Samurai Sword news

New Folded & Forged Katana with hand polish

Ok after all of the troubles I’ve got with the Konron dudes (have to post that thing here some day) there’s finally light at the end of the long, dark funnel.

A few weeks back we received the first monosteel katana sample from the Zhui Feng forge and last week the folded piece came in. Not necessary to say I was happy as a little child. Yeah, still after all of these years, when new pieces come in, it’s like Santa Claus who’s dropping a package )..always super excited !

Anyway let’s dig into this and give you a first review and some facts. This is the piece we’re talking about

Doesn’t look bad at first sight right ?

This katana is a forged&folded piece. The forge is making their own steel in a Zuku-Oshi Tatara (high furnace – for the people who can read Dutch, I’ve posted an article about Tamahagane maken here). So basically we can say they are producing their own tamahagane for these pieces.

Second thing I have to pint out is that they are using the traditional method to forge the blade, in other words they are using a lamination method (can’t remember which one but will ask it again) to construct the blade.

And that’s a big difference with some other Chinese manufacturers who are also making their own steel BUT lot of them don’t laminated their blades which results mostly in a very bad edge and or soft blade. So it’s nice to look but not really good if you like to actually use it for tameshigiri.  Still have another tamahagane piece here from another manufacturer with chips in the edge just from some soft cutting (reed !!)…And for a sword in that price range that’s not something you like to see.

I didn’t do a cuttingtest yet with this one but the bending test I did is already promising and the forge is willing to give a nice warranty on this blade. Once they’re back in the forge (Chinese new year now) I’m finalizing this thing but I will try to aim on a very looooong warranty

The beauty of this blade is without any doubt it’s handpolish. To be honest (actually I can’t remember a time where I wasn’t) it’s the best polish I’ve ever seen on a Chinese blade in this price range..period! And have seen quit some handpolished pieces in the last 6 years. This one is very subtle yet prominent … judge yourself :

The only thing I want to see a little better is the polish of the kissaski but we’le get there…

This piece only feature 1 mekugi-ana where I definitely like to see 2 once they go into production as well as telling them very clear which side they have to start wrapping the tsuka. Typical Chinese to start at the wrong side…But for the rest, very tight wrap and nicely shaped diamonds.

The tsuka is very well constructed (forgot to take some pics of that), has a nice Rikko shape and is covered with real rayskin of course and bleu silk ito. No Chinese ito but the Japanese stuff. And I’m sure because I’ve send them the ito

Same goes for the fittings, I still had some Japanese imported fittings lying around here and I send them with express mail so they could mount them on the sword. First they were only planning to send me the bare blade (since Chinese new year was very very close and they were running out of time) but I preferred to see a mounted sword. Think you have the same feeling about that…

Despite the fact that this sword is a rather big ‘thing’ with it’s 78cm blade and no hi, it still handles very well and has a nice balance.

Anyway, enough for today…we’re back on the track and very soon, the option to make your custom katana will be available again. But this time with a better and more accurate delivery time.

I was so pumped that i had made a video

/p>

Leave me some comments there as well if you can and hook me up there because i have more video’s to come very soon..

For more detailed pics, you can head over here.

For the freaks, these are the specs )

Tsuka	28cm		Sakihaba	23mm
Blade (from tsuba)	78cm		Sakikasane	4,5mm
Point of Balance	15,5cm		Kissaki	40mm
Motohaba	32mm		Weight	1250 gram
Motokasane	7mm		Sori	19mm
Tsuba	Steel		Fittings	Japanese Import

Let me know what you think guys, need some feedback here…good and or bad…

What do you think about this Katana Prototype ?

In case you are not interested in the story, you can see the detailed pictures of the prototype here and over here you can let us know how much it sucks

These are the specifications by the way :

Tsuka	28cm		Sakihaba	20mm
Blade (from tsuba)	73,4cm		Sakikasane	5mm
Point of Balance	12,5cm		Kissaki	35mm
Motohaba	30mm		Weight	1000 gram
Motokasane	7mm		Sori	18mm
Tsuba	Steel		Sori Type	Koshi Zori

Ok this is the short story : Since I decided to break up with Konron (more about this in a feature post)  I’ve decided to hooked up with the people at the Zhui Feng forge and gave them 2 prototypes to work on.

I worked with them a few years back but at that time, their prices were on the higher side and I was unable to compete with companies such as Cheness , Chen, etc  so I decided to stop working with them in order to catch up with the ‘market’.

The quality of their swords was very good but I was looking too much at other companies and especially the price tag.

Now, a few years later, I became a bit smarter (finally ) and realize I don’t have to follow the Cheness,Hanwei or any other companies track and play the ‘cheapest price’ game.

So I hooked up with them again and gave them 2 prototypes to work on.

Right now they already finished our monosteel sword and should finish the folded steel prototype before Chinese new year. Since that is next week, I’m not sure if they are able to do so.

The blade is already done but they had to wait for my fittings which will arrive there tomorrow if all goes well.

Since working on new prototypes (with a new forge and new people ) is always a pain in my ass, I like to ask you to give me some feedback and let me know what you like/dislike on this model and what you like to see in a 300-400 euro sword.

You can find the monosteel prototype here and soon i will post the pics of the folded sword here too to hear what you think.

The pricetag is not exactly sure at this moment but it I’m aiming for a 350-375 euro pricetag for the monosteel (i promise i do something special for our members once they go into producion ! If you want to be a part, just fill in your name and email at the homepage)

I don’t have any pricetag ready yet for the folded katanas but since they are making their own steel to forge the blade  (they are not using ”ready to go’ billets as most of the factories does)  and  a lamination construction, I don’t think I will be able to offer it below 1100 euro or . But we will see…

So here are the first pics of the monosteel prototype :

The rest of the detailed pics can be found here

Now, i would really appreciate your feedback and toughts on this piece. Head over to here and let me know what you think ! I really appriciate your help and if there’s anything i can do you a favor with, just let me know