# Communities > Modern-era Swords and Collecting Community > Modern Production Katanas >  Ronin Dojo Elite Katana

## M.K. Ridgeway

*Ronin Dojo Elite Katana* 
*This is a Factory Second?*

Marc Kaden Ridgeway
3 Feb 2012
Atlanta , GA






 This is the most important katana review I've ever written. It may well be the most important one I ever write. This review may not change the paradigm, but it should. This sword has forever changed my view on production...and even custom katana.

 I have allowed my prejudice against the gaudy , mass produced , copper fittings on many Chinese katana to make me dismiss the Ronin Elite line for quite some time. In fact I saw someone reccomend a Ronin Elite in a thread about high-end katana and scoffed to myself . I thought," Ronin Katana makes great sub-$300  swords"  as I reccomended Citadel myself. That was a mistake. I have owned a Citadel before, and it doesn't touch this blade.

 Prejudice is an ugly thing. 

 I guess that post got in my head, because some short time later I clicked on the Ronin site and took my first real look at an elite.  I then sent Chris a PM right away complimenting him on it...

 So when Chris mentioned he had a reject Elite that I could destroy I was mildly excited to see it, as I liked the photos I saw. When it got here , it blew me away.

 No freaking way I'm destroying this blade.

 So , why did Chris reject this blade?   I mean it isn't just a second... this is a sword he deemed unsuitable to even sell for a discounted price. 

 Huh?

 Chris:   There is polishing chip on the ha

Me:       Ok check , I see that MICRO-chip if I hold it to the light.

Chris :    This blades polish is in the bottom 10% of my elites 

Me:       Really ? The geometry is stunning

Chris :     If you feel along the edge on both sides, you'll find a couple of places where the polish is a tad uneven. On 9 out of 10 elites, the edge profile is exactly the same on both sides. 

Me :  Ummmmm  Ok ... yeah I feel it (Um no I don't , jeez , how anal IS this guy)
 Anyway , for Chris this was a reject to poor to sell . For me it is a eureka katana.

The Chinese have associations for swords, and crafts , and they rank the craftsmen. The Chinese also have a bunch of factory workers. So who do you think runs the sword companies?  Not the factory workers, the ranked smiths. So if you order a box of swords from a Chinese factory you get swords made by factory workers, with MAYBE some supervision from a good smith. When you order thousands of swords a year you earn a bit of the ranked smith's time... and if you pay enough, he'll actually pick up a hammer. 

 This isn't meant to be 100% accurate , but paints a pretty clear picture of the situation.

 Ronin Katana buys enough to get the attention and time of Master Smiths. The Dojo Elite line is the result.

 The smith that forged this particular blade is a  Chinese Arts and Crafts Rank 2 Master , a registered swordsmith, a high-ranking member of Chinese Sword Association who has won the Gold award 5 times , silver award 7 times and brass award 4 times in the national folk arts and arts and crafts show.



 What's funny is this blade passed his inspection , hell it passes mine with 2 minutes worth of nick removal , but it failed Chris's inspection. That says a lot.





*
Historical Overview*

 The swordsmiths in Japan forged their blades from tamahagane, a steel smelted from iron bearing river sand.  When tamahagane is smelted , the process results in a bloom of steel that is extremely high carbon in places and low in others. The Japanese folded this to make it uniform. 

 The ever innovative smiths used differential hardening to make the swords have very hard, sharp edges , but supple spines. Still swords failed and sworsmiths sought ways to minimize this , and make their swords sharper and more resilent. 

 One way they they did this was by laminating layers of higher and lower carbon steels together , to make soft cores and hard skins... etc.  Many different lamination styles were used, including the most complex one, credited to the most legendary of all Japanese smiths, Masamune. That one is  the soshu kitae tradition (seven panel steel). This school was developed by the Japanese smith Masamune, and combines panels of hard, medium, and soft 
steels. The core of the blade is formed from softer, more malleable steel giving it exceptional flexibility. A layer of 
slightly harder steel is bonded to each side of the core to add support. The last layers are a very hard steel bonded to 
the top, bottom, and both sides of the core forming the ha (cutting edge) mune (back edge) and shinogi-ji (blade flats). 
This form of laminar construction provided for a sword that could be sharpened to a razor edge due to the hardened 
steed used for the ha, but was extremely resilient to battle damage due to its softer more flexible core.





