Why a handmade katana isn’t always a hand forged one !
Lot of folks out there seems to confuse a hand forged katana with a handmade katana. WWhen only looking at the price of a sword you will pay much more for a handforged piece than a hand made one.
If we talk about a hand forged katana, there is a smith involved to make the actual blade. He will start out with small steel bars. Which can be a single bar of monosteel (10xx series are the most common) or a combination of 2-3 different types of steel. In the later case the smith will need to forge and fold the bars into 1 billet. That’s is the ‘modern way’ of making a katana. In the traditional way, the Japanese smiths will create their own kind of steel to work with by using/creating tamahagane steel.
Whatever solution is used, a forge is needed in order to make and shape the katana’s blade. By heating and hammering the steel repeatedly , they ultimately will create a nice looking blade. Once the blade is shaped there are several other processes involved to finish the whole sword such as differentially hardening (by using clay), polishing, making the handle (tsuka) and saya (scabbard), habaki, koshirae (fuchi, kashira,tsuba,manuki),etc. Several craftsmen are needed in order to make just 1 katana !
So when we speak about a handmade katana, the blade of the katana doesn’t need to be forged by definition. With the functional katanas, there is also something called ‘stock removal’. When going this way, they start with a steel bar that has already the full length of a katana and they are ‘shaping ‘the sword by using a sand grinder or some other tools. There are even companies that are using CNC (computer numerical control) machines to shape their swords. So these processes doesn’t need a forge and a smith to make an actual blade.
They are still handmade and there’s no doubt that they can become a very nice functional katana .On the other hand, there are also the wallhanger types of swords (still belonging to the handmade category) that are compeltely junk but let’s keep that for another article where we can take a closer look at both of them.
So to recapitulate :
A hand forged katana need a forge and a smith in order to create a blade while a handmade katana doesn’t 
Could this be a fake Japanese Katana ?
We do get lot a lot of weird mails in our mailbox and from time to time, there are people who are offering us ‘real antique Japanese swords’. Whenever I see that line in the subject, I already know enough. Normally , I just hit the delete button but this time I decided to see what kind of antique baby they had to offer us …
“Dear Sir,
I live in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan province, Indonesia.
I have original Samurai sword from my fore father who got from Japanese soldier with specification as follows:
1. It is made in 1718, can be seen at the writing on the samurai sword.
2. If we want to take the samurai from its cover, the samurai will sound “srriing” or will sound look like bee.
3. After coming out from the cover, the samurai is still elastic and soon becomes tense.
4. There is a picture of sun shinning and two Japanese flags which cross two each other on the samurai body near samurai holder.
5. The sword can be bent like belt.
6. If we bring “magnet” near and touch the samurai, it doesn’t stick with the samurai.
7. The samurai will not wet even though we pour water on it.
8. There are 3 small swords to complete the samurai.
9. The samurai has certificate written in Japanese language.
10. There is “giok” stone on the samurai holder
11. We have tried to cut nail and the result is the nail is cut on one hit
A Low budget katana is coming…
The winter is coming and it’s getting harder to go outside and take some nice pictures when new swords are coming in… This morning started very nicely and we had a about 15 min. of good sunlight to take the new sample out and make some pics. It looks like the incoming flood of samples doesn’t stop.
The one that arrived today was a 9260 spring steel katana. We never had any katanas in our shop that were forged with that kind of steel and it’s hard to find a forge who is using it (You don’t want to know how long it took us 
). Anyway, while it’s a real (read REAL) low budget katana, it’s a great sword to hold with a great balance ! Read more
What’s the difference between a €200 and a €800 katana ?
That’s a question we do get on a very regular base. “They both look the same so where is the difference?”. And sometimes it’s hard to tell if you only get to see some pictures. Here at our shop we try to provide you as many detailed pictures as possible and believe me it takes some time to set up the whole thing and edit them.
There are some things you can look at and see very clearly where is the difference. The overall look may be the same but in most of the cases you will see why a €800 sword isn’t the same as a €200 katana.
Let us start with some basic things you can look at :
Hamonline of a katana
The Hamonline often referred to as the ‘tempered’ edge of the sword. The hamon is the area of the sword where it has been quenched to provide a high carbon steel area which will hold a sharpened edge. It’s the white wavy (or straight) line that can be found on the blade. Read more
