Badtrack Jian
Apr 24, 2011 14:02:40 GMT
Post by guyc on Apr 24, 2011 14:02:40 GMT
This could be a long story so bear with me. I have wanted a practical jian for some time but couldn't decide if I wanted a looker or something more utilitarian. Most of the fancy jians I saw on the net were anything but practical (wushu blades etc.) I probably should have gone the Hanwei Scott Rhodell route but decided I would look around. Then I saw one on eBay from Badtrack Blades. :roll:
Disclaimer:
I do not work for or represent Badtrack Blades in any way. I have not received or asked for any remuneration or favours in writing this review.
Their description:
'Sword Smith: Zhefei Gu
100 percent of the blade was be hand forged and be consists of AISI 1045 folded steel + AISI 1095 high carbon steel. This blade is Sanmai blade construction.ClayTempered blade and water quenched. 12 stage hand sharpened edge can cut 10 bamboos with a strike and leaves not cracks on the cutting edge. Rose hardwood scabbard and hilt. Antiqued brass sword mountings were carved Chinese traditional lotus flower designs. This sword's style remake as Chinese Ming Dynasty general's sword and making skill absolutely as Chinese royal traditional hand forged skills + Japanese traditional clay tempered method. Large value and collectable item. This sword will come from a free silk sword bag when you won this auction.'
Their stats:
'Origin: China
Approximate Period: Chinese Ming Dy. Officer Double Edge Sword Full Size Copy
Approximate Full Size: 105*4.3 (cm)/ 41.3*1.7 (inchs)
Approximate Blade Length: 77 (cm)/ 30.3 (inchs)
Approximate Hilt Length: 20.7 (cm)/ 8.1 (inchs)
Blade Material: AISI 1045 Folded Steel + AISI 1095 High Carbon Steel
Sword Mountings Material: Antiqued Brass
Sword Scabbard Material: Rose Hardwood Scabbard
Sword Handle Material: Rose Hardwood Handle
Weight: 4 Kg With Package Material'
I know that the reputation of this outfit was for dubious quality but the auction was open to offers so I put one in for rather less than the 'buy it now' price. Cost me £198.12 ($298) including the steep postage costs. Of course this was accepted and then the fun started. Badtrack asked if I would complete outside eBay which should set alarm bells ringing. However I knew they had been around for some time so I reluctantly agreed. This was back on Dec 26th last year. Money sent via PayPal and then I heard nothing for over a month. I sent a query in Feb and got a reply saying they would chase up their posting department. Nothing more heard until I sent another request at the beginning of March. This time I was told that the sword had been returned by the Chinese post office twice and that they would try again. I also noticed that Badtrack has stopped listing on Ebay. Very worrying! They then sent me a tracking No. which didn't seem to relate to anything. Anyway, I'm nothing if not persevering, so I kept trying the number and eventually a package showed up as on it's way. It then got to the UK and sat in customs for a week. Then suddenly, some 3.5 months after I ordered it, my parcel arrived, without even any customs charges to pay. I have to admit that despite all my concerns Badtrack responed to all my queries quickly and politely and eventually came through.
And so to the pics and review and a bit of a surprise.
Sword arrived wrapped in tape and styrofoam. Opened that to find quite a nice sword bag and one heavy sword. This was no light weight wushu blade!
The blade itself was very good looking. Diamond section, no fullers. There is a clear pattern down the edges of the blade and a folded pattern in the centre portion.
These do not appear to be wire brushed. However I am unsure as to whether this is a sign of differential hardening, the lamination demarcation, or a combination of the two. The blade arrived sharp but there were a couple of minor blemishes in the polish along the edge.
The fittings appeared to be brass and well cast. I checked on an unseen portion and they do seem to be real brass, not painted pot metal and they are very heavy and solid.
The pommel is secured by a nut and there appeared to be an ornate mekugi ( don't know the Chinese term) through the plain wood handle. This obviously invited dismantling.
