A lot of folks want to buy their iaito in Japan mainly because : someone told them to go there who can build a katana / iaito better than the Japanese ? the big players on the iaito market (in Japan) let you choose your ideal length of blade/tsuka or you can build one from scratch made in Japan = good quality stuff I the last, let's say 6 years, i met a lot of practitioners and i've noticed  that a lot of them (do i dare to say most ?)  are really 'uneducated' when it comes to the

First a little side note. I'm not posting this to bash on the other person (although my water was boiling a bit when he started to use |@# words ..),  but rather to show how myths and 'flat' knowledge  about the Japanese swords are still a live and kicking today. The whole e-mail conversation started with the question if i could ship the Tsunami katana to his country... just you have the context.. and for both of us, English isn't our native language :) This is what followed : Me : Thanks

Finally the complete redesign of the site has been finished since 2 weeks and most of the bugs were located and eliminated. If however you still notice some weird behaviour, please let me know ! In case you didn't noticed, not only the shop but also the library has been revamped and expect more in depth articles, tutorials, reviews and interviews very soon. Speaking about that, if you think you can contribute something valuable (an insight, do it yourself thing or some historical facts,etc)

Feel free to let yourself go and let me know how you really feel about this tool  in the comments below :)

Not sure how you feel about the weather but it has been sunny & warm over here for the last couple of weeks so you won’t hear me complaining ;) In this issue you can find some of my rands about pictures, my trip to china, the movie 13 assassins and of course the link resources as usual. Good weather makes me happy and makes we want to take swords out of their boxes to make some nice pics. Last week I’ve took the kami katana out and shot about 100 pics. Some are posted on facebook already,

Februari so we're getting closer towards spring & summer, something i definitely look forwards too ;) Anyway a short mail with 3 topics : Going to China Great raptor deal Resources (you will find a historical article about the real last samurai there...) 1. Going To China From march 2e until the 15e I will be traveling to China to visit some forges. Some of them I know and I am currently working with (Konron & Zhui Feng) , other are completely new and never heard of them. Some

After some manufacturing delay at the forge, shipping problems because of the expo in Shanghai which forced us to ship the swords by sea and some other issues I do not want to bother you with, the new budget friendly konron swords officially arrived in my hands ! When I started the first check on Thursday I came across a few unexpected guests. The boxes where slightly smaller and when I opend them, there was just a sword with a cleaning kit, there was no 2e saya included. When unsheating the

I’m not going to bother you with the ‘famous’ Konron story again but in short, when we broke up with them a while ago were able to track down some of the former smiths & workers there and are trying to continue with konron. They had some very skilled people there and it’s not because the management of Konron screwed up the whole thing (and gave me and some of my clients a lot of troubles) that the people who worked there need to pay for that too. I still have faith in them. We

Imagine it, ancient Japan. Your robes roll with the wind. The air strokes your face with its gentle fingers. You look around you as the sky turns gray. You knit your brows and spread your legs. You firmly stand as you unsheathe your sword. Feel that hilt; grip it good as your fingers curl around its soft exterior. Deeply breathe in and wrap both hands around the hilt. Raise your arms and get ready. Slash the air with your sword, sense that adrenaline, that energy. Sweat rolls down as you swing,

U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry shoved his ship into Edo during 1853. He sought to end the Tokugawa government and started capturing the Japanese community. Also during that era, Adm. Perry and the U.S. consul had destabilized such government resulting to food deprivation and political conflict. The U.S. created formal dealings in order to manage but disparagement of the Shoguns (a commander of a force) had commenced. Throughout this commotion, a U.S.-Japan Treaty of Amity and Commerce was formed