Practical Pro Katana
Oct 5, 2008 0:13:31 GMT
Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2008 0:13:31 GMT
Hanwei Practical Pro Katana
by katanasam, SE Wi.
So as a preface I'd like to acknowledge that the Practical Pro was already reviewed by Mark Mowrey of Ohio, USA so this is by no means anything you haven't already read. I'm not actually even doing this with the idea of getting review points. I just thought that he never cut with the sword and I figured that this sword did deserve some cutting vids. Mind you I'm no pro at cutting and I'm sure my form has much to be improved upon so please forgive the bad form. Just a note there please feel free to comment and/or advise on the form as I'm always looking to further my knowledge and technique.
Now then to the sword. When I received this sword it never occurred to me to take photos. Frankly I've never been one who liked taking photographs so I hadn't taken any photos of my weapons. As a result I do apologize that I have no photos of the box or packaging as they have been cut already and are surely already recycled. I'll do my best to give a description of the packaging though in the upcoming text.
The sword arrived in the usual long rectangular cardboard box. This box though was black with a green band around the middle of it and had Hanwei printed on the box. I cut the tape that held the box together and quickly removed all of the packing to reveal the sword enveloped in its black sword bag. Now my first thoughts upon looking at the sword itself were, "Damned this thing is huge!." I took it out and proceeded to look it up and down, admiring its lines. Hanwei's practical line has never been known for being flashy and pretty. In fact there are some who would say that this particular line is rather dull and boring in asthetics. Personally I believe that Hanwei's practical series has a very beautiful sense about them. The swords are clean, muted in appearance and very simple in design. This is good to me. It tells me that the sword was meant to be used and not just to be seen.
Freeing the blade from its saya I carefully examined it for defects and flaws. I found none on the blade. It bore the acid etched over real hamon that was characteristic of Hanwei's practical series. Aside from that the blade had no discerning points about it except that it was about 29.5" long. The blade was very heavy at 2.9lbs and it felt heavy. The blade was far livelier than I thought originally after dry handling and I've found that the balance point (in my flawed measurements) was right about 5.5" from the tsuba. From dry handling I felt as though the sweet spot was about 3-4" from the kissaki. I later found this to be true when I started cutting with it.
The tsuka was wrapped in a leatherized cotton ito. Personally I prefer just plain cotton ito or silk ito but this wasn't bad. It gave a sort of "rough" look to the tsuka that added to its feeling of being a rather brutish sword. I don't have a problem though with using the sword with this ito since my Practical Plus Katana has the same ito and I was used to it. The menuki were little oars with baskets? Plastic feeling little things and I didn't like them but well what can you expect from a sword of this price range?
The saya was a basic black piano lacquered saya. I'm not a great fan of the piano lacquer but well it works well enough. I noticed no flaws in the saya except that it seemed to have sawdust in it. Well this was nothing new as every Hanwei I've owned had that same sawdust issue but after a few draws the sword no longer came out with sawdust.
Now, on to the cutting.
Bottles
Note that I missed once or twice. My fiance was making fun of me for that. Ah well.
Buckthorn!
Note my very bad form! I never realized just how bad my form was till I watched myself. I need to go back to practicing.
Revenge of the Buckthorn!
In this one the first buckthorn had been vanquished. Its neighbor then became the target of my attack and this one had more spunk. It actually counter attacked me after my initial stroke. In the ensuing chaos it managed to bury one of its thorns into my left thumb. I prevailed though over the buckthorn and the day was mine.
Here is are some pictures of the blade after the abuse.
Note that there is no warping or scratching of the blade. Nice!
Now pictures of the blade after cleaning.
Again, no warping! Now here's the whole sword.
Ok so enough with the pictures and crappy videos. Here's my final decisions on the sword. Overall I liked the sword. I can tell you its one tough sword and with the additional mass of the blade (btw its also thicker in blade than Hanwei's other practical series swords) this sword is proving to be a very capable cutter. I do find though that the added mass makes the sword more of a cleaver/chopper than a slicer. The cuts to the bottles were clean but with a lighter blade I'm usually able to cut soda bottles and leave the bottoms undisturbed. It was kind of frustrating really. The tsuka ito felt good in my hands even after it got splashed with water. I felt no slipping at all and the grip was comfortable. The blade cut extremely well and is very tough. There are no scratches on the blade after cleaning and that was even more of a shock since usually there's some scratching after having just cut through live wood. I did notice however that there must have been left over soda in one of the bottles or perhaps more than one bottle and it was acidic. By the time I'd gotten inside to wipe off the blade there were little marks in the acid etched hamon that were starting to rust already. A bit of wd-40 and flitz' polish cleaned that up quickly and easily though.
Overall I really liked the sword. Wielding the sword gave me a sense of power and authority. The weight was definitely noticeable in my hands and it made me just want to start cutting. Of course wearing it in my obi was another issue. I tried wearing it and found the extra long 14" tsuka felt clumsy when I walked and moved.
Ok so now for the rating:
Historical accuracy: 3/5 Too big to be historically accurate
Fit and finish: 5/5 I'd say for the price its great.
Structural Integrity: 4/5 I've had swords fail on me with less abuse!
Value for money: 4/5 Purchase it at KoA for $269.99. Not bad.
Overall: 4/5. Its a good buy, not a "you've got to get this!" but really good. I'd say go ahead and get it. Just remember its a big katana and feels huge in the hands. It takes a bit of getting used to but afterwards its quite fun.
Sam.
