Musashi Elite Series: Tempest Katana
Jul 22, 2010 1:05:48 GMT
Post by Deleted on Jul 22, 2010 1:05:48 GMT
Hi everyone I am back! ^_^
For a while now I have wanted the Musashi Tempest Katana, sadly my two normal pit-stops for online swords which are: Trueswords and Swordsofmight did not have the sword in stock . This bummed me out a bit, so I decided to venture into uncharted waters. After checking the SBG store directory, I decided to check out SwordsOfTheEast.com. After reading some feedback, and some back and forth emails I felt confident and placed an order for this Katana and the Musashi Ceremonial Tanto(will upload a review for this too).
The sword shipped the same day, but I received it today because: 1. The swords shipped on Friday and 2. UPS had an "emergency exception" yesterday.
SwordsOfTheEast was a pleasure to deal with fast shipping and quality feedback! So if you find yourself in a similar situation to mine check them out, or if you just want to buy a sword from a reputable company look no further!
Musashi Tempest Katana
The sword arrived in a cardboard box(not pictured) which housed my order. After unpacking it I found myself before a red embroidered box with dragons, the Tanto I purchased a week earlier came in a similar box only it was smaller. It should be noted the swords from the Elite series are meant to be Dojo cutters.
I couldn't wait to open this thing, so I carefully opened it, and felt filled with joy.
Included inside was the sword, a sword bag, and a COA. The sword bag was of better quality then the ones that come with lower end swords. But the COA is where the confusion all began. According to SwordsOfTheEast this sword is 1060 Carbon Steel, yet the COA says 1045.
I decided to contact SwordsOfMight, and SwordsOfTheEast respectively to get a second opinion, and both said basically the same thing that they contacted the forge and assured me it was 1060 CS. After checking the COA of my other Musashi purchase(the Tanto) it became clear to me these COA's from Musashi are not very reliable. The Tanto COA(which I will show in my future review) had a picture of the Asuka Tanto, when the one I had purchased was not that particular one, it also mentioned the Tsuka had "real same ray skin" when the Tanto is all wood, also the COA says the blade length is 29.5 inches, when it is the same size as my Ryumon Okinawa Katana which is 27 inches. But anyway, a friend who owns the Musashi Bamboo Katana told me(before I purchased) that he had seen both swords and said they both had the same blade while the Tempest had much better fittings and that they were both 1060 carbon steel. It's possible the Tempest is simply a Bamboo katana with more beautiful fittings.
Here are the measurements:
Blade: 1060 Carbon Steel
Weight: 2.4 Ibs
Tsuba: Copper with Silver and Gold paint
Blade Length: 27 inches
Tsuka Length: 11 inches
Fittings
After removing the sword from the sword bag I was hit by some very beautiful fittings, and what otherwise looked like a very well assembled sword. Above is a picture of the habaki with the Musashi logo on it. This might not be liked by many people, but I personally like it.
The Tsuba is made of copper and painted with real gold and silver paint, this picture does not do it justice! It is beautifully painted and the craftsmanship is absolutely flawless. So far I am very pleased.
The fuchi further follows the storm or tempest theme of the sword. It is made and painted with the exact same style of the Tsuba and looks awesome!
Moving on...The menuki appear to be a wave, they are painted silver, and look very nice. I touched them and they appear to be made of plastic which is slightly disappointing but they look good regardless. The same is also very nice, each little nodule looks like a small pearl, and unlike my Ryumon each nodule are noticeably large. Very nice!
And finally we make our way to the Kashira, it features a gold outline, with silver coloured waves. It's rare to find a sword that has it's fittings so similar and complimentary. Overall the fittings get a 5/5, everything is done artfully and perfect! It should be noted all swords of the Musashi Elite series have fittings that match in harmony like this sword.
Let's see the blade...
Blade
When I first took the blade out of the Saya it had a huge portion of oil covering it, I had to polish the blade with some cream to remove the oil residue and stains left by it. Thr result as you can see above is a beauty to behond ^_^.
The blade features a very beautiful and uniform hamon that is the same on both sides. What I love about it is the fact it looks so natural.
The kissaki is artfully polished along with the rest of the blade, and has a beautiful boshi as you can see here.
The entire blade is hand sharpened, and polished very well, if you look at the blade from an angle you can easily see reflection! Overall the blade and fittings speak for themselves!
Saya
The saya is made of wood, and has a glossy piano black lacquer finish, the blade fits snuggly in the saya, but comes out fairly easily and doesn't fall out when turned upside down! This sword is awesome!
Cutting
Since I have no bottles, and my Tatami stand has not arrived yet I decided to just embed a video of a masterful cutter using another sword from the Musashi Elite Series called the "Sky Dragon", it is the same sword with different fittings. As you can see the sword effortlessly slices through tatami. I held the sword and swung it around a little it's very light and handles awesomely, although I feel my Ryumon handles better.
Conclusion
This sword blew me away I love it, it looks beautiful can cut artfully, and overall is an awesome buy for $200 that is in every way an excellent buy!
Pro's
Beautiful Fittings
Hand Sharpened Blade
Natural & Prominent Hamon
Excellent Polish
Excellent Cutter
Light and Handles Well
Affordable
Made by Chris Zhou ^_^
Con's
COA was confusing
One of the seppa has the words "China" printed on it, but a simple dissassembly fixed this.
1045 or 1060 Steel??