The pommel nut unscrewed easily but the two part mekugi took a bit of prising apart. This done, a nice surprise was revealed. A good size tang, no sign of a rat's tail. The top half inch threaded for the nut with no welds at all. The tang was broad enough to be drilled to take the mekugi. All very solid and serviceable.
The wood of the scabbard and handle are claimed to be rosewood and look quite attractive, There is no covering or wrap on the handle but the bare wood is comfortable and appears to give a good grip. As I said the fitting are attractive and seem of good quality. They were not well fitted to the scabbard however. They are just a friction fit, secured by glue. The lower mountings were all loose where the glue had dried and failed so I had to re glue them No problem . The suspension is an attractive braided faux leather affair and a sword tassel completes the ensemble.
My Stats
Weight 2lb 13oz (1.27kg)
Weight with scabbard 4lb 10oz (2.09 kg)
Overall length including scabbard 41" (104cm)
Blade length 31"
Sword length 40"
Width at guard 1.4" (3.56 cm)
Width at mid point 1.2" (3.05cm)
Width 2" from tip 1.02" (2.6cm)
Thickness at guard 0.35" (0.9cm)
Thickness at midpoint 0.28" (0.71cm)
Thickness 2" from tip 0.23" (0.58cm)
Test cutting.
Mixed success here. (and please don't laugh too much) Handles milk bottles with ease. However my attempts at cutting through rolled soaked newspapers met with less success. It did cut into it well but I could not get right the way through. I may have bee too ambitious with the amount of newspaper I used. It was a good solid roll.
I suspect that my problems have more to do with my complete lack of skill than any defect in the sword. :cry: This is a heavy sword and I was actually more comfortable using a two-handed grip than single handed. There is plenty of room on the grip to do this.
Historical accuracy:
No idea really. It looks to be a reasonable example of a Ming jian but I have no expertise in this area.
Pros:
Well constructed, full tang, nice looking blade. Reasonable distal and profile tapers.
Cons:
A bit slipshod when it came to gluing the fitting to the scabbard. Blemishes in the polish of the blade edge. Heavy blade. Not sure if this is a con as I wanted a solid fighting sword and I have no idea as to what a reasonable weight range would be for historical examples of this type of sword.
All in all I'm very pleased with this sword. It makes a welcome addition to my collection :mrgreen:
Disclaimer:
I do not work for or represent Badtrack Blades in any way. I have not received or asked for any remuneration or favours in writing this review.
Their description:
'Sword Smith: Zhefei Gu
100 percent of the blade was be hand forged and be consists of AISI 1045 folded steel + AISI 1095 high carbon steel. This blade is Sanmai blade construction.ClayTempered blade and water quenched. 12 stage hand sharpened edge can cut 10 bamboos with a strike and leaves not cracks on the cutting edge. Rose hardwood scabbard and hilt. Antiqued brass sword mountings were carved Chinese traditional lotus flower designs. This sword's style remake as Chinese Ming Dynasty general's sword and making skill absolutely as Chinese royal traditional hand forged skills + Japanese traditional clay tempered method. Large value and collectable item. This sword will come from a free silk sword bag when you won this auction.'
Their stats:
'Origin: China
Approximate Period: Chinese Ming Dy. Officer Double Edge Sword Full Size Copy
Approximate Full Size: 105*4.3 (cm)/ 41.3*1.7 (inchs)
Approximate Blade Length: 77 (cm)/ 30.3 (inchs)
Approximate Hilt Length: 20.7 (cm)/ 8.1 (inchs)
Blade Material: AISI 1045 Folded Steel + AISI 1095 High Carbon Steel
Sword Mountings Material: Antiqued Brass
Sword Scabbard Material: Rose Hardwood Scabbard
Sword Handle Material: Rose Hardwood Handle
Weight: 4 Kg With Package Material'
I know that the reputation of this outfit was for dubious quality but the auction was open to offers so I put one in for rather less than the 'buy it now' price. Cost me £198.12 ($298) including the steep postage costs. Of course this was accepted and then the fun started. Badtrack asked if I would complete outside eBay which should set alarm bells ringing. However I knew they had been around for some time so I reluctantly agreed. This was back on Dec 26th last year. Money sent via PayPal and then I heard nothing for over a month. I sent a query in Feb and got a reply saying they would chase up their posting department. Nothing more heard until I sent another request at the beginning of March. This time I was told that the sword had been returned by the Chinese post office twice and that they would try again. I also noticed that Badtrack has stopped listing on Ebay. Very worrying! They then sent me a tracking No. which didn't seem to relate to anything. Anyway, I'm nothing if not persevering, so I kept trying the number and eventually a package showed up as on it's way. It then got to the UK and sat in customs for a week. Then suddenly, some 3.5 months after I ordered it, my parcel arrived, without even any customs charges to pay. I have to admit that despite all my concerns Badtrack responed to all my queries quickly and politely and eventually came through.
