The Japanese sword (Nihonto) - Introduction
Lately I read a couple of good books on the histroy & making of the Japanese Sword and tought it would be a good idea to shear that with our readers so I decided to write a few posts about it. If you found something incorrect or you like to add something, don’t hesitate to leave a comment !
The technology that led to the development of the Japanese sword originated in China and was brought to Japan in the 4e-5e century A.D. At that time these swords were known as chokuto and did have a straight blade. There are scholars that do believe that a lot of these swords were made in China. By the Heian period (794-1185), the Japanese smiths made great process in improving their forging techniques and the straight swords changed to curved blades.
The main reason for this (changing from straight to curved) was the fact that the warriors that fought from horseback were in need of a ‘slashing’, and not a ‘trusting’ sword. The sword also had to be slightly longer and light enough in order to use it with one hand. So the Tachi was born. A nicely curved blade (with more sori than the katana we all know now) tapered strongly from the base of the blade to a very small point. These swords are also worn with the edge down, where the katana are worn with the edge up. Read more
Samurai Sword Ban in The UK
This thing is ‘hitting the samurai sword collectors and practitioners for a long time now and it looks like the UK government is really going to execute that plan. Starting april 2008 there will be a ban on the import, sale and hire of samurai swords and once the law is in place, those who violate it could face six months in prison and a £5,000 fine.
We all know politicians are kind of weird with a strange look on things so they came up with a ban that will only affect single-edged, curved blades. So whenever you buy a straight bladed sword (a ninjato for example) or double-edged katana, there’s no problem at all ! It also looks like the ban is only for the cheap look-a-like samurai swords you can buy on ebay for €30. I’m wondering where the line will be drawn and what will be considered as a piece of junk and what not… Read more
9260 steel katana review
After days of rain, we had a sunny day so it was time to get our new 9260 steel katanas and play a bit. The new delivery arrived last week but we were so busy with organising our little sword show that we didn’t have any time left to give you a closer look.
Besides the traditional forged carbon steel swords(more on those one later) we also have to 9260 spring steel swords in stock now. These blades are known as flexible and very strong. Since they are through hardened, there’s no hamonline to be found.
The katana with bo-hi is black ‘themed’. A black ito over a white rayskin and a black saya. The iron tsuba does feature a crane where the fushi & kashira and the menuki (all made of copper) have a flower theme. It’s a very light and fast katana with a very good cutting ability. Read more
Look what we have here
December is the month of Santa Claus and lot’s of gifts….For the first time we don’t have to wait until end of December here. Since he’s a very busy men and already start to stress by thinking at the end of the year, he decided to come more early here and he brought us a new delivery of fresh and totally new swords.
As you could read in our previous posts about the new sword samples that arrived and our cheap budget katana, we finally have some of these models in stock now. It will take some time to get things right but we will ‘officially’ announce these new swords on our little sword show (December 22th, Gent)
For the folks that placed a pre order, don’t worry, as soon as we figured out which one is yours, we will contact you and send it your way !
Stay tuned !
Here under one of the many different models we have available now : Read more
