Ichi maru, cheness.
Aug 29, 2008 20:58:04 GMT
Post by Deleted on Aug 29, 2008 20:58:04 GMT
Hey everyone, for those who don't know, my 30" nagasa katana from cheness, broke. The tip of the kissaki snapped off during a stab. After this happened I immediately went to Mr. Paul chen's email and starting complaining and asking what I can do. He gave me 100$ off anything in the store, so I added 50$ and bought the 1045 "Ichi Maru" katana.
The glory shot.
The specs.
Blade length: 28.5"
Overall length: About 41.5"
Blade material: 1045 steel.
Point of balance: about 5" along the blade.
So, I received this katana for 100$ less than listed and that's nice, overall I'm very pleased with this entire katana. But what this review isn't only about the sword, it's about cheness' quality control.
First I would like to talk about the blade.
The finish on the face of the blade is rather nice, the kissaki is still counter grind so it's a bit ugly but I liked this one better than others I've seen. The kissaki is also longer than that of the other cheness katanas I've seen.
The Sori
Now, the one thing I've learned about cheness' blades from the two I own is that, if you buy a blade with a Bo-hi you will almost certainly get a terrible looking spine. If nothing else, this is the biggest disappointment, with the 30" nagasa, the spine was really wavy looking but you only noticed if you looked right down the blade. This is different with this one, instead of a wavy look I have a huge bubble that I can see when I hold the blade in standard positions.
Do you see that? It looks like the blade is bent right? That's absurd! I'll fix it later with a bunch of sandpaper but I shouldn't have to, the rest of the blade is perfectly straight but they can't do a Bo hi for S***.
Moving down, another thing I've gotten so far is that the cheaper the katana the better it is. With the 30" nagasa, I got a crappy worn out ito, tarnished seppa, damaged Habaki, poorly made tsuba and a badly damaged fuchi and kashirae.
The fuchi and kashiae are the same, their is protrusions where the two molds come together when these are made, so when I swing I have this sharp edge digging into my palm.
The Habaki, seppa and tsuba though are MUCH better. When I got my 30" nagasa, there was tarnish on the copper seppa and the habaki had irremovable black marks from protrusions in the saya. This is not the case on this one. The Seppa are very nice, very clean and actually come close to matching the color of brass. The Habaki is shiny and smooth, not a mark on it.
The Tsuba was rather well made, it's very light steel I think, thick but light, the edges were nice and smooth not a single complaint here.
Now the Tsuka. The black cotton ito is frayed like crazy at the Kashira end of it but the fuchi side is nice and smooth. The Tsuka is thicker than that of the 30" nagasa katana, for some odd reason. Once again the tsuka is held on by a brass pin and a wood pin, very solid not a shake, rattle or movement in sight.
The saya is basic just like the rest, poorly made nylon sageo etc. There was some rattle in this saya though
The handling is superb, it's light as a feather so getting that nice WHOOSH out of the blade is easy as cake. I cut through a single bottle for the sake of fun, it went through the bottle cap and down through the thickest part of the bottle, the mouth. Not a scratch, chip or ding on the blade.
The fit and finish is much better than the 30" nagasa katana, which was 270$ USD, the fitting were clean and nice looking, some minor problems but nothing major. The fake hamon is seen all the way to the kissaki, I think it's acid etched. The only real complaint is the poorly made Bo-hi that I'll have to fix because everytime I look at it, I get an "Urk"
Historical accuracy:3/5?
Fit and Finish:4/5 very nice actually.
Handling: 4/5
Structural integrity: 4/5
Value for money: I paid 50$ but I would easily have paid 150. 5/5
Overall: a 5, great 150$ sword.
___________________________________________________
Now my rant.
When I bought the cheness 30" katana, I thought I was getting one of the best possible 300$ blades I could get, boy was I wrong, it can handle a beating, yes. But the tip of the kissaki broke off to a plastic bottle, the fitting were all damaged in one way or another, tarnish, scrapes, bad mold lines, grinder marks, worn out ito and overall just terrible. The blade wasn't aligned with the tsuka for some ridiculous reason, so I had to practice to be able to swing it without making the blade bend. The Hamon on it was gone at the top five inches of the blade, the kissaki had HUGE grind marks on it. And this "legendary" blade broke because of a plastic bottle!
Now the two 150$ katanas I have, the Roninkatanas wheel katana and the cheness ichi maru BOTH are eons ahead of the 30" nagasa I received. The fit on them are soo much better, the RK wheel katana has brass seppa and habaki unlike the copper cheness fittings, the saya was better, the blade was nicer looking, the materials on the tsuka and fittings were better and the blade was straight and not wavy looking. The Ichi maru had one problem because of the bohi, and even coming from the same company, all the fittings looked nicer than the 30" nagasa! The blade is sharper, the handling is better, the tsuba doesn't move side to side and everything about it is just 10X better looking than the 30" nagasa katana!
What does this tell me about cheness' company? That their quality control is comprised of two blind ten year old children sitting in a room filled with toxic gas. Speaking of toxic gas, I had to take this ichi maru outside because their was an immense amount of fumes coming off it, from god knows what.