And so to the pics and review and a bit of a surprise.
Sword arrived wrapped in tape and styrofoam. Opened that to find quite a nice sword bag and one heavy sword. This was no light weight wushu blade!
The blade itself was very good looking. Diamond section, no fullers. There is a clear pattern down the edges of the blade and a folded pattern in the centre portion.
These do not appear to be wire brushed. However I am unsure as to whether this is a sign of differential hardening, the lamination demarcation, or a combination of the two. The blade arrived sharp but there were a couple of minor blemishes in the polish along the edge.
The fittings appeared to be brass and well cast. I checked on an unseen portion and they do seem to be real brass, not painted pot metal and they are very heavy and solid.
The pommel is secured by a nut and there appeared to be an ornate mekugi ( don't know the Chinese term) through the plain wood handle. This obviously invited dismantling.
The pommel nut unscrewed easily but the two part mekugi took a bit of prising apart. This done, a nice surprise was revealed. A good size tang, no sign of a rat's tail. The top half inch threaded for the nut with no welds at all. The tang was broad enough to be drilled to take the mekugi. All very solid and serviceable.
The wood of the scabbard and handle are claimed to be rosewood and look quite attractive, There is no covering or wrap on the handle but the bare wood is comfortable and appears to give a good grip. As I said the fitting are attractive and seem of good quality. They were not well fitted to the scabbard however. They are just a friction fit, secured by glue. The lower mountings were all loose where the glue had dried and failed so I had to re glue them No problem . The suspension is an attractive braided faux leather affair and a sword tassel completes the ensemble.
My Stats
Weight 2lb 13oz (1.27kg)
Weight with scabbard 4lb 10oz (2.09 kg)
Overall length including scabbard 41" (104cm)
Blade length 31"
Sword length 40"
Width at guard 1.4" (3.56 cm)
Width at mid point 1.2" (3.05cm)
Width 2" from tip 1.02" (2.6cm)
Thickness at guard 0.35" (0.9cm)
Thickness at midpoint 0.28" (0.71cm)
Thickness 2" from tip 0.23" (0.58cm)
Test cutting.
Mixed success here. (and please don't laugh too much) Handles milk bottles with ease. However my attempts at cutting through rolled soaked newspapers met with less success. It did cut into it well but I could not get right the way through. I may have bee too ambitious with the amount of newspaper I used. It was a good solid roll.
I suspect that my problems have more to do with my complete lack of skill than any defect in the sword. :cry: This is a heavy sword and I was actually more comfortable using a two-handed grip than single handed. There is plenty of room on the grip to do this.
Historical accuracy:
No idea really. It looks to be a reasonable example of a Ming jian but I have no expertise in this area.
Pros:
Well constructed, full tang, nice looking blade. Reasonable distal and profile tapers.
Cons:
A bit slipshod when it came to gluing the fitting to the scabbard. Blemishes in the polish of the blade edge. Heavy blade. Not sure if this is a con as I wanted a solid fighting sword and I have no idea as to what a reasonable weight range would be for historical examples of this type of sword.
All in all I'm very pleased with this sword. It makes a welcome addition to my collection :mrgreen: