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9260 Katana Sword review with Video.

Introduction
Hello, welcome to this review about the Konron 9260 Katana. I am Daan. I own a Hanwei Practical Katana and use it for so called “Backyard Tamishigiri”. I have had no official sword training, so I learned everything I do and know on the internet, online forums and just lots of practicing.

A few days ago Dave asked me if I was interested in testing and writing a review about the 9260 Konron Katana. I gladly accepted to enjoy the “feel” of an other katana and to review it, have fun reading this review!

The Review
Looks
While removing the packaging, I got a smile on my face, at First sight the sword looks and feels nice and sturdy.
Fuchi en de Kashira – The fuchi and the kashira are decorated with a decorating that looks nice, and is not too much over-the-top. The kashira also has the usual golden accent that fits nice with the rest of the fittings.
Menuki – The menuki looks nice as well, although it’s a bit harder to recognize the flower motive. They are made out of copper.

The Tsuba
This is more a matter of personal taste; personally I prefer a less open model because you can’t scratch your thumb on tsuba with no edges in it.
The Konron has a nice, thick and solid tsuba, at first I could make up any pictures in it, but having a closer look, I recognized that the small circle is the eye of a bird.

The Saya
The saya also looks good, flawless black and again with the usual gold ornamentation.
My first impression of the sageo wasn’t good, actually it was pretty bad because I was used to the smooth synthetic sageo of my practical katana:

Later on however, I learned that this type of woven sageo is more authentic and actually is pretty common, so a nice sageo after all!

Thickness of the blade
After this, it was time to unsheathe the sword for the first time. I was surprised by the thickness of the blade, I felt no real noticeable difference in terms of weight with my practical katana (the practical is even slightly heavier), but the blade of the Konron is much thicker!

This is because the Konron features a nice, deep bo’hi, making the blade much lighter. About the rest of the Konron blade I can be nothing but positive, great polishing and it just feels like a functional katana should feel, excellent!

The quality of the fittings, ito etc.
The quality of the fuchi, kashira and menuki is as far as I can tell great, it all looks solid.
The ito was a bit poor, a little too lose and on a close look I could spot some of the wood of the tsuka. The loose end could have been better as well, those small details really matter for the total look.

NOTE ADMIN. : We’re aware of this problem and this will be resolved with the new generation that is expected within 8 weeks.

The Functionality
Now it’s time for the tests that really matter; is this functional katana really a functional katana? I did a few tests that the average user of this sword might use it on.

Test 1, sharpness
A functional katana should of course be pretty sharp, a sharp sword requires less force and cuts cleaner.
To test this I tried to cut a piece of paper, cardboard and leather by running it along the blade.

It seems to have some problems with the cardboard, this is only because the blade is so thick, it forces the cardboard while running along the back of the blade

Test 2, single cuts on single milk bottles
Of course I was confident that this test would be no problem for the sword, but I thought it was important to feel how the blade handles during use.
A new thing for me was the whoosh sound, made by the Bo’Hi.

Test 3, Combination Cut
The blade is sharp, light and handles ok, next up was a combination cut to feel how the blade reacts during quick strokes and moves.

Yet again, it performed great.

Test 4, Big Plastic Bottle
Something heavier than milk bottles and the average “backyard cutter” might face is a plastic bottle, leading to the next test, a plastic, 1,5Liter bottle.

Test 4, Small Cola Cola Bottle
For the last test, I got a small Cola bottle. This might sound a little silly after the big bottle in test 3, but as most of you probably know is that the coca cola bottles are way more thick and solid than the average water bottle. Combined with the low weight of a small bottle it could go flying around if hit with a sword that is not optimised for cutting.
I was anxious to find out.

The Verdict
With the Konron Katana you’ll get an awesome functional katana.
The blade is thick, solid, neatly polished and has a good sharpness.
The fittings look good and so does the saya.
But if you want a functional katana just to use it as a display katana you might want to skip this one because of the quality of the Ito.
But for the practitioner this won’t be a problem.

8,5 out of 10