Practical Plus Katana
Dec 21, 2006 15:26:33 GMT
Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2006 15:26:33 GMT
I purchased a Practical Plus Katana last year from Arms of Valor and have a couple of questions that perhaps Forumites can help me with.
First in descriptions of the PPK on Hanwei's and other sites the menuki are described as Dragons-but close inspection of the menuki (on my sword at least) reveal they are not dragons, but Lions! Two lions on the omote (outward or public side) and a single lion on the reverse. Is that unusual? Perhaps they ran out of Dragons and substituted the Lions (it doesn't matter-in fact if it makes my PPK a little bit off the beaten track, that is even better)
IS the hamon real or not? I have heard the PPK hamon is not real just a wire brushed, acid etched "cosmetic" hamon-but the adverts touted it as being "real"-I read a review recently by a dojo that cut several different types of tatami mats with a few different types of swords and they noted the PPK had a rough ground edge.
My sword does NOT have a rough ground edge at all, seems quite sharp-although I have not tried it on tatami mats (I intend to do so soon, if my sensei will approve) and does not have a secondary bevel which some production swords seem to sport as a way to make them sharp without the costly and time consuming polishing.
Arms of Valor insisted the edges are differentially tempered and hand polished, in response to an e-mail that the edge seemed to be inconsistent and not as sharp as I thought it should be-and I have read numerous complaints that the lower end Hanwei swords are hit or miss regarding sharpness-from razor keen to dull as a board meeting.
Arms of Valor told me the swords are shipped with a "generic" edge since they don't know what the end user will be cutting with them-which I accepted as a true statement-and a couple passes with an Arkansas stone seems to have brought the edge on mine up to snuff (LIGHTLY dragging my thumb ACROSS the edge reveals it to be quite keen-more pressure and I suspect it would produce a nasty cut) So I seem to have a fairly decent sword here, blade wise.
The only real beef I had was some sort of very tiny black dots of some substance on the blade-A of V did not address this portion of the e-mail. It is not rust-it looks almost like the same stuff the saya is painted with-although how it would wind up on the blade is a mystery-I am sure the swords are no where near the facility where the sayas are done. I also complained the sword should at least come with a basic maintenance kit (it did not) a small bottle of choji oil, a low grade uchiko ball and some wasi paper couldn't be all that much to toss in the box (I got a darn good price from A of V on the piece tho-so I can't complain too loudly)and they shipped it immediately. I still haven't invested in a care kit-I have just been wiping it down every few weeks with a clean, lint free cloth and re-oiling with a very light machine oil (used for sewing machines and the like) which seems to be alright-but there are minute scratches on the polish which I would hope uchiko would buff out. I'll have to spring for a maintenance kit I reckon or at least a uchiko ball.
First in descriptions of the PPK on Hanwei's and other sites the menuki are described as Dragons-but close inspection of the menuki (on my sword at least) reveal they are not dragons, but Lions! Two lions on the omote (outward or public side) and a single lion on the reverse. Is that unusual? Perhaps they ran out of Dragons and substituted the Lions (it doesn't matter-in fact if it makes my PPK a little bit off the beaten track, that is even better)
IS the hamon real or not? I have heard the PPK hamon is not real just a wire brushed, acid etched "cosmetic" hamon-but the adverts touted it as being "real"-I read a review recently by a dojo that cut several different types of tatami mats with a few different types of swords and they noted the PPK had a rough ground edge.
My sword does NOT have a rough ground edge at all, seems quite sharp-although I have not tried it on tatami mats (I intend to do so soon, if my sensei will approve) and does not have a secondary bevel which some production swords seem to sport as a way to make them sharp without the costly and time consuming polishing.
Arms of Valor insisted the edges are differentially tempered and hand polished, in response to an e-mail that the edge seemed to be inconsistent and not as sharp as I thought it should be-and I have read numerous complaints that the lower end Hanwei swords are hit or miss regarding sharpness-from razor keen to dull as a board meeting.
Arms of Valor told me the swords are shipped with a "generic" edge since they don't know what the end user will be cutting with them-which I accepted as a true statement-and a couple passes with an Arkansas stone seems to have brought the edge on mine up to snuff (LIGHTLY dragging my thumb ACROSS the edge reveals it to be quite keen-more pressure and I suspect it would produce a nasty cut) So I seem to have a fairly decent sword here, blade wise.
The only real beef I had was some sort of very tiny black dots of some substance on the blade-A of V did not address this portion of the e-mail. It is not rust-it looks almost like the same stuff the saya is painted with-although how it would wind up on the blade is a mystery-I am sure the swords are no where near the facility where the sayas are done. I also complained the sword should at least come with a basic maintenance kit (it did not) a small bottle of choji oil, a low grade uchiko ball and some wasi paper couldn't be all that much to toss in the box (I got a darn good price from A of V on the piece tho-so I can't complain too loudly)and they shipped it immediately. I still haven't invested in a care kit-I have just been wiping it down every few weeks with a clean, lint free cloth and re-oiling with a very light machine oil (used for sewing machines and the like) which seems to be alright-but there are minute scratches on the polish which I would hope uchiko would buff out. I'll have to spring for a maintenance kit I reckon or at least a uchiko ball.