# Communities > Modern-era Swords and Collecting Community > Modern Production Katanas >  Kultofathena has Hanwei L6's in stock

## mikejarledge

http://kultofathena.com/product~item...Oni+Katana.htm

Who's going to be the first to get one and tell the rest of us about it. 

They also have the Trondheim, which I came real close to snagging, but opted for the tried and true A&A Henry V.

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## Jay Requard

Are you going to review the Trondheim after you test out the Henry V? I would really like to hear your opinion of it, since i am considering maybe picking one up.

thanks and cannot wait to see your review on Henry V!!!

Jay

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## Timo Qvintus

Based on KoA's pictures of the Oni, I'm not impressed.. At $1800 (or $1520 from KoA) I expected a bit better. Still, aesthetics aside, it's an L6-blade, with Performance series blade profile, so it should be a pretty good cutter if not a showcase piece (for those who don't mind a 14-inch dead-straight tsuka with no shaping).

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## Bogdan M.

Aaron Justice has made a hands on preview a while ago. Indeed the polish is not top notch, too bad, I found the MAS shiney finish nice, even though there's no much activity in L6.

I see the weight has grown since the initial specs. 3+ lbs of bainite? If the edge holds up well, it could be used for cutting trucks I guess  :Big Grin:

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## Bogdan M.

double post

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## Timo Qvintus

Sword of Might has it in stock too..

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## Bogdan M.

> ...
> (for those who don't mind a 14-inch dead-straight tsuka with no shaping).


By the position of the second mekugi I'd say you could easily cut off 2" from that tsuka...

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## Timo Qvintus

I don't see the point in cutting down a poorly shaped tsuka, unless they actually mean "The 14'' tsuka is wrapped in black ray skin" literally and the tsuka has a full same-wrap..

EDIT: where's the yokote?

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## Bogdan M.

I don't know where's the yokote but they could at least have counterpolished it a bit :Stick Out Tongue: .

As for the tsuka, straight doesn't necessarily mean badly shaped. At 12" I think that tsuka would be just fine given the heft of the blade.

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## David Arthur

That blade's eating habits must be out of control.  :Frown:

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## Benjamin P.

Just what is it with production katana companies and that same old boring hamon pattern?  What is it called and why do they love doing it so much?  Can they really think of producing nothing else?  I'm just really sick of it.  Aaron Justice had a forged Shinto a while back that was finally showing off a nice artistic hamon.... now I see that I was too quick to be optimistic.  I mean, if that's too hard to do on a regular basis, I would even be happy to see just a well executed straight hamon (suguha, I think it's called).  Just anything at all but that same boring wavy pattern.  And it might be just me, but on some of these newer models, the hamon is really thin and unattractive.  I know I won't be buying production any time soon if that's all they're going to do.  Seriously guys, it's really getting old, old, old.  Try something else!!!   :Mad:

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## Jerry G.

The Oni I held and examined at the NoVA Swordfest most definitely had a true(though slight) yokote...not just counterpolished.  With a piece of rice paper between two fingers, I felt for and found the geometry shift there.  Because the blade's kasane is so slight, especially towards the tip, the yokote is just not as profound as say on a Bugei Samurai or Hanwei Bushido.  Perhaps either that is a pic of the new L6 Shobu's tip section or the Oni I viewed was just an earlier shinogi prototype.

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## Ruud B

What justifies the price, the L6 only?
the polish is so so, poor shaped straight stuka and the fittings are nothing to write home about.

I do think that production blade prices have gone over the top a bit.

For this money ill buy a citadel (non L6) any time.
I will be reviewing one or two new citadel blades very soon.

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## Bogdan M.

> Just what is it with production katana companies and that same old boring hamon pattern?  What is it called and why do they love doing it so much?  Can they really think of producing nothing else?  I'm just really sick of it.  Aaron Justice had a forged Shinto a while back that was finally showing off a nice artistic hamon.... now I see that I was too quick to be optimistic.  I mean, if that's too hard to do on a regular basis, I would even be happy to see just a well executed straight hamon (suguha, I think it's called).  Just anything at all but that same boring wavy pattern.  And it might be just me, but on some of these newer models, the hamon is really thin and unattractive.  I know I won't be buying production any time soon if that's all they're going to do.  Seriously guys, it's really getting old, old, old.  Try something else!!!


The HT is different for bainite body katanas, that's why there is allways a boring hamon. There's no clay applied, they have to use other methods. Take a look at a HC L6, it's still a very conservative hamon.

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## Bogdan M.

> The Oni I held and examined at the NoVA Swordfest most definitely had a true(though slight) yokote...not just counterpolished.  With a piece of rice paper between two fingers, I felt for and found the geometry shift there.  Because the blade's kasane is so slight, especially towards the tip, the yokote is just not as profound as say on a Bugei Samurai or Hanwei Bushido.  Perhaps either that is a pic of the new L6 Shobu's tip section or the Oni I viewed was just an earlier shinogi prototype.


So this blade is thin too? Aaron had said that it's thicker than the other performance series, and given the weight I had believed him... But it's true I saw no measurements from hanwei. I had just hoped that maybe it's not another one of those too wide too thin blades...

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## Benjamin P.

I've SEEN HC's L6 blades and their hamon; they've all been very artistic while being subdued and the two ideas are not mutually exclusive.  I am not talking about flamboyant hamon, just that most production blades, especially from Hanwei, have the same uniform stenciled looking wave hamon.  Have you seen any HC L6 with that kind of boring, uniform wave hamon?  I think not.

