Stirring the pot a little with this introduction..

Hello Jeieien

Welcome to SBG. Sorry for any outbursts around here, many here have seen Haz post in the past, and many remember how it turned out. Plus, many here are knowledgeable enough to be wary of his products just by looking at theirs pictures. In the end, in the many discussions I've seen about Haz' and his blades, I have only very rarely seen anything positive beeing said. I think that says alot about the man and his products. If you have the desire and money to buy from him feel free to do so, but I think most of us would prefer spending our cash elsewhere, with other sellers, but that's our opinions... Feel free to have yours and do what you want with your money.

I've never dealt with Hazama Yakiba, and the Haz blowout was before my time here, so all I have is the reviews. Like I said, none were good. I've never dealt with Hauwei, so it's the same thing about reviews, which are mostly good. Some good places to look for items to customize with would be Nihonzashi, Yamato Budogu, Namikawa, and Artsfeng. That's just to start, but you can find what you need for good prices from them. Also, you'll occasionally find great deals right here in the "Items for Trade and Sell" section. You can get a new Tsuka core from either of the customizes I mention in my other posts before. There is also Fred Lohman, but you'll pay a lot more.

Ronin katana is a very reputable seller imho- he is a forum member here as well and has on several occasions given me straightforward honest information about his products and other swords out there. His products are also sold on the SBG main site and Paul (SBG founder) has a longstanding practice of only selling/advertizing sellers he personally has dealt with and respects.
So, I would say that even though some of his tsukas (handles) do not have alternating ito (grip wrap) this is not a deal breaker for his items. Any of the suggestions to help determine if a sword is of acceptable quality may be indicators, but only a very few things are definite deal breakers. Sometimes a simple wrap is a way to keep overall costs down which allows sword makers to spend the necessary money where it counts more (like the heat treat on blade for example).

BTW- where in Canada? I'm in Windsor, grew up in Vancouver, and have a brother in Halifax - so I've been all across our Great White North

SoS screen name literally reflects that he has been, and still is, a practitioner - so he does do a lot of cutting and imo, is quite qualified to opine on a lot of katanas in question. SoS has one of the best modern katana collections around (and he uses em) aside from Paul and Marc Ridgeway (on this forum). I think you will find a lot of great info. pertaining to modern katanas on the Sword Forum International forums.
SFI modern prod. kats section: www.swordforum.com/forums/forumd ... 03a7&f=157

Hmm, as for the tsuka shapes - I believe you will get bothered later on -if you ever plan on collecting katanas extensively;


Here are a few I would recommend researching further, if you were planning on the $800ish price range.
1. Hanwei Bamboo Mat
www.kultofathena.com/product.asp ... Mat+Katana

2. Hanwei Lion Dog
www.kultofathena.com/product.asp ... Dog+Katana

3. Hanwei Anniv Shinto
www.kultofathena.com/product.asp ... nto+Katana

4. Kris Cutlery Katanas
kriscutlery.com/documents/japanese.html


These fittings are much higher in quality than the ones on Haz' katanas (his look like shoddy alloy)

1,2, 3 are HW-2, HW-1, HW-1 steel respectively.
You can read about the hype here: www.casiberia.com/resources.aspx?node=318
Apparently they are "claimed" to be as tough as L6 Bainite (that is if properly heat treated)...Always take it with a grain of salt

As far as I know, these are the toughest DH katanas around on the production market. I am recommending that you take a look, since you are not bothered by the "axe-handles" or poorly shaped tsukas (present on 1, 2, and 3 like Haz' kats).

At least with 1-4, you are getting your money's worth - especially in the blades. You can choose to customize at a later point in time.

You will kick yourself later on if you purchase from Haz. In my opinion, his package deal should only be priced around $220 - $280 like Hauwei's and Sinosword's.

Yes, I found a local guy who will do the work. I'm not so handy at things like that. There are lots of folks who can do work like that, such as Nihonzashi or Swordnarmory.

I like and can appreciate the point SoS makes about details such as alternating ito being expected (even required) on a sword in relatively higher pricepoints.

This thread went downhill quickly...

Of course, that is to be expected with a title like 'Stirring the pot' and having the subject matter be Haz... :roll:

I know what you mean. This is the second time in about a week in which a brand new registered member asked about Hazama Yakiba, then proceed to defend the product or question the validity of the people who said negative things about Hazama Yakiba. Coincidence?

My guess is coincidence...
I don't eve think jeieien was defending Haz, just defending that he liked the look of a straght tsuka on a curved blade...
I think SoS's first post could be interpreted as condescending to a new forum member who has not had time to get to know our personalities and how we usually write. Now, those of us who know SoS better know his 'style' is straightforward and blunt, but new members may tend to misunderstand his intentions, especially since most other forums are full of people who like to lay into new members.

I think jeieien got overly defensive and since his repsonse had some pretty blunt insults in it that only made things snowball off topic more.

To everyones credit we all got back on topic nicely though ('cept for right now with me though- so Ill stop now)