Musashi Ehada (Updated)
Oct 22, 2008 22:11:38 GMT
Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2008 22:11:38 GMT
Musashi Ehada by Sam H. - SE Wisconsin.
Ok so I'm doing a little review on the Musashi Ehada that I got from Mikes. I don't know if any reviews have been done on this sword yet but here it is. Sorry if this is just a rehash.
The sword arrived today in the usual fashion. A ring of the doorbell and a greeting from me with a grin on my face. I looked at the box and was fairly confused. The box said in big letters FRAG ILE. Then on other pats of the box it says "Glass" and "Fragile". I was thinking to myself, "Glass? I know its nice to say its fragile but glass? What on earth am I getting?"
I then set about to opening the package. I noticed next that there was so much packing tape on the box that very little of the actual box itself was exposed to the elements. I thought to myself that if the contents within were packaged with this same concern for packaging then I was sure the sword or... glass item? would be ok. After cutting the box open I lifted the top half to find a sword well packaged and nearly enveloped in foam packing peanuts.
After freeing the sword of packing peanuts, styrofoam and the box, I peeled back the sword bag to find the sword itself. The sword bag felt cheaply made but then its a sword bag for a $70 sword. As I revealed the tsuka, I found the tsuka ito felt cheap as well. Again, $70 sword.
Now after taking the sword out of the bag I found the tsuba to have some scratches. Not a problem in my mind as I was told that there would be scratches and nicks. I also found nicks in the saya. This was not an issue either. I was more concerned with the quality of the blade.
After unsheathing the sword I found signs that the sword had definitely been cut with. A handful of scratches and something that looked like residue of some sort resembling what would be found from cutting tatami or other moist targets. The edge felt fairly dull too. I figured the sword had gone through some use. As I was acquiring a used sword this didn't matter to me so long as the blade was not warped or had fatal chips/flaws in it. After more examination I did not notice any of the above issues and I was quite content.
As to be expected there was no real yokote. The kissaki had just been counter polished. Nonetheless the blade was still a nice blade for the cost. After a bit of polishing and honing the blade shined clean and true. The edge was frighteningly sharp... a brief (split second) contact with my thumb shaved off a small patch that penetrated all 7 layers of skin. That bled beautifully for a while. Sorry, no pics as I was trying not to drop blood on the furniture or carpet.
I did notice that the mekugi were poorly made - indeed one mekugi was meta in nature and the other just a stick of bamboo (much like a disposable chopstick cut off). The nakago rattled in the tsuka too. I disassembled it to find everything in order but the nakago did not fit perfectly into the tsuka - the slot was too large so the nakago rattled. I failed to take photos because I had a brain fart. I also found that the saya fit the blade VERY loosely. The sword rattled inside the saya from any real movement.
I dry handled it and it felt quite lively in the hand. Swinging was fairly effortless as the sword was quite light in the hand and with the bo-hi the sword made some beautiful tachi kaze sounds.
After all that effort (a couple hours worth of polishing and honing) I decided to go cut with it. I attempted to cut rolled soaked newspaper but the paper wouldn't mount onto the peg properly and kept falling over. I was very disappointed. I'd have put up a video of this failure but my fiance was my camera woman and at the same time I had a failure in my cutting target she had a failure with the camera.
My disappointment followed through into my cutting as I was clearly in horrible form. Ah well I cut through milk bottles anyway and also thrust into one bottle to find the blade penetrated with no resistance at all. Regarding the cutting, the blade had almost no niku when I got it and I could feel it in the cutting. It cut cleanly and cut well although I could feel the cuts more than I could on my Hanweis. Nonetheless still a very nice sword for the cost of $69.95 retail.
Some final photos of the sword after cutting.
I found the edge I'd put on the sword was already starting to dull after one cut on the rolled newspaper and cutting through a handful of milk bottles. I also noticed the blade was already acquiring new scratches from the cutting. I'd never scratched any of my Hanweis cutting bottles before. I just chalk that up to the sword being a lower quality sword and most likely softer metal.
I cleaned up the blade, re-honed it and gave it a very light coating of grease. Afterward I sheathed the sword and hung it up for display. All in all it's not a bad sword.
Measurements:
Blade: 28.25"
Tsuka: 11.5"
Overall: 40.5"
Weight: I didn't weigh it but it felt lighter than my Hanwei Practical Plus Katana.
CoB: 4.5" from the tsuba.
"Sweet Spot": Last 4 inches of the blade.
Ratings:
Historical Accuracy: 4/5 (fits traditional geometry and size etc.)
Fit and Finish: 3/5 (Loose saya and tsuka)
Handling: 5/5 (for the money this sword handles beautifully)
Value for the money: 4/5 (At $69.95 this sword is a great value. You sacrifice some areas for the price but it cuts well and handles very well too.)
Overall: 4/5 Its not a great sword by any means but for less than $100 its a really good buy. If you're looking for an inexpensive cutter or a waster to start people cutting with this is it. Cheap enough in price that if you manage to mess up the blade its not a huge loss but good enough that some really nice cutting can be done with it.
-Sam
Update:
Oh yeah that little issue with the screwed on kashira - it fell off on me this morning while going through some kata with it in the yard. Quick fix though - I epoxied it back on. Its not going anywhere now. I figured it was ok to epoxy it since it doesn't serve any function in the tsuka ito anyway.
-Sam
Ok so I'm doing a little review on the Musashi Ehada that I got from Mikes. I don't know if any reviews have been done on this sword yet but here it is. Sorry if this is just a rehash.
The sword arrived today in the usual fashion. A ring of the doorbell and a greeting from me with a grin on my face. I looked at the box and was fairly confused. The box said in big letters FRAG ILE. Then on other pats of the box it says "Glass" and "Fragile". I was thinking to myself, "Glass? I know its nice to say its fragile but glass? What on earth am I getting?"
I then set about to opening the package. I noticed next that there was so much packing tape on the box that very little of the actual box itself was exposed to the elements. I thought to myself that if the contents within were packaged with this same concern for packaging then I was sure the sword or... glass item? would be ok. After cutting the box open I lifted the top half to find a sword well packaged and nearly enveloped in foam packing peanuts.
After freeing the sword of packing peanuts, styrofoam and the box, I peeled back the sword bag to find the sword itself. The sword bag felt cheaply made but then its a sword bag for a $70 sword. As I revealed the tsuka, I found the tsuka ito felt cheap as well. Again, $70 sword.
Now after taking the sword out of the bag I found the tsuba to have some scratches. Not a problem in my mind as I was told that there would be scratches and nicks. I also found nicks in the saya. This was not an issue either. I was more concerned with the quality of the blade.
After unsheathing the sword I found signs that the sword had definitely been cut with. A handful of scratches and something that looked like residue of some sort resembling what would be found from cutting tatami or other moist targets. The edge felt fairly dull too. I figured the sword had gone through some use. As I was acquiring a used sword this didn't matter to me so long as the blade was not warped or had fatal chips/flaws in it. After more examination I did not notice any of the above issues and I was quite content.
As to be expected there was no real yokote. The kissaki had just been counter polished. Nonetheless the blade was still a nice blade for the cost. After a bit of polishing and honing the blade shined clean and true. The edge was frighteningly sharp... a brief (split second) contact with my thumb shaved off a small patch that penetrated all 7 layers of skin. That bled beautifully for a while. Sorry, no pics as I was trying not to drop blood on the furniture or carpet.
I did notice that the mekugi were poorly made - indeed one mekugi was meta in nature and the other just a stick of bamboo (much like a disposable chopstick cut off). The nakago rattled in the tsuka too. I disassembled it to find everything in order but the nakago did not fit perfectly into the tsuka - the slot was too large so the nakago rattled. I failed to take photos because I had a brain fart. I also found that the saya fit the blade VERY loosely. The sword rattled inside the saya from any real movement.
I dry handled it and it felt quite lively in the hand. Swinging was fairly effortless as the sword was quite light in the hand and with the bo-hi the sword made some beautiful tachi kaze sounds.
After all that effort (a couple hours worth of polishing and honing) I decided to go cut with it. I attempted to cut rolled soaked newspaper but the paper wouldn't mount onto the peg properly and kept falling over. I was very disappointed. I'd have put up a video of this failure but my fiance was my camera woman and at the same time I had a failure in my cutting target she had a failure with the camera.
My disappointment followed through into my cutting as I was clearly in horrible form. Ah well I cut through milk bottles anyway and also thrust into one bottle to find the blade penetrated with no resistance at all. Regarding the cutting, the blade had almost no niku when I got it and I could feel it in the cutting. It cut cleanly and cut well although I could feel the cuts more than I could on my Hanweis. Nonetheless still a very nice sword for the cost of $69.95 retail.
Some final photos of the sword after cutting.
I found the edge I'd put on the sword was already starting to dull after one cut on the rolled newspaper and cutting through a handful of milk bottles. I also noticed the blade was already acquiring new scratches from the cutting. I'd never scratched any of my Hanweis cutting bottles before. I just chalk that up to the sword being a lower quality sword and most likely softer metal.
I cleaned up the blade, re-honed it and gave it a very light coating of grease. Afterward I sheathed the sword and hung it up for display. All in all it's not a bad sword.
Measurements:
Blade: 28.25"
Tsuka: 11.5"
Overall: 40.5"
Weight: I didn't weigh it but it felt lighter than my Hanwei Practical Plus Katana.
CoB: 4.5" from the tsuba.
"Sweet Spot": Last 4 inches of the blade.
Ratings:
Historical Accuracy: 4/5 (fits traditional geometry and size etc.)
Fit and Finish: 3/5 (Loose saya and tsuka)
Handling: 5/5 (for the money this sword handles beautifully)
Value for the money: 4/5 (At $69.95 this sword is a great value. You sacrifice some areas for the price but it cuts well and handles very well too.)
Overall: 4/5 Its not a great sword by any means but for less than $100 its a really good buy. If you're looking for an inexpensive cutter or a waster to start people cutting with this is it. Cheap enough in price that if you manage to mess up the blade its not a huge loss but good enough that some really nice cutting can be done with it.
-Sam
Update:
Oh yeah that little issue with the screwed on kashira - it fell off on me this morning while going through some kata with it in the yard. Quick fix though - I epoxied it back on. Its not going anywhere now. I figured it was ok to epoxy it since it doesn't serve any function in the tsuka ito anyway.
-Sam