Here is my collection ^_^, what you see are as follows:
Musashi Tempest Katana
United Cutlery/Black Black Dragon Wakizashi
Musashi Ceremonial Tanto
Hanwei Shinobi Ninja-to
Dragon Carved Bokken
Sai
And some Bruce Lee Nunchaku
Cold Steel Shark
Masahiro Stand
A 440 SS Shuriken from Trueswords
-Yakuza
For a while now I have wanted the Musashi Tempest Katana, sadly my two normal pit-stops for online swords which are: Trueswords and Swordsofmight did not have the sword in stock . This bummed me out a bit, so I decided to venture into uncharted waters. After checking the SBG store directory, I decided to check out SwordsOfTheEast.com. After reading some feedback, and some back and forth emails I felt confident and placed an order for this Katana and the Musashi Ceremonial Tanto(will upload a review for this too).
The sword shipped the same day, but I received it today because: 1. The swords shipped on Friday and 2. UPS had an "emergency exception" yesterday.
SwordsOfTheEast was a pleasure to deal with fast shipping and quality feedback! So if you find yourself in a similar situation to mine check them out, or if you just want to buy a sword from a reputable company look no further!
Musashi Tempest Katana
The sword arrived in a cardboard box(not pictured) which housed my order. After unpacking it I found myself before a red embroidered box with dragons, the Tanto I purchased a week earlier came in a similar box only it was smaller. It should be noted the swords from the Elite series are meant to be Dojo cutters.
I couldn't wait to open this thing, so I carefully opened it, and felt filled with joy.
Included inside was the sword, a sword bag, and a COA. The sword bag was of better quality then the ones that come with lower end swords. But the COA is where the confusion all began. According to SwordsOfTheEast this sword is 1060 Carbon Steel, yet the COA says 1045.
I decided to contact SwordsOfMight, and SwordsOfTheEast respectively to get a second opinion, and both said basically the same thing that they contacted the forge and assured me it was 1060 CS. After checking the COA of my other Musashi purchase(the Tanto) it became clear to me these COA's from Musashi are not very reliable. The Tanto COA(which I will show in my future review) had a picture of the Asuka Tanto, when the one I had purchased was not that particular one, it also mentioned the Tsuka had "real same ray skin" when the Tanto is all wood, also the COA says the blade length is 29.5 inches, when it is the same size as my Ryumon Okinawa Katana which is 27 inches. But anyway, a friend who owns the Musashi Bamboo Katana told me(before I purchased) that he had seen both swords and said they both had the same blade while the Tempest had much better fittings and that they were both 1060 carbon steel. It's possible the Tempest is simply a Bamboo katana with more beautiful fittings.
Here are the measurements:
Blade: 1060 Carbon Steel
Weight: 2.4 Ibs
Tsuba: Copper with Silver and Gold paint
Blade Length: 27 inches
Tsuka Length: 11 inches
Fittings
After removing the sword from the sword bag I was hit by some very beautiful fittings, and what otherwise looked like a very well assembled sword. Above is a picture of the habaki with the Musashi logo on it. This might not be liked by many people, but I personally like it.
The Tsuba is made of copper and painted with real gold and silver paint, this picture does not do it justice! It is beautifully painted and the craftsmanship is absolutely flawless. So far I am very pleased.
The fuchi further follows the storm or tempest theme of the sword. It is made and painted with the exact same style of the Tsuba and looks awesome!
Moving on...The menuki appear to be a wave, they are painted silver, and look very nice. I touched them and they appear to be made of plastic which is slightly disappointing but they look good regardless. The same is also very nice, each little nodule looks like a small pearl, and unlike my Ryumon each nodule are noticeably large. Very nice!
And finally we make our way to the Kashira, it features a gold outline, with silver coloured waves. It's rare to find a sword that has it's fittings so similar and complimentary. Overall the fittings get a 5/5, everything is done artfully and perfect! It should be noted all swords of the Musashi Elite series have fittings that match in harmony like this sword.
Let's see the blade...
Blade
When I first took the blade out of the Saya it had a huge portion of oil covering it, I had to polish the blade with some cream to remove the oil residue and stains left by it. Thr result as you can see above is a beauty to behond ^_^.
The blade features a very beautiful and uniform hamon that is the same on both sides. What I love about it is the fact it looks so natural.
The kissaki is artfully polished along with the rest of the blade, and has a beautiful boshi as you can see here.
The entire blade is hand sharpened, and polished very well, if you look at the blade from an angle you can easily see reflection! Overall the blade and fittings speak for themselves!
Saya
The saya is made of wood, and has a glossy piano black lacquer finish, the blade fits snuggly in the saya, but comes out fairly easily and doesn't fall out when turned upside down! This sword is awesome!
Cutting
Since I have no bottles, and my Tatami stand has not arrived yet I decided to just embed a video of a masterful cutter using another sword from the Musashi Elite Series called the "Sky Dragon", it is the same sword with different fittings. As you can see the sword effortlessly slices through tatami. I held the sword and swung it around a little it's very light and handles awesomely, although I feel my Ryumon handles better.
Conclusion
This sword blew me away I love it, it looks beautiful can cut artfully, and overall is an awesome buy for $200 that is in every way an excellent buy!
Pro's
Beautiful Fittings
Hand Sharpened Blade
Natural & Prominent Hamon
Excellent Polish
Excellent Cutter
Light and Handles Well
Affordable
Made by Chris Zhou ^_^
Con's
COA was confusing
One of the seppa has the words "China" printed on it, but a simple dissassembly fixed this.
1045 or 1060 Steel??
Here is my collection ^_^, what you see are as follows:
Musashi Tempest Katana
United Cutlery/Black Black Dragon Wakizashi
Musashi Ceremonial Tanto
Hanwei Shinobi Ninja-to
Dragon Carved Bokken
Sai
And some Bruce Lee Nunchaku
Cold Steel Shark
Masahiro Stand
A 440 SS Shuriken from Trueswords
-Yakuza