$49.95 Musashi Shirasaya Katana
Jun 4, 2011 21:48:28 GMT
Post by Elheru Aran on Jun 4, 2011 21:48:28 GMT
Introduction
Okay, so this is an offering that's been around for a little while from Kult of Athena.
Everybody knows Musashi, right? One of the cheapest katana retailers around, but actually halfway decent katanas for the sub-100 price. They normally average between $60-80 before shipping.
Well, lo and behold, their cheapest offering is a katana in shirasaya mounting. It's $49.95 on KoA. It seems to be one of their more popular products as it's frequently back-ordered.
www.kultofathena.com/product.asp ... +Shirasaya
Historical Overview
Katana are the distinctive Japanese sword, a two-handed sword with a proportionally shorter blade than Euro swords-- typically only around 30" or less, which for most Euros would be a single-handed blade. This probably derives from the historically shorter height of Japanese people.
The shirasaya mounting is actually intended to be used to store the katana blade between mountings; it is not intended to be used as a functional mount. However, similar mountings known as shikomizue, or "prepared canes", have been used before, and in practice I believe this particular katana would qualify as such although it doesn't have a cane butt. More on this later...
Full Disclosure
I am not affliated with Kult of Athena or Musashi/Musha.
Initial Impressions
I noticed that this sword was in stock and jumped on it; it's just one of the best prices out there, that's hard to argue with. Yes, it's shirasaya; I can live with that, I like to customize anyway.
I placed the order on a Wednesday afternoon, and it arrived by Friday afternoon. Not bad at all! Good thing I did, because by now (Saturday of the same week) it's already out of stock.
It arrived in the standard KoA brown box, but inside that brown box there was a cardboard case with Musha on it; I expect this is due to the recent transfer of ownership. Within, there was a black cotton sword bag covering up this shirasaya katana.
The first thing that struck me was that it was a little heftier than I'd expected. The shirasaya was polished and covered with varnish; this is atypical, and why I say it's closer to shikomizue, as I understand a shirasaya should be unfinished to allow the wood to 'breathe'.
Statistics
(Just copy/pasting these from KoA, I got no bone with them)
Overall Length: 38 3/4'' Blade: 28''
Weight: 1 lb 13 oz
Edge: Very Sharp
P.O.B.: 6 7/8''
Thickness: 7.4 mm - 4.6 mm
Width: 31.8 mm
Grip Length: 10 3/4''
Pommel: N/A
Components
As a whole, this katana really isn't too badly presented at all.
--Blade--
Pretty standard katana blade with bo-hi and wire-brushed hamon. No geometric yokote to speak of, but that's not particularly surprising and not something I really care about anyway. The sharpness of the edge was really quite good though, paper-cutting sharp.
The habaki was aligned correctly at the top (mune), but not at the edge. The end of the bo-hi kind of just fades upward and out.
The habaki honestly does look kind of cheap; I was underwhelmed. At the tsuka end, it looks like it's pretty obviously been sawn off to fit-- no effort to file it smooth. Not sure if you can see it in this picture...
--Tsuka--
Fairly slick, but surprisingly enough not THAT slick. It's polished wood and... honestly, I guess that's about it? Not much to say about it except that there was one TINY crack at the blade end, above the mune, where I believe the two sides of the tsuka meet.
--Saya--
Actually, this is one of the best parts of the sword. Maybe a little surprising, I know I was. It fits quite well, not a rattle at all, and quite tightly-- I actually have to give her a good pull to draw. May be TOO tight if you practice JSA. As it is, I don't have any pretensions towards iaido or anything, so I don't bother to keep it in my belt or anything; I'm fine with just pulling the katana out of the saya and putting aside the saya while I cut or whatever.
There is a tiny niggle about the saya, though-- if you don't put in the blade right, it catches on the inside. I think it's my lack of technique more than anything-- sticking the point into the wood of the saya.
The tang is kind of rough and actually almost looks rusty. I'm pretty positive this katana was rough-formed with an angle grinder or a very rough belt-sander. The mekugi-ana is pretty rough and shows signs of having been drilled through the tsuka.
There are no fittings to speak of aside from the habaki, so I'm gonna leave it at that.
Handling
Without better knowledge of katanas, I have to say she actually feels heavier than 1 lb 13 oz. That would be typical of a cutting sword like this though, with the POB that far out. After some dry handling I get used to it.
Cutting
CAVEAT!
It is generally not recommended to cut with a blade in shirasaya mounting due to:
--Unknown wood and strength thereof
--Lack of tsukamaki (grip wrap consisting of rayskin and ito-maki)
--Lack of tsuba to prevent the hand from slipping upward onto the blade
This particular blade's mounting is more like shikomizue in my opinion, as I previously noted; cutting should be somewhat safer with it than with an actual shirasaya. That's not to say it's particularly safe in the first place, so you should really only use this mounting as a display, or wrap the grip to reduce slipperiness.
You cut with this mounting at your own risk, as I did.
It does have a quite sharp edge and slays plastic bottles just fine.
Conclusions
Pros
--Can't beat the price! Only $63ish shipped to my house.
--Nice clean look and lines
--Decent quality considering the price
--SHARP!
Cons
--Fake hamon
--Misaligned habaki
--Some might not much like the colour of the wood...
--Honestly all my cons are really cosmetic and don't affect the performance.
Bottom Line
Worth getting, and at $50, I think you're getting good value for your money.
Plus, you get to do bad-ass poses like this =P