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

Our Handpolished beauty

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 Nice HandPolish

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…

traditional made katana sword box by Konron

Ok just a quick update from Konron since we got a ton of questions about the new shipment that was supposed to arrive end of January – beginning of February. Things got a little delayed as usual (adding more stuff & Chinese new year..)but the forge confirmed that there’s a delivery packed and waiting for shipping at the FedEx storage in China so it won’t take ages anymore before we can get them.

It all depends how difficult the customs are this time…there’s still a lot of inspections and security there.

Anwyay, the shipment will contain 9260 steel and 1070 differentially hardened blades although not sure how many of each. My guess only a little of them are with hamon so they will be sold out pretty fast.

The special serie we added to our original order won’t be included yet, some parts are still missing so it can take a few weeks more before they get here. There’re no super galactic swords, they just have a nice different saya than the usual stuff, battle wrap and entirely …black

The 9260 serie will contain a new model themed with a dragonfly…the forge made a new tsuba which I posted on facebook…ow you don’t have a facebook account yet ? Damn..go create one

Anyway here’s the pic

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3472/3192682288_df4d3917b9_o.gif

I also got a fast movers offer here. When talking to the forge this morning they told me they had a nice surprise for me which they forgot to mention…

They now have traditional swordboxes in stock..Now before you say : “so what..”, just take a look, there’s a big chance you had never seen these kind of boxes !

http://www.samurai-sword-shop.com/konronslideshows/slideshowkonronbox/slideshow.html

Since there’s another shipment leaving the forge within 2 weeks, we can offer these wonderful box for just 120 euro only ! Once in our store the pricetag will exceed 150 euro at least..So if you’re interested, just send me a mail at dave@samurai-sword-shop.com ! You just need to be fast to get one of these…

For those of you who ordered a custom sword, you will get this box for 0,00 euro ! How about that ! The forge started to work on the custom orders so soon you may expect some updates and pic about that too..

Last weekend I was digging in the store and found a lot of swords that are nowhere to be found in the shop. Models that were produced as a prototype but never made the actual production or one time pieces that came in some how , wrong deliveries, etc and while I was planning to do something with most of them I need to face the facts and tell myself that I need to stop dreaming.

Literally a dozen of swords but just no time left here to remount or fix them so I decided to through them in (or out ) to the shop for our loyal subscribers at at ‘Christmas price’. Hey, it feels good if you can play for Santa Claus once a year…you should try it too some day.

Here is the result, click on the pics for bigger one’s (once you have a big pic, you will see a next button on the left so you don’t need to close each time you want to see another pic):

It’s not complete yet and there still 5-8 swords here that are not listed yet but I do my best to get them there within 1-2 days max !

If you’re interested in one of them, just send me a mail at dave@samurai-sword-shop.com or call me at 0032 477 90 36 12. First come , first served so don’t yell at me if your favorite katana just left our building.

If you don’t find a nice one, just keep an eye on the page and you will see that more of them will be added.

A short description of how this thing is working. You can go to here and start to design your own katana by choosing all of the components you like to see on your dream sword. There are over 20 different option boxes there that have multiple choices. Not sure how many actual combinations that you can make there..let me know once somebody figured it out ..

So you start with choosing the components (if you click the catalog, a pop up window will appear with pictures of most of the components) and you will see instantly how much your dream katana will cost.

So once you got it ready, just proceed with the checkout process as usual. And no you won’t be billed yet After we received your request, we do send it to the forge and they will make a drawing of the blade with all of the specific measurements you gave us in order to give you a better understanding of how the blade will look like.

Later on we’re planning to provide you with a full drawing of your katana, including tsuka, fittings, saya, etc but that’s another story and need lot of work to achieve that.

So only after you saw the actual drawing and you agree with the specs, we will ask you for a 50% pre payment so the forge can go ahead and start forging your sword. During the whole process, pictures will be taken and send to you so you can see the progress of it.

Once the sword is ready, it will be send to our warehouse where we will personally inspect & compare the katana with the exact specifications you gave us (and confirm to you of course) once more just to play the game safe. If all is ok, we will ask you for the other 50% of your creation and ship it out.

The delivery time for a custom order is around 50-60 days which is quite fast..and we’re taking orders from all over the world so this service is not limited to European countries only !

However, if you feel that the different options we offer are not enough to create your own unique katana, we have another solution

Send us your request, together with exact measurements and pictures if you have from (other) sample katanas and the forge will once more work it out for you. There are almost no limitations in this process and I’m sure we’re about the only ones in the sword world who are offering such a customization service at that price level !

In case you like to add some more value, we do have good connections with Japanese companies who can look for antique or new super duper high quality fittings to mount you sword !

No need to tell you I’m really excited about this custom thing and it took us nearly 2 years to find a forge who had the right knowledge & skills (and was prepared) to support us. I’m planning to go to the forge again somewhere next year and I promise you to come back with lot of video’s & interviews !

Besides that good news, the forge did start working on a new order for our standard line and we hope to receive them before end of the year or beginning next year..not to make you too curious but there might be some unannounced surprises in that delivery

A little note about the folded blades Konron is offering, you can find a pic here of how they make their own steel (tamahagane) to forge these folded blades which does have a kobuse lamination by the way !

The most important thing to mention here is the fact that the new 9260 Konron swords are ready. If all goes well, which is dangerous to say, they will leave the forge this week or next week. The problem we face at the moment are the damn Olympics. The security in China is on red alert now and no transportation company is allowed to transport swords within the whole country. So that’s a major problem that can still take a while after the Olympics.

Now…we are having a very close relationship with Konron and the owner will take the whole order and drive them to the airport himself. Not a big deal you think….it’s a 8-10hour drive to the airport and 8-10 back so…

We don’t have very good pics yet of the new swords but here are some of them..’straight out of the box, not edited’

So what will be different with the previous generations ? First of all, as mentioned before, they are mounted with imported Japanese Fittings , better ito and signed on the tang. But that’s not all, we do have a little extra for you : There will be different tsuba designs available. I’m not quit sure about how many we speak here but expect 3-5 different designs to choose. And if they’re done their job at the forge (which is sometimes hard to predict) both the hi and non hi version will be available in 2 lengths…but don’t take my word on it for now.

Since there are a lot of updates on the 9260, we won’t be able to maintain the original price of 175 euro. So the new price will be 220 euro, which is (taking all of the updates in consideration) still a bargain.

We expect 50 pcs in this shipment (that’s all he can transport in his car) and looking at the backorders we still have for these, half of them are already sold. Now, I don’t want to make a sales pitch here but if you have any interest or planning to buy one, please make an backorder for it now. Last time, we had some angry people because they sold out just too fast and I do prefer happy customers

Second reason…the oil and especially the price of the steel is still going up and there’s very little chance we will be able to offer the next shipment at the price of 220 euro…

Once again, this is no “hurry-to-buy-it” talk, just for your information.

We do have lot of other plans with the Forge (since we’re partnering up with them) which does include offering traditional polish (just check this sample here) , using different steels (experimenting with the famous L6 steel now), offering real traditional katana kits (mainly for the collectors) which will include a tamahagane katana with traditional stone polish, Japanese fittings ,ect. The sword will be presented in a big box in shirasaya and with the koshirae.

We have some other cool things in mind but can’t say too much about that at this point….

Enough talk for today..ow yes before I forget ..just finished our discussion board so if you have any questions, or just like to share something, that’s the place to be. Perhaps you’re interested in becoming a moderator ? All help we can get is welcome ! Eather way, it would be nice if you could introduce yourself there so we have an idea of who our customers/visitors  are

The response on the survey we held a few weeks ago was just amazing and I need to thank you if you did participate ! Really, these kind of things are so important to us in order to make the perfect sword for you. Everyone has a different taste, that’s true but it can point us out in the right direction.

Anyway, more than 70% of the voters were choosing for the Japanese fittings on the new Konron swords so….you get what you asked for and currently the swords are being mounted and they should arrive here within 3-4 weeks. Not only will they come with improved fittings and ito , there’s another bonus.

The swords will be signed on the tang…”Voila !” What about that my friend ? They will be signed and possible numbered so we can issue a certificate with them. You can find the sample signature here.

Now, what more do we have for you..ow yes, a few swords from the other new forge arrived in our store. So now we have available the new cheap battle ready katana  swords with black and brown ito. As I told you in our previous posts,  I did some cutting tests with it and the video is about ready to be released so you may expect them within 1-2 days .

We already finished another video of another 1060 steel sword with Japanese fittings, ito and sageo. We didn’t had the  time yet to do cutting tests with this katana but I can assure you they’re excellent cutters.

2 Custom katana are ready too , a 1095 Huanuo katana and a customized Practical Plus XL Light katana. This katana isn’t on the site yet so no need to search for it. The price is 425 euro..Just send me a mail if interested in this one.. Video’s are on the way as well. Yeah, planning to make a lot of video’s in order to give you an exact idea of the stuff we’re having here

Anyone who like to work on our samurai Tv channel by doing video sword reviews ? We send you the swords of course

By the way, we also have an affiliate program now if you like to earn some $$ ! You can subscribe here and if you don’t know what that is or how it works, just give me a little time to make a how to guide for you !

It seems like most of you guys (and girls ) liked the cheap battle ready katana from the Konron Forge ? The forge had some problems lately..one of the problems was the fact that they did need to re-locate their forge..but that was not the only problem, there were 2 more things going on there. First, the smith (yeah, they only one they have) was in the hospital for 1 ½ month for an operation and one of the polishers was sick. So that sucked big time and caused a big delay !

But good news, they’re fully operational since this week and it seems like all of the troubles are gone and we can continue with our work. Actually the new batch of 9260 steel blades are almost forged so they only need to finish the blades and mount the swords now… and this is the point were I would like to ask you for some advice.

I don’t want they use the same fittings anymore as last time. They weren’t bad but I want something better. So we have 2 options now :

1. Use new improved ‘made in China’ fittings (can see pictures if you take the poll)
2. Use imported Japanese fittings (can see them there too)

The last one sounds very good right ? And you will see they are indeed very nice..there’s only 1 negative point about that. The price…

If we use the new Chinese fittings, we will be able to keep the price of the sword under 200 euro. If we use the Japanese fittings, you might expect a price around 220 euro.

By the way, yesterday was a nice, sunny day and I had one of the new cheap handmade samurai katana lying in my car and a prepared Tatami ..Yeps we did some cutting and the results were kind of shocking…Don’t worry, I have it all on tape and you might expect the video very soon, just need some editing..

You can already found some pics here:
Black katana with hi
Brown Katana with hi

Have a nice weekend and talk to you soon !

Dave

When I was young, Ninja’s were IN…dozens of Hollywood movies were made and we all wanted to be (at least me) a real ninja some day. Very soon , I discovered that I would never had the skills to become a real ninja and decided to start a Japanese sword shop one day to supply the ninjas with good quality ninja swords.

Soon after I started the sword shop, I did found out that they did no longer exist…shit !

Anyway, it seems like they’re still very hot these day’s , even in Japan. In a little place about 450 kilometres from Tokyo there’s a small city named Iga which is known as a traditional home town of the Ninja.

From April 1th until May 6th there’s a Ninja festival over there which attracts almost 30.000 visitors each year ! At this yearly event you can watch Ninja-inspired dance performances, competitions, and opportunities to practice ninja skills. Sounds like the place to be !

During that period, you can find Ninjas all over the village (souvenir shops, restaurants, etc) and it seems like it’s a good thing for the local economy since they rake in 290 million yen (or 1,8 million Euro or 2.8 million USD) during that 5 weeks.

If anyone ever went there, let us know..we’re highly interested !

I would prefer to stand in the last row with nobody behind me

Women…..what else can I say…

I’m sure this Ninja has some special stuff in her bag..

The poor guy…

Source : Reuters
More pictures van be found here

But we’re still alive and kicking

Now we have a great deal to announce and you’re the first to hear about it. Two weeks ago I was on the phone with one of our forges and after lot of talking and negotiating they gave us a little extra because we’re a good client.

You remember the tamahagane tachi we got in a few weeks ago..that on is already sold BUT they did send us 2 new one’s we can offer for 1200 euro/piece. Keep in mind that this is the first time we got an offer like t his and it won’t be repeated within the next few years. As you can see in our shop it’s priced at almost 1900 euro !

So please mail us if you have any interest because once on the site they will go very fast I believe. We only have 2 pieces available here..

Besides this good piece of news we also have some more news about the katana with Japanese fittings, etc. The first samples are ready and will be here very soon.

The first one here is a traditional polished T10 steel katana with Japanese fittings, ito and sageo. The original price will be over 1000 euro but if you’re interested we can offer it for 850 euro.

The second here is a lower end katana but made to cut and we can give a lifetime warranty against breaking (the blade of course). So we’re sure about the quality of this baby here. Keep in mind that chopping trees won’t be included in the warranty …The retail price of these one’s will be around 220 euro (which is already a bargain) .

Anyway…there are still more things on the way and we will keep you up to date of course.

If you have any questions or suggestions, drop me a mail at dave@samurai-sword-shop.com

Take Care,

Dave
PS : Let me know what kind of things you would like to see on the blog..more sword reviews, more technical things or anything else ?

We have some reviews of the 9260 steel Konron swords coming up. At this time, we only have them available in Dutch and you can find this very nice review (Goedkope en functionele katana) with pictures and cutting video’s (don’t we all like that…) on our Dutch blog.

They’re working on the English translation so just have a little more patience. There are more reviews coming soon so keep an eye on this blog if you’re interested in this kind of material.

This week we received some samples from the new swords we were promoting through our newsletter. If you’re not a member of our club , you can join here…this will give you the latest news, even before you can find it on the site here. From time to time we’re also running member sales so there’s no reason to not join it…we won’t spam you if that’s your main concern

Anyway, the new samples….like usually, some things are not exactly like we’re asked but we’re used to that by now  . The blades are totally wrong but the fittings were just perfect. I don’t think you will find this kind of nice fittings on any other production katana in that price range ! By the way these fittings are Japanese, not the look-a-like Chinese one’s.

You can see yourself on the bottom of this page. I truly believe that these swords (once they’re done in the way we like) will be top level swords…. 4 company’s – 2 Chinese and 2 Japanese- are involved in the whole process so you can imagine why I’m so exited about it. And of course each sword will come with a silk swordbag…

That was it for this week folks..have a nice weekend and we will keep you updated about this !