Dynasty Musha Vs. Hanwei Raptor

+1 for the Musha, high quality materials, good craftsmanship, quality fittings (for a sub 300$ sword, of course. It's not iaito level, but it's good solid iron with a proper paintjob)
For a first real sword, i'd recommend one with a bo-hi, it's a bit lighter, and gives a VERY audible tachi-kaze, good for edge-alignment training.
It has good cutting geometry, though the edge is not too thin, balanced well, although a tad heavy (and a bit beefy)
You might want to check the review section, it has tons of reviews, at least 3 on the musha and another couple or so on the raptor. You can find different opinions and a lot of pictures coupled to them.
I bought a musha, i use it for training, it exceeded my expectations in most aspects.

Be it a musha or a raptor, be sure to talk to marc from wiwingti sword supply, he has probably the best prices around, plus he's awesome. (I bought my musha from him, plus 3 other swords, and not going to stop here, lol)
Welcome aboard, m8

-As a sidenote and a little advice: Be sure to read all the safety related topics around, you can NEVER be too cautious, be it cutting, training, or even maintaining.
Read them once, read them twice, read them thrice, and pound the content into your head.
Also, if you have no former training, i stringly advise you to pick up a boken and do some basic training prior to picking up a sharp sword.

I'm with you Seth. Shinken= sharp or live blade.

From the reviews I think you'll be fine with either blade, but my vote goes with the Musha.

Hmmm... maybe I am getting something wrong.

Musha all the way though! Unless you want some weird geometry.

shinken = shin (real) + ken (sword) ... as a side note shinken could also mean to do something earnestly or seriously as in to put forth serious or earnest effort, so my guess when the japanese or JSA people use the word shinken to refer to swords would be a sword made with a serious or earnest effort or a sword with sweat, blood, and tears poured into it as budget and lower end blades from certain companies take advantage and severely abuse modern tech to churn that extra dollar. Im talking about blades you see going for 50 to 300 dollars. I mean no offense to sword companies as I have seen blades from hanwei and cheness that seem and feel quite trustworthy. However when you hold a budget blade and compare that to a japan made iaito or shinken, you can understand the difference, the sword becomes alive in your hand and when you inspect every detail from the fittings to the hamon and polished blade that budget blades just dont have most of the time. A sword made with serious and earnest intent will have these things or most of them as the smith made a SERIOUS OR EARNEST effort into the sword. That being said, all swords deserve proper respect and maintenance. I dont care if its some cheap wall hanger, slo, or some nice budget sword or a high end shinken. People put effort to make those blades and get them somehow in your hands, to neglect them is to spit on the "serious/earnest" efforts of those people (ie smiths/ factory workers). Therefore if you have not the heart to love an slo or budget sword then you do not deserve the nihonto and if you do buy or get one, i promise it will give you some nasty cuts.
some people's definition of shinken are traditionally made blades, some choose high end mass produced, others go with anything sharp or live. I ve handled bugei swedish powdered steel blades, high end hand made shinken (2 to 5k dollars range), cold steel, and hanwei blades. To me their all shinken as the translation means real sword. IMO, a shinken is a shinken when it can cut a full roll of tatami properly soaked and dried/wet bamboo as they are the equivalent of human bone and flesh. After all a sword was meant to do one thing and that was originally to cut people down. If this sword can not do its job, then it is not a real sword or shinken. For all we no it could be of european origin and I could still call it a shinken. However, the word nihonto is reserved ONLY and I repeat ONLY for the traditionally hand made one of a kind blade done to the very last detail sword that people have come to associate with the samurai. I'm talking about swords from nosyudo, swordstore, and those smiths who literally stick to the japanese standard and ideas for what a nihonto should look like and not the new smiths whose goal is to make the biggest butcher knife or indestructible cleaver. Everything has a weakness and no sword will ever be truly be perfect, the sword is half the picture which is completed by the swordsman. Japanese swords are not cleavers period they were designed to slice and the occasional thrust as well as parry with the mune or edge parry like nagash or kasumi. What if its not sharp but made well or with serious/earnest intentions? For swords like the mogito or iaito, they are still considered swords but training swords thus they still demand the care and attention of a real sword as they train us for the next step provided under proper instruction and supervision onto the real sword. The same applies to any blade be it Indian, European, Chinese and etc.

FYI: this is my opinion and NOT meant to be taken offensively. Criticism good and bad will always come up, but please be constructive about it. I know some of you guys if not most love backyard cutting or find it difficult for formal training or lack the budget or patience of those higher end swords. To each, his own. But I do get annoyed when people says yea i no how to use a katana and start swinging or cutting noobishly without an honest attempt to find proper instruction/ supervision. They pose a danger to themselves, their surroundings and tarnish the reputation for those in the JSA/WSA/ other SA who sweat blood, tears, and piss consistently to preserve their respective dying art.

5160 is similar to 9260 but the heat treatment and geometry makes the true difference. There is no magic in the steel, just the way it is treated and made. You have to get past the hype about steel types to see the real truth. A badly made 9260 will be out performed by a well made 1045.

Actually, I just recently was allowed by my sensei to train w/a shinken though I'm definitely an advocate of safety. Especially considering how many times I became too lax in noto and stabbed my hand with my iaito. If anything I'll probably do everything slower due to having a shinken 'til I'm more comfortable with it...

Anyway, I appreciate everyone's input! I was thinking about Marc from Wiwingti before, and I think I'll definitely order from his store now. Hm...taking a closer look, it appears I'll be getting the Musha unless there's a raptor w/bo-hi. You see, bo-hi are required by my sensei, which I have no problem with, at least for class training.

LOVE the Unokubi Zukuri Raptor... except for that damn hump on the end of the mune... just BUGS me.

Cool

i've handled both, and a couple of times and would definetly go with the musha.
musha made me more confident and, feeled that the musha was more balanced,
maybe it is just me but i liked more to cut with the musha.

with the raptor(that i loived) it gave me impression that the tsuka part wasn't having enough weight for the blade

Marc