Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2006 19:15:59 GMT
Konichiwa all, My first post here on the Forum- I recently was cruising the net and went to Last Legend's website to gaze upon their swords-which I find quite attractive-and saw they had a new line of Japanese style swords, the Pro-Series (you have to buy from a distributor) they can be viewed here: www.swordarmory.com/prosword/prosword-main.htmlThey look pretty tasty and you can get a complete Daisho for somewhat under $500.00 at the introductory price. Does anyone know anything about these swords? They are made in China and according to Last Legend's hype are supposed to be up to their standards of quality (I do not know what that is but their swords look pretty awesome) I am a practitioner of Shinkendo and we are only allowed to use swords approved by the ISF (International Shinkendo Federation) but I started collecting swords before I joined and will always collect them-anyway these look pretty good-but looks do not mean anything. The top swords are made of 810T Steel-I don't know what that means and if it is good-the most common steel is the 1050 or 1060 and of course the Cheness 9260 spring steel (I have GOT to get me one of those real soon) Any Forumites know about these or own any for some feed back?
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2006 23:36:33 GMT
While I haven't seen them myself I havent heard a lot of good things about them.They are made at a different forge to LL's usual line.The hada (grain) on the folded ones looks very course, almost like damascus which doesnt really do it for me.
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admin
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Post by admin on Dec 17, 2006 6:22:11 GMT
I tend to agree...
It seems like last legend are taking a step backwards with these ones, and trying to compete with all the other Chinese made mass produced Katana on the market at the moment..
There are better choices out there for the same $$$, and I don't really know why they would put their name to these pretty generic swords.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2006 17:48:39 GMT
The folded blades are T10 steel, which is somewhat like 1095, a very high carbon content and can be forged to a high RC without being as brittle. The Pro Sword folded blades have half the layers (1000) as the lowest end blade in the Last Legend line (2000 layers). The sandwich blades have a T10 inner core (the edge) with an silicon steel (SI65) outer layers. The silicon steel is very forgiving when it is bent, which makes it good for the backbone of the sword, but high content silicon steel can not be used for the whole sword because no matter what you do, it will not keep an edge very well.
The entry level swords are non-folded using a 1090 high carbon steel blade or a 1060 medium carbon steel blade (which is the same as the 9260 spring steel and the cold steel kats, in the case of the 10 numbered steels the last two numbers represent the total carbon content. The lower the number, the lower the carbon content and the closer you get to stainless steel).
There are two grades of swords and furniture, the 900 and 800 series. The blades are the same, ie; folded, sandwich, or 1090, regardless of the series, it’s the furniture that makes the price difference. The 800 furniture being, well OK. The 800 is not finely detailed but it’s OK if you are on a very low budget. The 900 series has very fine details which takes more time and costs more.
The only thing on the swords that is Last Legend is the blade design and forging guidelines, everything else involving the Pro Swords is out sourced to other factories in China that specialize in that part, ie; furniture, saya, care kits, presentation cases, etc., and LL just picked from their selection. All those parts are then shipped to and assembled in the factory that produces the blades. In the case of Pro Swords it’s the out sourcing that keeps the cost down.
That being said, don’t fool yourself, you’re not going to get a $1000 or $1500 sword for $300, from anyone.
Swords are like girlfriends, what’s best and works well for one person, won’t for another. The best advise I could give you, regardless of what manufacturer you’re looking at, is to talk to people that have .. 1- That actually, in real life, have handled the swords and 2- have actually cut with the swords (It does no good to ask the opinion of someone that has never handled to product). Then find out what they liked and disliked about the sword. You can then start to decide if that sword is right for you. It’s easy to find people that have an opinion. The best example I can give for that is a person that was on another forum, and he had a site were he reviewed swords. The problem turned out to be that he had never really owned or handled a real sword, but giving advise about things he knew nothing about other then what "he" had read on other people’s posts, well, I guess it made him feel good. So be careful, there are a few people like that in the world.
Next, and this goes for any product, buy from someplace that you can easily return the product if you see it and decide you don’t like it.
I hope this helps you. Take care.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2006 20:42:02 GMT
Thanks for the feedback- It's good to have a sounding board before spending hard earned money on an inferior product.
I currently own a Pratical Katana Plus, purchased from Swords of Valor (took Paul's advice to heart) and so far this sword, though on the low end cost wise does not dissappoint.
We use one as a dojo cutter (we use it for half mats) for tameshigiri and it works very well.
A couple of licks with an Arkansas stone brought the edge on mine to razor keen-just lightly along the edge is all it took.
I don't know how they would stand up to hard bamboo, but we rarely cut that so it doesn't matter.
All of those steel designations can be really confusing-I know nothing about the t10 and wrapped core blades-I would think a core wrapped blade would delaminate if struck against a hard target like bamboo-and the folded blades with coarse hada would probably fragment (bad, bad, bad!)
That would be pretty dangerous to the swordsman and any bystanders-and you would look pretty embarrasing standing there with nothing but the tsuka in your hand.
I am glad to see most manufacturers are going to double mekugi pins-most dojos won't allow single pin any more for safety reasons-I couldn't tell if LL swords are double pinned or not-are their regular swords any good?
They do not fall into the $300 or under beater category but still seem fairly priced and not over hyped like Bugei anf their Swedish Powdered steel-I read a review on one of their swords and they said it was dull and did not cut all that well out of the box-you pay that kind of money for a sword it should cut-it's pretty funny that a Hanwei will cut out of the box and costs a third of one of those. Think I'll stick to my PKP.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2006 0:57:06 GMT
Lowering carbon content does not make a steel 'stainless'. Rather, it makes it into Iron.
Stainless steel is made by adding large amounts(13%+) of chromium to the mix. Chromium in small amounts isn't bad, but it isn't great either. From what I'm told it makes it difficult to bring out a Hamon.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 19, 2006 17:19:38 GMT
thats good info adam, ill try to remember that.
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