Overall, I'm pissed, sorry for the language but I think it's absolutely unreasonable that a 300$ sword is actually worse than a 150$ katana of the same brand! Am I being too harsh? No, I don't think so, if you compare the pictures of the ichi maru here and the pictures of my 30" nagasa in the other review you'll see the huge differences in fittings and finish.
/end rant
Thanks for reading
The glory shot.
The specs.
Blade length: 28.5"
Overall length: About 41.5"
Blade material: 1045 steel.
Point of balance: about 5" along the blade.
So, I received this katana for 100$ less than listed and that's nice, overall I'm very pleased with this entire katana. But what this review isn't only about the sword, it's about cheness' quality control.
First I would like to talk about the blade.
The finish on the face of the blade is rather nice, the kissaki is still counter grind so it's a bit ugly but I liked this one better than others I've seen. The kissaki is also longer than that of the other cheness katanas I've seen.
The Sori
Now, the one thing I've learned about cheness' blades from the two I own is that, if you buy a blade with a Bo-hi you will almost certainly get a terrible looking spine. If nothing else, this is the biggest disappointment, with the 30" nagasa, the spine was really wavy looking but you only noticed if you looked right down the blade. This is different with this one, instead of a wavy look I have a huge bubble that I can see when I hold the blade in standard positions.
Do you see that? It looks like the blade is bent right? That's absurd! I'll fix it later with a bunch of sandpaper but I shouldn't have to, the rest of the blade is perfectly straight but they can't do a Bo hi for S***.
Moving down, another thing I've gotten so far is that the cheaper the katana the better it is. With the 30" nagasa, I got a crappy worn out ito, tarnished seppa, damaged Habaki, poorly made tsuba and a badly damaged fuchi and kashirae.
The fuchi and kashiae are the same, their is protrusions where the two molds come together when these are made, so when I swing I have this sharp edge digging into my palm.
The Habaki, seppa and tsuba though are MUCH better. When I got my 30" nagasa, there was tarnish on the copper seppa and the habaki had irremovable black marks from protrusions in the saya. This is not the case on this one. The Seppa are very nice, very clean and actually come close to matching the color of brass. The Habaki is shiny and smooth, not a mark on it.
The Tsuba was rather well made, it's very light steel I think, thick but light, the edges were nice and smooth not a single complaint here.
Now the Tsuka. The black cotton ito is frayed like crazy at the Kashira end of it but the fuchi side is nice and smooth. The Tsuka is thicker than that of the 30" nagasa katana, for some odd reason. Once again the tsuka is held on by a brass pin and a wood pin, very solid not a shake, rattle or movement in sight.
The saya is basic just like the rest, poorly made nylon sageo etc. There was some rattle in this saya though
The handling is superb, it's light as a feather so getting that nice WHOOSH out of the blade is easy as cake. I cut through a single bottle for the sake of fun, it went through the bottle cap and down through the thickest part of the bottle, the mouth. Not a scratch, chip or ding on the blade.
The fit and finish is much better than the 30" nagasa katana, which was 270$ USD, the fitting were clean and nice looking, some minor problems but nothing major. The fake hamon is seen all the way to the kissaki, I think it's acid etched. The only real complaint is the poorly made Bo-hi that I'll have to fix because everytime I look at it, I get an "Urk"
Historical accuracy:3/5?
Fit and Finish:4/5 very nice actually.
Handling: 4/5
Structural integrity: 4/5
Value for money: I paid 50$ but I would easily have paid 150. 5/5
Overall: a 5, great 150$ sword.
___________________________________________________
Now my rant.
When I bought the cheness 30" katana, I thought I was getting one of the best possible 300$ blades I could get, boy was I wrong, it can handle a beating, yes. But the tip of the kissaki broke off to a plastic bottle, the fitting were all damaged in one way or another, tarnish, scrapes, bad mold lines, grinder marks, worn out ito and overall just terrible. The blade wasn't aligned with the tsuka for some ridiculous reason, so I had to practice to be able to swing it without making the blade bend. The Hamon on it was gone at the top five inches of the blade, the kissaki had HUGE grind marks on it. And this "legendary" blade broke because of a plastic bottle!
Now the two 150$ katanas I have, the Roninkatanas wheel katana and the cheness ichi maru BOTH are eons ahead of the 30" nagasa I received. The fit on them are soo much better, the RK wheel katana has brass seppa and habaki unlike the copper cheness fittings, the saya was better, the blade was nicer looking, the materials on the tsuka and fittings were better and the blade was straight and not wavy looking. The Ichi maru had one problem because of the bohi, and even coming from the same company, all the fittings looked nicer than the 30" nagasa! The blade is sharper, the handling is better, the tsuba doesn't move side to side and everything about it is just 10X better looking than the 30" nagasa katana!
What does this tell me about cheness' company? That their quality control is comprised of two blind ten year old children sitting in a room filled with toxic gas. Speaking of toxic gas, I had to take this ichi maru outside because their was an immense amount of fumes coming off it, from god knows what.
Overall, I'm pissed, sorry for the language but I think it's absolutely unreasonable that a 300$ sword is actually worse than a 150$ katana of the same brand! Am I being too harsh? No, I don't think so, if you compare the pictures of the ichi maru here and the pictures of my 30" nagasa in the other review you'll see the huge differences in fittings and finish.
/end rant
Thanks for reading