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.

A few closer shots, good and bad.....mostly good.....the grace of the curve to tip slightly marred by flattening across top of arch line, but taken down to same good edge, and someone truly bugged could fix it. Functionally it effects not much, and nice hand polish straight down every facet of blade.

The choice of blade style was one without a fuller, in swordom, the fuller as much for whistling effect aural cue of a good flat swing as it is for lightening the blade. And this short blade velocity would be lower so not much whistling going on, plus I wanted strength fudge factor for actual use.

Edge hardness with a file shows desired moderate hardness, file does not skate as on ice, but neither does it bite and grab/stick on gummy soft metal. Combined with previous prying between boardwalk planks seriously moving planks and no bend, much less set, to blade says "user" to me.

Handle wrap far tighter and of better material than the above Hanwei, and what rayskin there is shows the finer more even pebbled finish of better stuff.

For bin assembled cast fittings, quite decent looking. The really expensive stuff is hand engraved in deep relief on $10,000-$20,000 katana.

The genuine horn fittings of sheath at mouth/lash point/toe are decently done and show some pretty tricky mounting for $25 at sheath mouth mating to wood, well executed....

A sword afficianado forum might call this a $50 knife, but I would call them wrong....not bad for a "wall hangar".

Thank you Lofty, as always, very informative!

In Japan swords I am a complete zero))

Same here, DS, complete zero and obviously a dabbler simply passing along what I have learned....a world of knives to explore and this is something lighter in subject, hopefully entertaining and informative, and diverting break over how many sheath thread stitches per inch in 1963 debate type posts. All worthy of detailed research, including same detail on Nipponese swords, but many other interesting things, too...

For those considering a play sword of whatever style/length/culture/epoch, there is a marketing phrase used to separate the fragile dangerous true wall decoration type from those which should not break if bashed, and that common phrase is "battle ready"......no guarantee of anything until tested, but it should not snap like an icicle. You are on your own as for edge not denting when chopping various stuff or blade not warping...but it should not break.

and ANOTHER PS (to keep from running up own post count on threads)- if anyone curious, what appears to be an ornate handle style seems actually to be an evolution purely for function....going from a wood handle found too slick, to ray skin added for traction, to laced flat wrap twisted a half turn to increase grip and thickness while adding "finger grooves", to adding the high relief metal figurines held in place by the laced wrap which provide offset swells on either side of handle flat.

Also, the metal spacer discs with pie crust edges on front and back of guard are there to act as stacked shims to tighten handle components.

AND, the retention of sword to sheath effected by a tapered fit of blade hilt sleeve into wood sheath (driving a new sword completely into sheath can split the sheath), with inevitable wear/looseness cured by glueing veneer shims into sheath mouth.

AND the blade hilt sleeve also there for the original thumb break release without slicing pad of thumb to the bone at the speed draw, every bit of it geared to fastest draw leading to immediate strike, and any sword fight lasting normally only a matter of seconds at most, depending on who messed up first, just as with our own culture.

AND, too many other details to ever recall, much less, post.