One of the first times I heard about the L6 steel was back in 2005 I believe. And one of the most famous Japanese smiths in the USA was very well known for using this kind of ‘hard to master’ steel for his Japanese Blades. Yes, his name was Howard Clarck . It was amazing to see how strong his swords were. I found a small trailer of his forging video on youtube :

Now, this is a Hanwei Katana and not a € 3000 Howard Clark piece so I have no idea if they are performing the same. It is indeed a more heavy sword with a very beefy blade (same dimensions as the swords in the performance serie) and forged in the shobu-zukuri style so don’t look for a kissaki or a yokote line because you won’t find it

Personally I think this is one of the best fittings Paul Chen his people had ever created..it’s just stunning ! The combination of the dark copper and the golden and silver color inlay stole my heart..really.

The blade of this katana is with it’s 76,5cm rather long and if you check the ‘standard size’ tsuka you would think that it would be very tip heavy. If the cross section of this blade was set to 7mm, yes it would be very heavy but it only has a cross section of 5mm so I believe that’s one of the main reasons why it’s still possible to have a comfortable feeling.

The color combination of the green silk ito along with the dark copper fittings and the dark brown saya are a perfect match ! It definitely get’s my vote !

In Hanwei’s catalog, they describe it as a “hand forged 1065 high carbon steel weapon” and there’s nothing said about folding the blade. But it looks like this one here is folded because it really shows a kind of pattern that you can’t find in any other monosteel sword they are offering. I’m also wondering why they use T10 steel for their Yari and 1065 for their naginata ? The blade of the Yari looks exact the same and has the same ‘finish’ as their forged katana line.

Another very remarkable thing is the hamonline. This is nothing like the white forsty thing we can find on 95% of Chen’s blades. This one has a very good looking line. Judge yourself :

If you’re interested to buy, don’t look in the shop…we didn’t have time to give it a place there. Just drop us a mail.

Practical Katana
The practical katana is a great sword if you’re a starting collector. After all it is a ‘real’ sword and you can’t compare it with any other stainless steel look alike. So in that sight, it’s a good deal if you have a smaller budget but you want something that is going the ‘real deal’ direction. It has a high carbon steel blade (although, they never say what kind of steel they use..in the beginning it was said that they used old railway steel) and is differentially hardened.

When you compare the price difference between this sword and his bigger brother, the practical plus katana, I can’t imagen that only the fake rayskin and the glued tsuka are making the price difference.

The Blade
There isn’t much to say about the blade , except the fact that it’s thin ( around 5mm )..but for the rest, it’s flawless and nice looking. The hamonline is enhanced in order to give it the white look, which do appear on real swords with a good polish but that’s another story..
Since the hamonline of this katana is straight, it can be possible that they folks at Hanwei are using a modern hardening process and not the clay hardening process. When hardening the modern way, there’s no clay applied on the blade and only the edge is quenched in water, not the back of the sword. Now that is saving a lot of time and maybe that’s the reason of the €100 euro price difference between this katana and the practical plus katana.

If you’re a practitioner, it can be used for light cutting but I wouldn’t really recommend it. In case you really want, don’t worry, the blade is strong enough to do some occasional cutting !

Fittings ( Tsuba- / fuchi & kashira)
In the years after Paul Chen brought this sword on the market, lot of changes are made and although it’s a cheap katana which you can’t compare with a +500 euro katana, it’s still a pretty nice katana. The fittings are not ‘the highest piece of art’ but they’re still made of iron and look simple & elegant. They don’t feature a theme like most of the other swords do… Two years ago they changed the look of all of their fittings and made it look like an antique one in stead of blackened. I think that was a good step in the right direction..

The handle – Tsuka & Ito
The ito (handle wrap) is made of synthetic suede and does feel nice and comfortable. Since this is a low budget sword, they didn’t use the small triangles (hishi-gami) underneath the ito and so the diamonds created by the wrapping are uneven. This katana also has a thick and almost straight tsuka (handle). If you compare to a higher end katana, you will see that the tsuka is following the curve of the blade where this one goes straight. The rayskin under the ito is made of plastic and it even doesn’t come close to a low grade rayskin. While the menuki look like copper, they’re just plastic.

Conclusion
If you’re looking for your first sword and you don’t want to spend too much money on it, this is definitely the sword you want to consider ! I don’t think there is any other sword out there that can beat this price vs.quality katana. As you can see in this video, the sword is doing his job…

Just consider this as a ‘preview’ photo shoot..which was taken inside again since the weather didn’t allow us to go out to make good clear pictures.

The first one we have here is the 3 monkeys katana. When I saw this one in the catalog, it didn’t really caught my attention since it looked ‘normal’ and it looked a bit the same as the battle ready, peach monkey katana (momo no saru). But it was a nice surprise to unpack that one and I need to say, if you’re an Iaido practitioner, this is definitely a sword you can consider ! When holding it, it remind me of the Shinto katana immediately….such a nice balance. If you’re interested, it balance at about 11-11,5cm from the tsuba. It has a rather standard tsuka of 28,5cm and a short blade of 71,5cm long.

The next one I took in my hands was the Tea & Culture Katana. This baby is definitely a cutter ! The weight (around 1200 gram) and the blade geometry are telling you enough. It has a very solid 77cm blade with a 31cm long tsuka, balance at 14 cm of the tsuba and it has a very nice battle wrap ! I don’t think there is any other Paul Chen sword out there at the moment with a wrap like this (except for the limited Katsumushi).

The last one , the Ronin, has a folded blade and has about the same feeling as the Thea & Culture katana. The specs are coming close of those of the Thea Culture katana..a blade of 74,3cm with a 28,5cm tsuka and balance at 13cm. The tsuba of this one is really a nice piece of work..always wondering how the hell they can make that in a production process. Besides the nice fittings, the blade is showing a nice pattern (hada).

Check the geometry of this sword !

For those who are interetsed, they’re for sale but you can’t find them on the site yet..I gues it will still take a couple of day’s before you can find them over there.

If you need more info, post your question here or drop me a mail.

The dark brown color that is used to ‘theme’ this shinken, together with the battlefield scenes that are represented on the tsuba and the fuschi kashira are quit stunning to me. Each character is very detailed and clear ! So to me, these fittings are among the best one’s I have ever seen on any ‘production’ katana in this price range.

Ok..I will stop talking and start posting the pics…after all that’s why you are here for

Well folks, that was it for today….at this time , we have the ‘new style’ pictures ready from almost all of our katana currently in stock so you may expect more of this shit in the coming day’s .

By the way, are any of you interested in more martial arts related articles here ?

This ‘battle ready katana‘ , the Momo No saru or translated in English as the Peach Monkey Katana is a katana that was made in a limited serie of 500 pcs worldwide. As far is I know, the wakizashi are all sold but they still have a few katana available.

This is one of the best looking sword I have ever seen from Paul Chen. A very elegant look, a very nice shaped tsuka (never seen before on ANY Hanwei sword), high quality rayskin (never seen before too) and a nice folded blade. No I must add that not all of the Monkey katanas we had here where like this piece. This one really jumps out !

So here we go…enjoy it

We didn’t do any cutting tests with this katana but it’s a relative ‘light’ katana (although it doesn’t have a hi) with a good balance and quit sharp. For those who might be interested, this one is still available at the moment..

Little update…he’s gone …sorry folks..