Many here might remember the QVC video of a stainless fake Japanese katana breaking live on TV and stabbing one of the pitchmen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N4hprpRJhM

NEVER buy stainless. The carbon steel blades are another story, and if a main complaint exists as for quality, it would be blades sometimes too soft, and buyer with no idea if actually reputed folded 1065, or solid 1095 or some fancier combo, or exactly what steel really used.

The cheapest ones run $50 and have a fake wire brushed heat treat/hamon line and probably zinc fittings, jump to circa $100-$150 for actual hamon, brass, iron/steel, or copper fittings or whatever, and get into several hundred for various claimed layered/stacked combos of steel.

There is a good sloppy built Hanwei brand "Raptor"-line 56-58 Rc spring steel 5160 cutter with blackened soft stainless fittings, fake suede leather wrap, tough sharp blade circa $175-$225, and made for practice cutting, for reasons listed below. Traditional construction and wooden pebble paint sheath with horn lash point, I really wish the military had ever issued us such a strong cutter with maybe the wood parts swapped out for plastic. Talk about a combat knife/brush buster. And bare blade only 12 ozs.










But if a guy wanted fake pretty, he could, for same money of under $200, have delivered straight from China and with a 2wk wait on custom sheath and 6day shipping, get a sheath with horn at toe/mouth/lash point, a reputed 1095 blade with hamon, nicer assembly than the Hanwei, reputed brass and copper fittings, and an edge which does not dent or dull with a couple of experimental whacks into a treated 4×4 post top and sides, and when used to pry boardwalk planks into serious movement, no bending or taking a set. This from an ebay vendor by name of HanBon sword, who probably just places orders with sword making firms in a sword making town/capitol, with good reviews and known actual delivery. This custom sheath a whopping extra $25 for the horn appointments.

It might not hold up to regular cutting large bamboo or rolled rice mats (the rice mats in short supply here), but as with the $50 blades, one at least gets a nice wall hangar which should work at least once if need arose. Probably main gripe with the slicing set simply being the thicker/stronger blade would not be the razor they prefer. At 18 oz, it is considerably stouter than the above Hanwei slicer.

Should mention the more expensive better quality $500-$1000 swords also from Sinoland are not up to less than perfect square hits or a warped blade will result, and perhaps even true of a $10,000 Nippon sword. None are exactly my idea of a sword where I was taught a sword should cleave stone and anvil.

My idea for anything less is simply one that looks decent at first glance and one that works maybe one time. Both are perfect for those who remember Robert Mitchum and Takakura Ken taking out an entire Yakuza safehouse in the Pollack movie "The Yakuza".





Just another note from the fringe of knifedom.







I think most would agree that given blade dimensions and carbon steel already known to not be brittle, either knife would work at least one time.

Will add one more thing here, as obviously nice $5000-$10000 tantos and katanas not my thing.....but, I DO like the genious of a modular blade, where with one or two tapered crosspins driven out, the wooden handle, covered with rayskin (the cheap ones more with just side panels of rayskin glued to wood), and with silk (fake or otherwise) wrap securing the pommel, all comes off as one unit, then the front collar, spacer/guard/spacer, and then finally the blade sleeve, all can be slid or driven off tang, and leave entire bare blade wide open for maintenance. I like that. For those who enjoy unforeseen problems of fit and hole alignment, every one of the components can be swapped out. You can have that part.

PPS- you will note I tried very hard to avoid the Anglicized Japanese terminology for parts, as who wants to flip back and forth to a reference chart every other word?



https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_sword_mountings#

Pity me who DID need do such flipping back and forth, simply to order the thing and specifying what version/option of every part on the knife, and needing do that with a guy taking an order in China. The Chinese guy fluent in the terminology, but I was lucky I did not order a horn blade, copper sheath with steel fittings, and handle wrapped in brass wire. Keep that chart handy if ever on a USA based sword forum, or just drive them crazy by using our own language.