This authentic Japanese bushido katana from paul chen is a top class sword
of the Hanwei forge.
The swords from the bushido serie does come with a mirror polish and they have
great qualitative fittings. Each of the swords in the busido serie (the katana
in this case) is handforged & folded and does have a powder steel blade.
The process of forging & folding are offering a good folding pattern (ayasugi
hada) and temper line (hamon).
Both traditional and modern techniques were used to forge this blade. The blade
of this katana sword is differentially tempered, by using traditional claying
methods on the blade witch results in a hardness of 60HRC on the edge and about
40HRC on the back. The saya of this katana is kind of special since it is lacquered
in gold and inlaid with sakura flowers.
High quality rayskin is used on the tsuka and brown imported japanese ito is
used to wrap the handle. Tsuba and fushi & kashira are made of bronzed &
blackened iron, with silver and gold decorations representing Japanese battle
scenes. This katana sword comes without bo-hi (groove).
Personally I feel that this sword is a real collectors item and is suitable
for iaido practising. I would not recommend this katana sword for lot of (heavy)cutting
exercises and if You decide to cut, only use light targets.
Of course, this Hanwei authentic Japanese katana does come with a maintenance
kit and sword bag as usual.