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## Bogdan M.

HC L6 that I saw were a straight suguha, nothing "artistic" there. No need to, the accent being on functionality. I have yet to see a choji hamon on a bainite katana.

Of course the polish was better, but that's a different story

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## Benjamin P.

Unless I'm mistaken, no HC L6 I've seen ever had a pure suguha hamon.  All were undulating to some degree with peaks and valleys, and some more than others.  In any case, I very strongly disagree with you that suguha hamon cannot be artistic, but I think that is really up to our individual interpretation and personal opinion.

All I'm saying is that there are other things Hanwei could have done with the hamon on their L6, even with the limitations of HT creating bainite.  MAS L6 blades have irregular and undulating suguha too.  I just don't understand Hanwei's stubborn insistence on this hackneyed uniform wave design.  If it's inherently difficult to make specific hamon shapes on L6, then doesn't it mean they almost went out of their way to make this uniform hamon for their new Oni katana?  It just seems so silly to me... and a waste of a good opportunity to try new things.

The 46 Ronin Katana is also out, by the way.  There are some pictures over at Mantis Swords dot com.  And guess what?  Same old uniform wave hamon!!  Again!!   :Mad:   Anyway, I think I've made my point... I'll simmer down now.   :Gag:

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## Timo Qvintus

> The HT is different for bainite body katanas, that's why there is allways a boring hamon. There's no clay applied, they have to use other methods. Take a look at a HC L6, it's still a very conservative hamon.


Picture, 1000, words:


A HC L6 daito. I'm not bored.  :drool:

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## Bogdan M.

Yaeh, it's called Hadori, that's why a good polishing cost 2k bucks.

The hamon is quite simple though if you look better. The rest is make up  :Smilie: 
See
http://www.mvforge.com/l6katan.html
And then see:
http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/togi.html

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## Timo Qvintus

> Yaeh, it's called Hadori, that's why a good polishing cost 2k bucks.
> 
> The hamon is quite simple though if you look better. The rest is make up 
> See
> http://www.mvforge.com/l6katan.html
> And then see:
> http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/togi.html


Actually, I think it's the other way around.. This is what the same hamon looks like without the right light hitting it (ie. the result of hadori):


Notice how the nioi-line that defines the hamon doesn't exactly match the border of bright and dark parts of the ha/ji; the border is made by hadori.

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## Bogdan M.

I don't know what you're saying, I'm not that knowledgeable. But it seems to me these knowlledgeable people say that if the hadori is very well done, it's impossible to tell what is the real hamon like.

Anyway, what I wanted to say is that most of the beauty of that blade comes from the polish, who knows how an Oni would look like polished by Keith. I remember him saying that there's a lot there to be found, but they can't do it ecause it would be too expensive.

I'm just tired of people hyping things up or down I guess, that's all. And I've seen a lot of hype lately...

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## Benjamin P.

> ...if the hadori is very well done, it's impossible to tell what is the real hamon like.


 I've never heard or read this before... if it's true, it's news to me.  Although pretty much everything is news to me since I'm just a beginner...   :Big Grin:   But do you have any pictures where the real hamon is impossible to see underneath the polish under lighting?


> Anyway, what I wanted to say is that most of the beauty of that blade comes from the polish, who knows how an Oni would look like polished by Keith. I remember him saying that there's a lot there to be found, but they can't do it ecause it would be too expensive.


From what I've read, a good and proper polish reveals and accentuates what's put there by the smith.  I guess if someone really wanted to and had the skill, he/she could simulate some wild choji on any production blade with hadori (that's the make-up like white stuff, right?)... but it won't ever change what the blade is and what the hamon actually looks like underneath.  If what you say is true, then it seems like the smith's intent doesn't matter a whole lot in the end because the polisher has final say in what the hamon will appear to be, as opposed to what it actually is....  I can't speak for the man, but I don't think that's what Keith Larman meant. 

But I think maybe we're just going in circles expressing different personal opinions and preferences that don't have absolutes.  My main point was that it really stinks Hanwei would introduce a new design with new steel, and yet still keep the same old boring style of uniform wave hamon.

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## Bogdan M.

Hey Benjamin, I get your point.

On the page that I gave about hadori they say it's possible sometimes not to see the real hamon even with good lighting. Of course, it's not always so and there are other styles of polish too (sashikomi, the traditional style).

For good smiths there is always a relation with the polisher, they have their preferred ones, otherwise an unskilled polisher can ruin a good blade. But I think different blades call different styles of polish and my guess is on L6 the style is different from 1086M...

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## Bogdan M.

> Actually, I think it's the other way around.. This is what the same hamon looks like without the right light hitting it (ie. the result of hadori):
> 
> Notice how the nioi-line that defines the hamon doesn't exactly match the border of bright and dark parts of the ha/ji; the border is made by hadori.


I'd say that the really misty line is make up. And the real hamon has a more nromal line underneath. And that without that nice cosmetic above, it wouldn't look like much. Mind you, it would still be a great sword but it wouldn't look spectacular at all. But yeah, whatever...

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## J-M. Watier

Hi everyone.  I find it interesting that a lot of people complaine about the polishing of the L6 Oni.  To me it does not really matter, this sword was made to beat up, not for beautiful collection piece.  Which I believe was PC intent.  For the hamon of this sword they still the whole clay process right.  Well anyway that's my opinion about it, I guess it really depends on the person.

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