Musashi Bamboo Warrior (Takeo Katana)
Jun 30, 2009 0:14:28 GMT
Post by Deleted on Jun 30, 2009 0:14:28 GMT
First let me thank Oni. After seeing his review on this forum and seeing his youtube video I was convinced to get one. This is my first post and I hope to make it a good one.
ONI'S VIDEO, NOT MINE.
I think he may be confusing the Masahiro Bamboo Katana with the Musashi Bamboo Warrior when he is talking about wire brushed second gen swords.
After finding a discount code online for 8% it was almost exactly even in price when comparing Trueswords.com ($83.48 w/shipping) with Musashiswords.com ($82.99). Since Musashi had an announcement on their site saying they weren't taking anymore credit card orders for a while, I decided to pay the extra 49 cents to get my first real sword a week early.
To give credit to Trueswords, even though I ordered at 1 in the morning on a Saturday, my order was processed, shipped and I had a tracking number less then 12 hours later. It sat at a fed-ex facility for 2 days before leaving for Colorado, so it would have been here faster if it wasn't for Fed-ex twiddling their thumbs.
Delivery took 5 days. It arrived inside a box that was padded with bubble wrap inside a larger box. Inside the smaller Musashi box, it was well cradled in styrofoam and tightly wrapped in a plain black sword bag. It arrived with a Certificate of Authenticity stating a real hamon, 1060 carbon content and an edge hardness of 55.
Upon first drawing the sword inside, I actually thought I got one with no hamon. It was only upon closer examination that it became visible. It actually disappears at certain angles.
I was a bit disappointed with the kissaki. In all the other reviews I have seen, the Hamon ran all the way to the tip of the blade with a little turn-back. It appears my kissaki was re-polished (with a rough file) after the acid enhancement process for some reason.The kissaki is really pretty poorly polished with rough grind marks covering it. I can see the hamon trying to come out underneath the horrible polish job though, any suggestions? I would rather have no pretend yokote then no hamon. Oh yeah, it is counter"polished" not geometrical, with no flare in the spine. In the following pic you can see the change from delicious satin finish to rough ground finish. The grind marks are more pronounced farther from the edge, giving support to the differentially hardened claims.
Again, I can see a hamon struggling to get out from under that horrid polish job.
I was also a little disappointed by how "unsharp" this sword felt to the touch. A quick paper test made me realize that how the edge feels apparently has nothing to do with how good it cuts, as this picture shows.
I was actually kind of scared when I saw how easily it shaves paper strips.
The ito is very well done, tight and even cotton, even if it is cheap cotton. The rayskin had no wood showing but did have a poor dye job. The first diamond on one side the rayskin is undyed and almost translucent. Despite every other review I have read saying the black coating comes off on your fingers mine is still as good as new, despite a lot of handling. The fittings on this sword are super-duper tight and I can't get anything to budge the tiniest bit.
It fits very well in the sheath, requiring the perfect amount of force to remove. All the grip in the saya takes place in the last 3/4 inch of sheathing it.
My point of balance is 5 1/4 inches in front of the bamboo themed guard.
All in all, I must say that this sword is a great buy. I know it is my first real one so my words may have little or no weight on what you choose, but for $84.00 you can't beat it.
ONI'S VIDEO, NOT MINE.
I think he may be confusing the Masahiro Bamboo Katana with the Musashi Bamboo Warrior when he is talking about wire brushed second gen swords.
After finding a discount code online for 8% it was almost exactly even in price when comparing Trueswords.com ($83.48 w/shipping) with Musashiswords.com ($82.99). Since Musashi had an announcement on their site saying they weren't taking anymore credit card orders for a while, I decided to pay the extra 49 cents to get my first real sword a week early.
To give credit to Trueswords, even though I ordered at 1 in the morning on a Saturday, my order was processed, shipped and I had a tracking number less then 12 hours later. It sat at a fed-ex facility for 2 days before leaving for Colorado, so it would have been here faster if it wasn't for Fed-ex twiddling their thumbs.
Delivery took 5 days. It arrived inside a box that was padded with bubble wrap inside a larger box. Inside the smaller Musashi box, it was well cradled in styrofoam and tightly wrapped in a plain black sword bag. It arrived with a Certificate of Authenticity stating a real hamon, 1060 carbon content and an edge hardness of 55.
Upon first drawing the sword inside, I actually thought I got one with no hamon. It was only upon closer examination that it became visible. It actually disappears at certain angles.
I was a bit disappointed with the kissaki. In all the other reviews I have seen, the Hamon ran all the way to the tip of the blade with a little turn-back. It appears my kissaki was re-polished (with a rough file) after the acid enhancement process for some reason.The kissaki is really pretty poorly polished with rough grind marks covering it. I can see the hamon trying to come out underneath the horrible polish job though, any suggestions? I would rather have no pretend yokote then no hamon. Oh yeah, it is counter"polished" not geometrical, with no flare in the spine. In the following pic you can see the change from delicious satin finish to rough ground finish. The grind marks are more pronounced farther from the edge, giving support to the differentially hardened claims.
Again, I can see a hamon struggling to get out from under that horrid polish job.
I was also a little disappointed by how "unsharp" this sword felt to the touch. A quick paper test made me realize that how the edge feels apparently has nothing to do with how good it cuts, as this picture shows.
I was actually kind of scared when I saw how easily it shaves paper strips.
The ito is very well done, tight and even cotton, even if it is cheap cotton. The rayskin had no wood showing but did have a poor dye job. The first diamond on one side the rayskin is undyed and almost translucent. Despite every other review I have read saying the black coating comes off on your fingers mine is still as good as new, despite a lot of handling. The fittings on this sword are super-duper tight and I can't get anything to budge the tiniest bit.
It fits very well in the sheath, requiring the perfect amount of force to remove. All the grip in the saya takes place in the last 3/4 inch of sheathing it.
My point of balance is 5 1/4 inches in front of the bamboo themed guard.
All in all, I must say that this sword is a great buy. I know it is my first real one so my words may have little or no weight on what you choose, but for $84.00 you can't beat it.