blade where it's flat, near the back of the blade) is unusual, in that Cold Steel gives you a groove instead of a flat -- that's not unheard of in traditional katanas, but it's not normal. There's no hamon (wavy temper line), suggesting that Cold Steel is making the blade using a different process, which doesn't surprise me at all. Traditional katana blades are dual-tempered, with the edge being very hard, and the back being left softer and springy. Getting them that way is a huge pain in the ***, I guess.

If you don't care about how traditional your katana is, those Cold Steel swords look really nice!
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If you do decide to buy a Cold Steel katana, please report back, I'd love to hear what you discover!

would this count?http://www.tadgear.com/edged%20tools/custom%20knives/criswell_katana.htm

Take a look at http://www.weaponmasters.com (previously known as: http://www.swordsonline.com) I have no personal experience with them, but one of my friends has ordered from them a few times. Their collection is HUGE, from just pretty to look at to fully battle-ready.

you might want to take a look at this one:

http://www.weaponmasters.com/index.html?ID=552858f64b630ecd5681b216e5b9025e&SORT=PR_UP&ITEM=WM-2161

fully functional and well within your budget...

Go for the Busse AK47, love my.
http://www.bussecompanystore.com/knives.htm

Any sword without the training to use it should only be something hung on the wall, so don't spend a lot. Don't think about using one without training. A katana or other sword that is worth actually using is going to start at $500 and climb rapidly. For example, a Phill Hartsfield katana will run you about $5,000 and up, but in the hands of an expert swordsman...

Since training is expensive in money, time, and commitment, IMHO, in most cases your money will be better spent elsewhere.

Look online for Paul Chen swords. Most are well made and below your budget. I own the Practical Plus katana and have used it to cut three rolled beach matts in a single slice (I have been doing this for a while; start with 1/2 a matt). The Cold Steel ones are made in Chen's "factory", as are the ones at Bugei.com so all Chinese knockoffs of Japanese swords.

You could also try the blades made by Last Legend. Nice stuff, and strong.
Try Mantisswords.com or http://www.swordarmory.com/05kat/taketoshi/taketoshi.html


All the above will cut well, though none will cut as well as good nihonto. Phil Hartsfield's stuff is nice, but way too expensive. Also, it's not so nice as Scott Slobodian's swords, and the prices are much the same. You can get real Japanese swords for the prices that they charge; just not museum quality ones.

Kevin

There is a guy named Rob Criswell who makes exactly what you are looking for:

http://www.plazacutlery.com/Creswell/CriswellMain.htm

He makes tools to be used, not fancy art pieces. Sort of McGizmo'ish.

A2 tool steel and made in America.

Marc

here are a couple way under $500 and well worth the money.
http://kriscutlery.com/japanese/japanese.html
Kris cutlery swords. Not traditional but well made as i've heard
http://www.livesword.com/Main.asp
They sell Paul Chen swords, handmade in China and also heard good things about them

Whatever you do, don't buy a sword from this guy... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2EQWCpnIR8

Thanks for the leads everyone. I'll look into these. I agree with the advise to not use these until properly trained. The damage they could inflict is truly scary stuff. I saw that video before AJ. It's a compelling testimonial against putting too much trust in inferior junk.

I have handled that Criswell blade that TAD gear has in that link...MAN I WANT ONE! Great balance and movement, can't go wrong with the price for a real working katana.

a lot of real Japanese blades ended up in America and resold. sometimes it was from widows selling swords after their husbands pasted away. story was they picked swords up on battlefields and carried them home.

Some of the swords carried away in WWII were utter crap (bad enough that the Japanese government bought them to destroy them), usually gunto. Some, however, were family swords. These are worth a lot in both monetary and historical terms.

I'd like to see pictures of some from the shows, if you snapped any; the ones that show up at the Colorado shows are usually junk.

Kevin

nightgaunt said:

I have handled that Criswell blade that TAD gear has in that link...MAN I WANT ONE! Great balance and movement, can't go wrong with the price for a real working katana.

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They had the Criswell at the last blade show here in Denver. It felt nice in the hand and moved fairly well, but did not match the Chen or Last Legend blades in beauty. I didn't cut with it (don't think the folks at the show would have liked that much), so I can't give a real estimate of usability. If you want a plain blade, that might be the way to go; they do look clean.

There are some Bob Engnath blanks around still (I have one); these are amazing, if you want to finish the blade yourself. It'll take 30-40 hours to do, but he whipped mine through a 4" aspen sappling without a handle bare handed and it was none the worse for the treatment. It has a nice chogi hamon, rather than the notare of the Chens. Beautiful tachi, and it cost about $250.

Kevin

AJ_Dual said:

Whatever you do, don't buy a sword from this guy... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2EQWCpnIR8

Click to expand...

oh poop! ill confess i found that really funny!

but i do (genuinely) feel sorry for the guy....

haha

Moral of the story:

Don't "bang stuff" with sharp pieces of crappy non-heat treated pieces of vanilla 440 stainless... :laughing: