5160 Custom Iaito
Apr 14, 2011 4:46:18 GMT
Post by masahiro560 on Apr 14, 2011 4:46:18 GMT
Introduction
Hi everyone, Masahiro here doing my first review
I bought this sword after training myself with a mabolo bokken (First snapped second I sold)
Back in the day, the only retailer of swords here "Geishas blade" didn't stock any Iaito, and they were a bit too expensive for me (Around the $160 mark) My allowance just can't cope up with that
I'm not that good with a camera so :?
I deemed myself "Unfit for a shinken" that's why I looked for an iaito, hopefully an iaidoka came up with his old sword and posted an ad for his iaito. I jumped in on the deal which is only $80 at the time, with flaws since it was a second hand sword. We met up and examined the sword and here it is (These pictures were taken one year before, before I made any customization attempt on it)
Historical overview
The sword is based on the japanese Katana, An Edo katana due to it's torii-zori and mild sori nature.
Initial Impressions
The sword came in a generic black cotton with white lining bag, nothing fancy, it really does state it's business that "I'm a sword". There was no maintenance kit sad to say, so I had to order one from geishasblade, I however passed on that because again my allowance can't do it justice, I was kinda saddened by that, I loved the smell of the choji-oil that was applied on the blade before it was handed on to me. The choji-oil was applied VERY heavily, it was literally dripping from what I can recall.
Statistics
Give some hard data on the sword's specifications:
Blade/Nagasa Length: 28"
Handle/Tsuka Length: 11 Inches
Overall Length: 39~40 inches
Guard/Tsuba Width: 3 Inches
POB (Point of Balance): 5 inches from tsuba
Weight: A rough estimate would give me 2.3 lb, not quite sure though as the blade is heavy.
The Blade
The blade has torii-zori with a .75 sori curvature, The shape of the mune is indistinguishable if it is iori-mune or maru-mune
The blade is made 5160 my sir mario de guzman of pozzorubio, pangasinan, philippines. Yes some of you may have heard of this guy, this is the person who made the braveheart swords. The blade is wonderful with full niku, The bo-hi is terminated crisply, the blade makes a wonderful tachi-kaze. It is TH, although I'm sure that sir Mario can also fulfill a DH blade if I can recall.
The blade is pretty sturdy, I have hit walls with full force (by accident) The sword flew a number of times (uhh....) The sword also broke my flourescent round bulb (<_<") survived a flood, Hit the cieling, hit my cabinet, and a few times I accidentally dropped it because of the onset of my illness. The sword is sturdy, with full niku
Components
For a two year old sword or one year old (I presume) the koshirae looks tired...
The tsuka (Fuchi/Kashira, Menuki, Tsuka Ito, Samegawa
*next image was taken one year later after more than a thousand swings for suburi
*The Tsuka-ito was brown when it came in, It stretched and got loose so I sent it back to sir Mario to have the tsuka rewrapped, I was surprised that he did it for free in black ito or maybe it was free because I also had a wakizashi on order from him...
*The Menuki is Made of horn and feels nice in the hand
*The fuchi and Kashira is also made from horn which facilitates less friction in kata, the sword is wonderfully comfortable
*This is the ugliest part of the tsuka however, The Samegawa, or textured paper... Although one could opt for snakeskin from him
The tsuba and the seppa
*This image was taken after I lacquered the tsuba to cure the rattling the tsuba which was annoying whenever I practiced
*The Seppa was brass with that gear pattern at the sides, It took quite the polish to get it looking good again.
The Sageo
*This was probably the ugliest thing that came with the sword, It wasn't a sageo at all! it was one of those stiff bagstraps and it left a mark on the saya when it was tied up in the decorative knot,
The Habaki
The Habaki was good, but not that good, it lacked the slot for the munemachi, and the hamachi was resting on top of the habaki. The Habaki is made of brass
The Saya
The Lacquer job wasn't really lacquer, it was house paint... with weird squiggly lines that was advertised as design.
However when I stripped down, the wood grain was beautiful, the color was of a shining gold hue. The wood was wonderful in itself without the lacquer, The Koiguchi and Kojiri are also made of horn, same with the kurikata. The hole of the kurikata however is small, so filing the inside may be necessary if buying new sageo
Handling Characteristics
The sword is more on the little heavy side, suitable for suburi, but alot of people would probably have trouble doing kata with such a heavy sword, even with the bo-hi the sword is heavy. The balance is nice however, and with enough control one can use it one handedly.
The sword is exceptional for being sturdy, although I would prefer to have the balance moved a bit.
In comparison to the gunto I once owned (A Kanenori (1st seat 1941 Exhibition) Gendaito) The sword has much to fight with in terms of handling, with geometry however that's a different story
Conclusions
The sword was done nicely, the saya and tsuka is not "One size fits all" I can say for certain that the swords are indeed made by custom sizing, this is because sir mario does not produce swords in manufacture, they are around a 20 man team that forges and makes swords upon order.
the only thing I'm kind of disappointed is that they're only limited to horn f/k and brown and black ito
Along with the fact that they seem to have no experience with samegawa, even though the animal is abundant here.
Besides that everything is beautiful, I have seen a recent sword by sir mario and surely they have stepped up their game, I can only wish that they offer more choices for menuki.
The tsuba can be customized upon a new order if I recall correctly,
The sageo should also be changed into something more "Saya friendly"
Pros
Give a brief list of the aspects of the sword that you believed were the most positive, for example:
- nice leather tsuka-maki
-The blade is properly made
-The bo-hi is terminated correctly
-the Ha-machi and the mune-machi lines up correctly
-Very sturdy blade
-Saya and tsuka fitted to the blade
-waisted tsuka (On my wakizashi, ordered three years after this blade was made)
Cons
-The original polish was not attractive, it was satin, but it looked a bit dirty (probably due to former owner's use)
-The samegawa, snake skin or paper,
-The nakago does not have a shinogi
-The mune is not crisply done if it is iori-mune
The Bottom Line
I'd recommend the blade, but not the koshirae, I think sir mario can fit other f/k, tsuba and menuki to the newly made blade, but I have no idea with samegawa. I'd probably recommend the blade as shirasaya, without the koshirae.
Overall the sword is a good deal (except for the sageo and samegawa) for $80,
Sir mario can make a shinken in shirasaya for $120
Or one with higher end fittings (yes, these fittings are beautiful, but I don't have a picture of it, That sword was brought into cosplay by the same iaidoka, it was his sensei's) for around $220, semi-custom, with a choice of tsuba (steel or brass), leather color, and others.
Hi everyone, Masahiro here doing my first review
I bought this sword after training myself with a mabolo bokken (First snapped second I sold)
Back in the day, the only retailer of swords here "Geishas blade" didn't stock any Iaito, and they were a bit too expensive for me (Around the $160 mark) My allowance just can't cope up with that
I'm not that good with a camera so :?
I deemed myself "Unfit for a shinken" that's why I looked for an iaito, hopefully an iaidoka came up with his old sword and posted an ad for his iaito. I jumped in on the deal which is only $80 at the time, with flaws since it was a second hand sword. We met up and examined the sword and here it is (These pictures were taken one year before, before I made any customization attempt on it)
Historical overview
The sword is based on the japanese Katana, An Edo katana due to it's torii-zori and mild sori nature.
Initial Impressions
The sword came in a generic black cotton with white lining bag, nothing fancy, it really does state it's business that "I'm a sword". There was no maintenance kit sad to say, so I had to order one from geishasblade, I however passed on that because again my allowance can't do it justice, I was kinda saddened by that, I loved the smell of the choji-oil that was applied on the blade before it was handed on to me. The choji-oil was applied VERY heavily, it was literally dripping from what I can recall.
Statistics
Give some hard data on the sword's specifications:
Blade/Nagasa Length: 28"
Handle/Tsuka Length: 11 Inches
Overall Length: 39~40 inches
Guard/Tsuba Width: 3 Inches
POB (Point of Balance): 5 inches from tsuba
Weight: A rough estimate would give me 2.3 lb, not quite sure though as the blade is heavy.
The Blade
The blade has torii-zori with a .75 sori curvature, The shape of the mune is indistinguishable if it is iori-mune or maru-mune
The blade is made 5160 my sir mario de guzman of pozzorubio, pangasinan, philippines. Yes some of you may have heard of this guy, this is the person who made the braveheart swords. The blade is wonderful with full niku, The bo-hi is terminated crisply, the blade makes a wonderful tachi-kaze. It is TH, although I'm sure that sir Mario can also fulfill a DH blade if I can recall.
The blade is pretty sturdy, I have hit walls with full force (by accident) The sword flew a number of times (uhh....) The sword also broke my flourescent round bulb (<_<") survived a flood, Hit the cieling, hit my cabinet, and a few times I accidentally dropped it because of the onset of my illness. The sword is sturdy, with full niku
Components
For a two year old sword or one year old (I presume) the koshirae looks tired...
The tsuka (Fuchi/Kashira, Menuki, Tsuka Ito, Samegawa
*next image was taken one year later after more than a thousand swings for suburi
*The Tsuka-ito was brown when it came in, It stretched and got loose so I sent it back to sir Mario to have the tsuka rewrapped, I was surprised that he did it for free in black ito or maybe it was free because I also had a wakizashi on order from him...
*The Menuki is Made of horn and feels nice in the hand
*The fuchi and Kashira is also made from horn which facilitates less friction in kata, the sword is wonderfully comfortable
*This is the ugliest part of the tsuka however, The Samegawa, or textured paper... Although one could opt for snakeskin from him
The tsuba and the seppa
*This image was taken after I lacquered the tsuba to cure the rattling the tsuba which was annoying whenever I practiced
*The Seppa was brass with that gear pattern at the sides, It took quite the polish to get it looking good again.
The Sageo
*This was probably the ugliest thing that came with the sword, It wasn't a sageo at all! it was one of those stiff bagstraps and it left a mark on the saya when it was tied up in the decorative knot,
The Habaki
The Habaki was good, but not that good, it lacked the slot for the munemachi, and the hamachi was resting on top of the habaki. The Habaki is made of brass
The Saya
The Lacquer job wasn't really lacquer, it was house paint... with weird squiggly lines that was advertised as design.
However when I stripped down, the wood grain was beautiful, the color was of a shining gold hue. The wood was wonderful in itself without the lacquer, The Koiguchi and Kojiri are also made of horn, same with the kurikata. The hole of the kurikata however is small, so filing the inside may be necessary if buying new sageo
Handling Characteristics
The sword is more on the little heavy side, suitable for suburi, but alot of people would probably have trouble doing kata with such a heavy sword, even with the bo-hi the sword is heavy. The balance is nice however, and with enough control one can use it one handedly.
The sword is exceptional for being sturdy, although I would prefer to have the balance moved a bit.
In comparison to the gunto I once owned (A Kanenori (1st seat 1941 Exhibition) Gendaito) The sword has much to fight with in terms of handling, with geometry however that's a different story
Conclusions
The sword was done nicely, the saya and tsuka is not "One size fits all" I can say for certain that the swords are indeed made by custom sizing, this is because sir mario does not produce swords in manufacture, they are around a 20 man team that forges and makes swords upon order.
the only thing I'm kind of disappointed is that they're only limited to horn f/k and brown and black ito
Along with the fact that they seem to have no experience with samegawa, even though the animal is abundant here.
Besides that everything is beautiful, I have seen a recent sword by sir mario and surely they have stepped up their game, I can only wish that they offer more choices for menuki.
The tsuba can be customized upon a new order if I recall correctly,
The sageo should also be changed into something more "Saya friendly"
Pros
Give a brief list of the aspects of the sword that you believed were the most positive, for example:
- nice leather tsuka-maki
-The blade is properly made
-The bo-hi is terminated correctly
-the Ha-machi and the mune-machi lines up correctly
-Very sturdy blade
-Saya and tsuka fitted to the blade
-waisted tsuka (On my wakizashi, ordered three years after this blade was made)
Cons
-The original polish was not attractive, it was satin, but it looked a bit dirty (probably due to former owner's use)
-The samegawa, snake skin or paper,
-The nakago does not have a shinogi
-The mune is not crisply done if it is iori-mune
The Bottom Line
I'd recommend the blade, but not the koshirae, I think sir mario can fit other f/k, tsuba and menuki to the newly made blade, but I have no idea with samegawa. I'd probably recommend the blade as shirasaya, without the koshirae.
Overall the sword is a good deal (except for the sageo and samegawa) for $80,
Sir mario can make a shinken in shirasaya for $120
Or one with higher end fittings (yes, these fittings are beautiful, but I don't have a picture of it, That sword was brought into cosplay by the same iaidoka, it was his sensei's) for around $220, semi-custom, with a choice of tsuba (steel or brass), leather color, and others.