 This Ronin Dojo Elite is forged in the Soshu Kitae method. In the next photos you can see the lamination line.









*Specifications*

Nagasa : 28 in
Weight : 2lbs. 13 oz
Motohaba : 1.25 in
Sakihaba : .8 in
Motokasane : 8mm
Sakikasane : 5mm
POB  : 5 in. from tsuba
Tsuka : 11 in. with fittings

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## M.K. Ridgeway

*
Aesthetics : Fit & Finish*

The 28 inch blade is forged and laminated from 1095/1060/1045 steels in the shinogi Zukuri sugata. The blade exhibits nice fumbari. The kissaki is the most crisply defined geometric chu kissaki on any production or custom katana I have ever had in hand. I know there are better , but I haven't personally seen better. In fact look at the the similarities it shares with this sketch of an ideal chu-kissaki. I'll call the hamon toran , but am open to correction.



 The blade is stone polished , though this particular blade is done to a mid level polish at best. The shinogi ji are bright mirror polished while the  ji are in a hazy satin. At this level of polish we don't get the whitening of the hamon (its not acid enhanced) instead it shows its hardness by the bright polish . Ronin reports the hardness at 62 on the ha and 40 on the spine. I have no proof of this, but also I have no reasom to doubt it.

 On complex laminations like these , special attention has to be paid when heat treating the blade , or it will fail... thus the heat treat is damn good and specially done. I dare say no other production company pays to assure a superior heat treat like Ronin does on these complex laminates.

 The lines on this blade are crisp... and makes the geometry really pop.  I know guys like Chris Osbourne and Keith Larman  could spot plenty of shortcomings , but to a guy of my experience (way less than theirs) and at this price this is a damn good looking blade.

 The 11 inch tsuka is panelled in white samegawa , and wrapped with brown silk. The tsuka is pleasingly rikko shaped. While the diamonds in the ito-maki aren't perfectly shaped and uniform they are the best I've seen on a production katana , and far better than my custom Rawblade mounted by Fred Lohman. 

 The fittings are made of copper , and cast from hand carved originals. The tsuba has a dragon in water , and the fuchi-gashira have a lobster, maybe? IDK , I can't tell, they are kinda busy and there's a lot going on, I can't really see. 

 The seppa are brass , key fret and the habaki is brass , grooved and filed.

 The piano-lacquered saya sports lustrous horn elements , and is dressed in silk sageo.

 There is a lot of little attention to details... like hishigame ... oh and the saya is the same diameter as the fuchi ,,, one of thos details you see on customs , but not often on production blades.

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## M.K. Ridgeway

*Handling Characteristics*

 This is a beefy blade true, but the fumbari and the profile and distal taper help this sword handle with effortless precision. It goes where you tell it to , and stops when you tell it to. 

 The balance is at 5 inches from the tsuba.

 The tight ito-maki and the rikko shaped tsuba feel great in hand .

 Holding the sword one can feel its weight, it just feels powerful,like a dragster but once in motion it transforms into a Audi Quattro.

 Hey, I know this is a cheesy handling section ... but it is what it is ... it handles like a katana, a good one... what else can I say?

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## M.K. Ridgeway

*Cutting*

 I haven't really got to do any cutting with this yet. I can tell it isa brutal cutter and will eat bamboo its got great niku. But I haven't had the time to do so .  So you'll have to settle for this cheesy video for now...  My son is cutting with his Dojo Pro #2 and I am using the Elite













*The Good, The Bad & The Ugly*


 I'm going to be especially nit-picky here, as I am singing this blades praises so loudly, I think it is important to be very critical. We also have to keep in mind that the sword is a reject for multiple reasons.

  The good:  The geometry is the best I've seen on any blade. I was going to post comparison photos with the kissaki juxtaposed against some other swords I've reviewed , but felt that was tacky... if you want to see how much better this one is you'll have to dig up my old reviews yourself. Also could is the handling and general fit and finish.

 The Bad :  On the tsuka where hishigame is used , you can see the tape line here and there... not glaring, but there.  The seppa between the tsuba and habaki is loose. The habaki could fit better . And according to Chris the polish is sub-standard for this line , and uneven... remember this IS a reject.

The Ugly:  The Damn Fittings... sorry , I just cant wrap my mind around them.  They do the job though... and they can be changed out ;0

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## M.K. Ridgeway

*Conclusion*

 I'm going to keep it short and sweet here. This sword changed the way I think about the high-end production sword market.  Period. Except at $800 its not really high end , but maybe high-mid. Except that this is a blade deemed not good enough to sell , but it still completely rewrote my evaluations of the market. And of customs.

 Granted I've only had entry level  custom kats...  I havent owned a diCristifano polished by Osbourne , Tenolds or Larman, but this sword outclasses those customs I have had... such as my beloved James Raw blade.

 The only let down here for me is the fittings... some silver fittings with a black iron tsuba would set this sword off ... and maybe nanbo blue ito  :Wink: 

 Here is a blade , forged by a ranked master smith I couldn't afford if I was a one blade buyer... good thing Ronin Katana isn't.  We have complex lamination, superior heat treat, crisp geometry , good wrap, rikko shaped tsuka .

 This is a blade that changed my perceptions. And its a blade I'm proud to own. And its a reject.

Thanks for reading.











[

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## James Rot.

Wonderful looking blades on those, shame the koshirae has to look so damn cheap. I believe those are dragon heads on the fuchi kashira and not lobsters.

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## Timo Qvintus

Thanks for the review, mate. I'd like to address a few points to cool you down a bit:  :Wink: 

First; fuchigashira, tsuba and menuki are the ugliest I've ever seen on $50+ sword. Worse, they look like they're cast pot metal, in which case they'd be dangerous to use as the fuchi would fail if the tsuka-core fails. How anyone would put these on a non-wallhanger is beyond me, and a tell-tale sign that this sword has not been planned very well at all.

While I do appreciate the skill needed to pull off a laminated blade, I don't understand the need to do so when dealing with modern metals (unless it's for showing off the lamination on the ji). But that's neither here nor there.

What do you mean by "habaki could fit better"? At $800 mark I'd expect a pretty damn good (if not even perfect) fit.

Mekugi looks like it's of poor quality, and has the crap beaten out of it! Definitely needs replacing, preferably with a good quality one.

And finally, that's a chu-kissaki, not ko-kissaki.

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## M.K. Ridgeway

> Thanks for the review, mate. I'd like to address a few points to cool you down a bit:


Ah, thank you Timo for not blowing my expectations... there are alwats people here waiting to piss on your parade.




> First; fuchigashira, tsuba and menuki are the ugliest I've ever seen on $50+ sword. Worse, they look like they're cast pot metal, in which case they'd be dangerous to use as the fuchi would fail if the tsuka-core fails. How anyone would put these on a non-wallhanger is beyond me, and a tell-tale sign that this sword has not been planned very well at all.


 Wrong.

They are ugly... very.  I mentioned that in the review . But they are copper not pot-metal ,and they will be changed out by me ASAP. 
 I asked why these fittings... in fact my feedback to the maker was to tell him that these fittings , and the others on the elites did him no favors.
 The answer is that he wants 50-60 unique elites each year , and so has to use what is availiable on the market. Is it ideal? No... but it is what ir is , and I addressed that.
  As to the sword being poorly planned, well I am privy to information that I can't share here about the plans and design for these elite blades... and I can tell  you that your assumption that it is poorly planned is WAY off base.




> While I do appreciate the skill needed to pull off a laminated blade, I don't understand the need to do so when dealing with modern metals (unless it's for showing off the lamination on the ji). But that's neither here nor there.


 And why does Bugei fold their blades?  And why does Dynasty make tamahagane? And why still differentially harden?   You are right.. its neither here nor there , so I wonder. why bring it up?

 The thing is , the skill required to make a laminated blade is a statement as to the quality smith forging thes swords.






> What do you mean by "habaki could fit better"? At $800 mark I'd expect a pretty damn good (if not even perfect) fit


.

 There is a small gap between habaki and blade on the omote side. I've seen worse on $1200 blades , indeed worse on customs pictured here... but in the interest of a fair review in bore noting.




> Mekugi looks like it's of poor quality, and has the crap beaten out of it! Definitely needs replacing, preferably with a good quality one.


 I did that to the mekugi myself ... with a metal punch , inspecting the sword prior to the review ... and I will replace it too , thanks for your concern.







> And finally, that's a chu-kissaki, not ko-kissaki.


DAMN !!  youre right. Why did I type ko twice?  I actualy spent 15 minutes double checking the propportions of the kissaki in relation to the proprtions of the blade to make sure I got it right and still typed the wrong one. Damn.

 Thanks for catching that.

Timo , I appreciate you trying to cool me off...  I expect no less from SFI... I have often had people try to cool me off here, you remember , I'm sure.

 The thing is Timo, I have this sword in hand... I have also had in hand Bugei , Hanwei, Citadel , Red Dragonfly, Huawei, Kensei, Dynasty Forge , Cold Steel , Kanei, Huanou , Oni Forge , the list goes on and on ... including a couple of customs I won't be naming , and one or two shinshinto era antiques.

 I am not a nihonto expert, but I have put in my time and money and efforts to understand the production and lower-level ($1000- $3000) custom market ... Ive owned and cut with hundreds of katana from the $80 Bamboo to the $1800 Citadel. I got a Rawblade sitting beside me as I type this. I have reviewed dozens of swords and tested half a dozen to total destruction.  My European collection is made up entirely of Joh Lundemos , Albions, Atrims and a Rob Miller. I am not a fool , and I am a pretty decent judge of quality swords...

 I am definitely not an expert. I can't begin to compare myself to Osbourne, Larman or those caliber people ... wouldn't dream of it. But I do know what I do know , and at least have an idea of how much  I don't know.

 Having this sword in hand ... I can tell you , scratch the fittings , that it is the finest sub $2000 katana I have ever owned. I agree about the fittings... I don't give a darn... easiest thing to change. 

 You don't have to trust me... I don't mind. I'm putting the info out there , as I have before.  I've put in the time and work to allow myself to trust my own opinion , I don't require you to trust it... but neither do I require to be cooled off.  I've done a thorough inspection of this sword already... theres nothing that you can point out that I haven't seen.... except that stupid mistake about the kissaki,  

I do appreciate that.  :Smilie: 

Oh yeah... remember this sword is a reject , deemed in the bottom 10 percentile and too poor to sell. That is a pretty important consideration , Timo.

Thanks  :Smilie:

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## Timo Qvintus

> Ah, thank you Timo for not blowing my expectations... there are alwats people here waiting to piss on your parade.


As opposed to unquestioning praise on SGB? I'd rather have people trying to point out something they feel I've missed, but maybe that's just me.




> They are ugly... very.  I mentioned that in the review . But they are copper not pot-metal ,and they will be changed out by me ASAP. 
>  I asked why these fittings... in fact my feedback to the maker was to tell him that these fittings , and the others on the elites did him no favors.
>  The answer is that he wants 50-60 unique elites each year , and so has to use what is availiable on the market. Is it ideal? No... but it is what ir is , and I addressed that.
>   As to the sword being poorly planned, well I am privy to information that I can't share here about the plans and design for these elite blades... and I can tell  you that your assumption that it is poorly planned is WAY off base.


I'd rather not go into the old car-comparisons, but anyway.. if you want to make unique swords at this price range, I'd recommend them doing something unique to the blades themselves (details that come out with good polishing) than artificially make them "different" using every set of cheap f/k that Lonquan foundries can dish out. While it's good to know that the f/k are not pot-metal, I still think that this is poor planning.




> And why does Bugei fold their blades?  And why does Dynasty make tamahagane? And why still differentially harden?   You are right.. its neither here nor there , so I wonder. why bring it up?
> 
>  The thing is , the skill required to make a laminated blade is a statement as to the quality smith forging thes swords.


I don't know why I brought it up to be honest. A dull day? FWIW, I don't understand folded production blades either, unless they're treated to a high-quality hand polish, but none are. Diff.hardening is a different story though, that is still very much needed (even if it's not as essential any more as it once was).




> There is a small gap between habaki and blade on the omote side. I've seen worse on $1200 blades , indeed worse on customs pictured here... but in the interest of a fair review in bore noting.


OK that's cool then. I was just wondering since you brought it up, that's all.




> *resume*


I know that you know. I've been along for most of the ride since the glory days of "Masahiro Bamboo" (I still own one and love it for what it's worth). That's the reason why I was thrown off by your review that at a glance reminds me of one of those starry-eyed chinatana-newbie reviews. It's nice to know that someone in China has stepped up their game regarding production of quality blades, and that Ronin have QC that will trash a sword based on any defect.

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## M.K. Ridgeway

Well , I think this years Elites are going to include a certain number with iron fittings and sukashi tsuba...  

I do appreciate you catching that mistake on the kissaki.

Sorry if I seemed brusque... I typed first thing when I woke this morning.

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## Timo Qvintus

> I typed first thing when I woke this morning.


You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din! When I wake up all I can type is "need..more..coffee.." until around mid-day.

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## Aaron Justice

Are you sure they're copper?

A lot of Chinese makers call their metal koshirae copper when they're not. Usually plated brass.

Copper really can't be cast the way these look. Sure, you CAN cast copper... but then the koshirae will be as soft as butter, like heating up a copper pipe. You would be able to bend a tsuba in half with your bare hands. Copper needs to be work hardened and then have the details chiseled out to be useful, otherwise you'd cut with the blade then then notice your koshirae is all twisted out of alignment.

Other than that, good review. Like mentioned before, why forge a blade in a laminated style? Well, because you can. I know it's a production sword, but if a high ranking smith suddenly wanted to forge in an old style, I don't think anyone would question that. Unless for purely cutting purposes, I never buy mono steel blades, differentially hardened or not. I prefer anything forge folded just to get even a semblance of the same kind of work originally done to it.

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## M.K. Ridgeway

I would have thought brass as well Aaron... and they may well be. Chris told me they were copper in good faith and I believe in his honesty. His reasoning is that pure copper is not magnetic, but mixed with Zinc it is... 

Based upon your experience then , I would say they are brass. 

They will be changed to sterling soon enough.

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## J MacDonald

Zinc is non-magnetic.

The only magnetic metals that I am aware of (in normal conditions) are iron, cobalt and nickel. So we know that these fittings do not contain those elements.

In any case, I think this is beside the point. In think we all agree that the fittings look pretty awful. 

I'm interested in the tsuka. What king of wood do they use? Is it well made? How does it feel in the hand?

How far is the kurigata from the koiguchi?

Thanks for posting Marc.

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## Jussi Ekholm

Nice review again M.K., good to see your pics again mate.

This thread makes me feel like I never was away from here, for a moment I thought this forum was much slower than it used to be... But this thread pumped some fuel on Modern Production Katanas forum.

I actually meant to reply yesterday but didn't have the time. Now take my insight with really big caution since I've been pretty much away from production sword market for 3-4 years. Just really slowly returning now.

There are some things in blades of Soshu Gitae Ronin Elites (looked every one at roninkatanas) that glitches it for me but I cannot explain it very well. 

Firstly, this next part may just show how dumb I am when it comes to metallurgy. As I believe the some of swords have in some parts very clearly showing parts of lamination lines? within hamon (due to darkness of hamon)? (My knowledge in metallurgy is not in the level to make correct assumptions) I just can't get my head around this. In some pictures of their website the lines seem to run off the edge at some parts or creating pockets. Now I have not read nearly enough about forging and blademaking to understand all the fine details that go into it and this baffles me.

Secondly, well polishing is not really my strong points either (soon I'll have good book of it) but I cannot understand their decisions on finish. They advertise the japanese traditional fingerstone polish and I guess that they are indeed used in this process but when going through all that, why not push the last bit too. I would expect something bit more hadori-like (kesho) polish, opposite colors whiter hamon and darker ji, if they are using the fingerstones.

I know you said in your review that this sword was in mid level polish but I looked the examples on their website. Now as I said I do not know much about polishing but I don't think that fingerstones are needed to achieve that polishing result.

Now all those above parts may sound bit harsh, but all in all that (they) seem to be nice blade for the price. For those who trashed the awful koshirae, check the website much better and less flashy examples there. Sure plenty of more questions might pop into my brain when I think more.

What I can't get my head around is why this sword was rejected, I've seen much more worse blades on their site than the one you reviewed.

Now as copper might sound cool, doesn't mixing it with zinc make it just an alloy?

I have always liked your reviews although it's been long time since I last read one. I like the fact that you compare this to Citadel and Rawblade (both fine makers) since I've been fortunate to examine some (5-6) models of the first and own one made by latter. That is the main point that got me so intrested about these Ronins.

If there would be a line between Dojo Pro and Elite, and I wouldn't save for books and future polishing, I might be tempted to ship one to Finland examine it and then resell it.

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## Aaron Justice

> I would have thought brass as well Aaron... and they may well be. Chris told me they were copper in good faith and I believe in his honesty. His reasoning is that pure copper is not magnetic, but mixed with Zinc it is... 
> 
> Based upon your experience then , I would say they are brass. 
> 
> They will be changed to sterling soon enough.



Well, there ARE a few metals other than Fe that are magnetic, like nickel and cobalt, but so faintly you wouldn't be able to detect it by sticking a magnet to it. You would have to have atomized particles probably to get them to stick to a common house magnet.

I think there's a lot of translation issues when it comes to this, like Hyper-Cafe. They call their koshirae copper based, I've bought quite a few and they're clearly bronze (maybe brass but the color looks bronze).

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## M. Phan

Aaron,

Since you had been working on brass, copper, and bronze lately; can you tell which is stronger, brass or bronze?  I believe that bronze is tin/copper and brass is zinc/copper.  I like the color of bronze better -- deeper and richer.

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## Aaron Justice

Bronze is definitely stronger. Much stronger actually. It resists corrosion better (has a lot of marine applications due to being almost impervious to sea water) and, in some case, can actually be a better metal than iron as it is less brittle and has a much lower melting point. Once metal working techniques and crude steel became the norm, iron obviously became the better choice for weapons as old iron weapons were literally chiseled like stone.

Bronze is also more costly than brass, not sure by how much, but I've read as much as 3 times more. So I imagine if you can cast 3 or 4 koshirae sets for the price of 1 bronze set, it makes a pretty big difference.

Also, in working with the stuff, bronze tends to "squiggle" when you drill it, coming out in fine ribbons with the drill bit. Brass seems more brittle and flakes. 

It's a bit too much of an overlooked metal in my opinion. Very beautiful brown tones when patinaed correctly.

(BTW, I finished your full wrap and just got my Lohman ito in, will be finishing it soon).

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## Joo-Hwan Lee

Thanks for the review, M.K.   :Smilie:   I always look forward to your detailed insights, and think it's really awesome how you take the time bond and share with your son over cutting bottles, etc.  You seem like a really great dad.

Sorry to beat a dead horse, but I just have to add one more thought about the fittings--

Instead of trying to pull off such elaborate designs, which are both *poorly conceived* and *poorly executed*, these low-end makers really should stick to more simple or utilitarian designs.

For example: 
http://www.nihonzashi.com/tsuba.aspx..._Coat_Finishes
http://www.nihonzashi.com/tsuba_custom.aspx

A classic Higo f/k would probably be easier to pull off for the manufacturer and would have a broader appeal....  As my wife would say, a simple "little black dress" is infinitely more elegant than a loud, borderline-drag outfit.  

Just my own 2 cents....

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## Jussi Ekholm

Nevertheless of our comments, only M.K. or somebody who owns a Ronin can give hands on comments. It surprised myself how eager I am to hear more opinions by M.K. 

Still about the fittings...

I have to take my earlier words back a bit, all the plain fittings seem to belong to Dojo Pro line, but there are maybe 5-6 swords with less flashy fittings (material unknown) on Elite line too. In overall I think people seem to give too much attention to the fittings on this current sword, sure this one has some ugly fittings but I see the main point of this review being the quality of the Ronin Elite blade-wise.

Well I study marketing, and to my eyes production sword market is a really rough battlefield. So many companies all try to push their products (while mostly blades by almost every company are being made in china) and always have to do something to impress new and exsisting customers. This is 2-3 times as hard for Roninkatanas or any other new maker. Hanwei/Bugei, CS, DF etc. they have already succeeded to establish their reputation.

Now they might have made the wrong decision marketingwise by going with flashy koshirae but it's too late to regret that anymore. I believe that 2011 Elite line was their first? With first "batch" there are bound to be problems and mistakes will be made, that will hopefully be partly fixed on next 2012 production run. And M.K. already noted that they are already planning on improving their fittings for next run (and I noticed their site also says so). 

Now if the blade is of really good quality and the koshirae is greatly improved on 2012 production run, this could be a real gem if the price holds at that range. Unfortunately the first run had the fittings that painted the first impression for most of us. Like M.K. said in the opening I've shared the thought of these generally being sub 300$ class swords. Only the next 2012 run will show how much they've improved their Elite line.

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## Angelo Silva

Great review Mark! I love that blade.

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## Miguel V

As someone above said, plain iron Higo fittings would do much better. And I think Kobuse lamination is enough. Soshu just seems overkill. Less is more. No pics of nakago?

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## Jussi Ekholm

Now that I have quickly eyed The Art of Japanese Sword Polishing (awesome book) that I got today, I believe I might have stronger explanation what those weird lines are that got my attention in the beginning.

I believe they could be Kinsuji: Irregular clear lines inside the hamon which have a higher carbon content than the rest of the blade.

I guess it's just the style of polish in Ronin Elites that make them stand out so much.

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## A. Timp

It is a beautiful blade, with very crisp geometry.  I have been eyeing their elite kats for a long time now. Are the sayas on the elite line waxed as their lower end blades are? The habaki look to be the same as well....

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## Steven Monaco

Nice review. I have the Ronin dojo line sword I got it a while ago when he was using more....conservative fittings. Same color wrap, not quite as nicely done and same polish, with a hazy shinogi-ji. Sharp, but my Kris sword is sharper. Did you get this sword for free? Nice to have connections.

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## George Wright

He got it for free, but it was a second (so unable to sell). Basically he was given instructions to see how tough these blades really are, with some destruction tests (so he would destroy them not keep for himself). So Chris has a better idea and so the customers can see how tough they really are.

Of course as its so beautiful he refuses to destroy it. Pitty as i was really looking forward to seeing how well it holds up. Guess i will never know!

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## Matthew Jensen

I am new to posting on the forums and appreciate this review. I did not know there were production swords that used any advanced laminating methods.  I am guessing that statement shows my ignorance.  Anyway, this review peeked my interest and I will keep my eye out for an opportunity to see one in person.

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