Just a post script... please feel free to comment on form. If you have tips for improvement I'd gladly entertain them!
Sam
by katanasam, SE Wi.
So as a preface I'd like to acknowledge that the Practical Pro was already reviewed by Mark Mowrey of Ohio, USA so this is by no means anything you haven't already read. I'm not actually even doing this with the idea of getting review points. I just thought that he never cut with the sword and I figured that this sword did deserve some cutting vids. Mind you I'm no pro at cutting and I'm sure my form has much to be improved upon so please forgive the bad form. Just a note there please feel free to comment and/or advise on the form as I'm always looking to further my knowledge and technique.
Now then to the sword. When I received this sword it never occurred to me to take photos. Frankly I've never been one who liked taking photographs so I hadn't taken any photos of my weapons. As a result I do apologize that I have no photos of the box or packaging as they have been cut already and are surely already recycled. I'll do my best to give a description of the packaging though in the upcoming text.
The sword arrived in the usual long rectangular cardboard box. This box though was black with a green band around the middle of it and had Hanwei printed on the box. I cut the tape that held the box together and quickly removed all of the packing to reveal the sword enveloped in its black sword bag. Now my first thoughts upon looking at the sword itself were, "Damned this thing is huge!." I took it out and proceeded to look it up and down, admiring its lines. Hanwei's practical line has never been known for being flashy and pretty. In fact there are some who would say that this particular line is rather dull and boring in asthetics. Personally I believe that Hanwei's practical series has a very beautiful sense about them. The swords are clean, muted in appearance and very simple in design. This is good to me. It tells me that the sword was meant to be used and not just to be seen.
Freeing the blade from its saya I carefully examined it for defects and flaws. I found none on the blade. It bore the acid etched over real hamon that was characteristic of Hanwei's practical series. Aside from that the blade had no discerning points about it except that it was about 29.5" long. The blade was very heavy at 2.9lbs and it felt heavy. The blade was far livelier than I thought originally after dry handling and I've found that the balance point (in my flawed measurements) was right about 5.5" from the tsuba. From dry handling I felt as though the sweet spot was about 3-4" from the kissaki. I later found this to be true when I started cutting with it.
The tsuka was wrapped in a leatherized cotton ito. Personally I prefer just plain cotton ito or silk ito but this wasn't bad. It gave a sort of "rough" look to the tsuka that added to its feeling of being a rather brutish sword. I don't have a problem though with using the sword with this ito since my Practical Plus Katana has the same ito and I was used to it. The menuki were little oars with baskets? Plastic feeling little things and I didn't like them but well what can you expect from a sword of this price range?
The saya was a basic black piano lacquered saya. I'm not a great fan of the piano lacquer but well it works well enough. I noticed no flaws in the saya except that it seemed to have sawdust in it. Well this was nothing new as every Hanwei I've owned had that same sawdust issue but after a few draws the sword no longer came out with sawdust.
Now, on to the cutting.
Bottles
Note that I missed once or twice. My fiance was making fun of me for that. Ah well.
Buckthorn!
Note my very bad form! I never realized just how bad my form was till I watched myself. I need to go back to practicing.
Revenge of the Buckthorn!
In this one the first buckthorn had been vanquished. Its neighbor then became the target of my attack and this one had more spunk. It actually counter attacked me after my initial stroke. In the ensuing chaos it managed to bury one of its thorns into my left thumb. I prevailed though over the buckthorn and the day was mine.
Here is are some pictures of the blade after the abuse.
Note that there is no warping or scratching of the blade. Nice!
Now pictures of the blade after cleaning.
Again, no warping! Now here's the whole sword.
Ok so enough with the pictures and crappy videos. Here's my final decisions on the sword. Overall I liked the sword. I can tell you its one tough sword and with the additional mass of the blade (btw its also thicker in blade than Hanwei's other practical series swords) this sword is proving to be a very capable cutter. I do find though that the added mass makes the sword more of a cleaver/chopper than a slicer. The cuts to the bottles were clean but with a lighter blade I'm usually able to cut soda bottles and leave the bottoms undisturbed. It was kind of frustrating really. The tsuka ito felt good in my hands even after it got splashed with water. I felt no slipping at all and the grip was comfortable. The blade cut extremely well and is very tough. There are no scratches on the blade after cleaning and that was even more of a shock since usually there's some scratching after having just cut through live wood. I did notice however that there must have been left over soda in one of the bottles or perhaps more than one bottle and it was acidic. By the time I'd gotten inside to wipe off the blade there were little marks in the acid etched hamon that were starting to rust already. A bit of wd-40 and flitz' polish cleaned that up quickly and easily though.
Overall I really liked the sword. Wielding the sword gave me a sense of power and authority. The weight was definitely noticeable in my hands and it made me just want to start cutting. Of course wearing it in my obi was another issue. I tried wearing it and found the extra long 14" tsuka felt clumsy when I walked and moved.
Ok so now for the rating:
Historical accuracy: 3/5 Too big to be historically accurate
Fit and finish: 5/5 I'd say for the price its great.
Structural Integrity: 4/5 I've had swords fail on me with less abuse!
Value for money: 4/5 Purchase it at KoA for $269.99. Not bad.
Overall: 4/5. Its a good buy, not a "you've got to get this!" but really good. I'd say go ahead and get it. Just remember its a big katana and feels huge in the hands. It takes a bit of getting used to but afterwards its quite fun.
Sam.
Just a post script... please feel free to comment on form. If you have tips for improvement I'd gladly entertain them!
Sam