# Communities > Modern-era Swords and Collecting Community > Modern Production Katanas >  mystery brand nodachi?

## Benjamin Julius Knowles

I'll probably just end up waiting for Hanwei to finish their Odachi, but I've seen this one on ebay and a few sword retail websites:

http://www.swordsofmight.com/index.a...ROD&ProdID=413

If you look close at the photos, the blade looks like it's got that naginata-esque "cormorant's neck" geometry. (U-no-Kubi zukuri?)

I don't see a hamon and I doubt from the price that it's differentially tempered. But it does say that it's carbon steel, tempered, and sharp.

Even if the fittings were crap, if the blade was halfway decent I'd buy one and send it over to Mr. Lohman for a facelift.

It's almost worth buying it with the risk of it being strictly a wallhanger, but any firsthand feedback would be much appreciated! 

Anyone seen or held one of these in person?

(No disrespect intended, but I'm not looking for lectures on the impracticality of production made Nodachi, I know that if I wanted a reliable, fully functional one, I'd have to talk to a custom bladesmith. And I'd love to do that, believe me, if I only had the money!)

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## Benjamin Julius Knowles

more pics here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Odachi-Nodachi-J...QQcmdZViewItem

and here:

http://dojogoods.com/?item=164

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## Tsugio Kawakami

Kanmuri-otoshi, were the yokote real.

Anyhoo, I've handled this piece a few times when I used to sell blades at shows (never had one on my tables). My personal belief is that it is a Masahiro-made piece. I always liked the tsuba, and the tsuka maki was okay, but that's all that it had going for it. It was quite...well...floppy. Springy would be fine, but it wasn't. Floppy is the only word in the english dictionary I could possibly use to describe it.

Wire-brushed hamon, by the way.

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## michael wilson

I apologise benjamin as this is not a reply directly to you as I can tell your well aware of the shortcomings( no pun )  of such a blade as this , but its worth mentioning anyway for any novices who may look up the nodachi threads  - That your aware of this already and can wait for the hanwei version tells me your no anime' newb :Smilie: 

But without a first rate heat treating process a blade as long and narrow as this one appears is just a nightmare waiting to happen , it takes time , great care and skill to properly temper a blade that long and at these prices thats just not feasible at all.

Theres great interest in these outsize swords recently due to manga anime' and so theres a slew of 'sepiroth's masamune ' swords on the bay  - I just hope that anime' fans realise they are not for use and are best off left looking pretty on the wall. 

Mick 

( ouch ! I must sound like a total sword snob jerk )

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## Benjamin Julius Knowles

I wasn't expecting much for the price, and I probably wouldn't have chosen to use it for cutting anyway.

Mr. Wilson, you didn't come off as a sword snob, and I appreciate not being mistaken for an anime n00b. I do like the Hanwei one that's coming out (or at least the prototype photos that Mr. Pogue posted), I just wish it didn't have such a deep sori.

Oh well, if I'm gonna be picky about blade geometry, I'm gonna have to save up and have one of our neighborhood friendly smiths do the job. 10 years or so from now, when I might be able to afford it.   :Stick Out Tongue: 

Mr. Kawakami, since you've handled it, would you say it is suitable and sound enough for suburi?  :Confused:  (obviously no cutting)

Floppy doesn't sound promising, but I figured I'd ask.

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## Tsugio Kawakami

Woah! Sorry to let this slip. I did not even see that there had been a reply.

For suburi, I woud say absolutely not. Simply holding the blade at chudan no kamae was awkward, and the whole rig seemed a touch unsound. I would not recommend using that sword for anything more than looking pretty. Great prop for photos, great home decor, dangerous to anyone around if used.

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## Jussi Ekholm

Well being a huge nodachi-fan I might have some information about the maker. It's a Musashiswords nodachi. I believe it's made from 1045. I've been stupid enough to buy one cheap nodachi made in China from 1045. Never again... I'll advice just wait for Hanwei. You seem to have nice collection, so you obviously know about swords. This isn't worth buying. I'm starting to be a sword snob, but is it a bad thing after all? (I'm a profile lurker aswell...)

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## william.m

Hmm, well this sword would be fine for display. But as Tsugio said that the blade is floppy, this is really something you don't want in a huge sword. Especially as im guessing its going to have crappy heat treatment and isn't going to be well balanced either. I can just see somebody swinging this around and the shear amount of torque snapping the blade.

Will

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## Andrew Thornton

Somebody help me out here. I read somewhere nodachi were also used for temple offerings. Truth in this?

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## Tsugio Kawakami

A ton of truth there. Temple swords were not always the big ones, though there were a number of them. Some represented the swords of deities, but many more were used as prayers. I'd give a bit more depth to my answer, usually, but I'm not feeling too hot right now. Me thinker no are good.

Plenty of knowledge here on the subject. You can do a search, wait for someone else to answer, and if nothing by tomorrow, I'll try a better answer. ^_^;

Tsugio

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## Jeff Ellis

> Kanmuri-otoshi, were the yokote real.


Tsugio-san,
I don't see the shinogi ji running to the end of the blade, so it's u-no-kubi zukuri  :Wink:  The yokote is not the defining factor in the two styles.

If you look at the shinogi, forms a ko-shinogi, which wraps up to the mune and then the blade tapers into the kissaki.

Kanmuri-otoshi, from my understanding, looks as though it has a false edge on the mune, starting at the tip of the kissaki.

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## Tsugio Kawakami

It was always my understanding that u-no-kubi was basically an elongated naginata-esque blade...a shobu with a sharply tapered shinogi-ji after a few inches, ending in a long, yokote-less kissaki. (Not quite like a shobu, which has the ko-shinogi running further down.) Kanmuri otoshi, on the other hand (also by my understanding, so quite possibly not fact) is a shinogi zukuri with the same tapered mune.

I could very well be wrong, though.

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## Jeff Ellis

> It was always my understanding that u-no-kubi was basically an elongated naginata-esque blade...a shobu with a sharply tapered shinogi-ji after a few inches, ending in a long, yokote-less kissaki. (Not quite like a shobu, which has the ko-shinogi running further down.) Kanmuri otoshi, on the other hand (also by my understanding, so quite possibly not fact) is a shinogi zukuri with the same tapered mune.
> 
> I could very well be wrong, though.


Iie, the name is just like it sounds.

The mune forms something that looks like the kubi of an U-no  :Wink: 

see picture for detail

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## Tsugio Kawakami

Sou desu. I, too, did some research, and I stand corrected.  :Wink: 

Good call, Jeff.

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## Jussi Ekholm

I'm working nightshift so please forgive, if something stupid is written in the following post...

The first thing that makes these chinadachi so wobbly are propositions. The motohaba and motokasane equal those of regular katana. You can just imagine having twice the length but same propositions. I've held only one "real" (not nihonto though) nodachi in my life. It was nodachi made by Stefan Roth, just search SFI for some pics of it. Not nowhere near as the one in this thread, well the kasane was very wide and motohaba was the beefiest (is it actually a word?) I have seen in my life. 

Three meguki might sound safe but most likely they are not properly fitted. I'm just wondering why they chose U-no-kubi-zukuri when the blade is already thin for the length? 18 inch tsuka that doesn't even look good, while having some experience with something similar I would believe that nakago isn't that great either... Wood of the tsuka is a mystery, and chinatana don't usually have good wood. Fit to nakago probably leaves much room for improvement aswell. 

Hopefully this will explain a bit why it's not functional...

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