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Post by keida86 on Nov 18, 2011 9:13:19 GMT
Hello everybody, My name is Juen from the Philippines and i'm basically new here in the forum and especially with a katana but Ive done thorough research about katanas and I ordered a custom katana from JKOO/Sinosword which i bought for $328 inluding shipping fee and maintenance kit. here are the specs: Blade type: Shinogi Zukuri Blade length: 27.75 inches Tsuka length: 10.25 inches Steel type and treatment: T10 tool steel(folded 12 times and honsanmai laminated); hand forged; differentially hardened; traditionally hand polished and separate polishing of the kissaki Tsuka: full wrapped in rayskinpainted in black lacquer Tsukaito: tsuka ito is done with a hishigami for anice fit but they used cotton ito because they are all out of silk and Mr. Kane said that synthetic silk is not good so he just used cotton.(no big deal for me coz I'll buy a new silk ito and have a friend of mine do the itomaki.) Saya: the saya is lacquered in black with bullhorns for the koiguchi, kojiri, and kurigata. Hamon: the hamon is midare(random) Fitting: the fittings are all in brass but i see that the tsuba is had some cast marks but that's okay. So I hope you guys would give me advice if I made a wrong choice or something. I'd really appreciate your help guys.
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Post by LastGodslayer on Nov 18, 2011 13:15:58 GMT
Hi Juen! Welcome and congratulations on your sword.
The kissaki looks very nice, especially compared with previous attempts by Sinosword. The blade also seems to have a really nice shape to it. The lamination line is a bit too obvious, but I'm not sure there is anything really wrong with it... The polish isn't blowing me away, but that is hard to tell in pictures. It would be great if the shinogi-ji was burnished, as that would easily make the blade look much better. The only thing that is somewhat disappointing, is the tsuka. While it seems tightly wrapped, the wrap itself isn't the most symmetric, but since you're changing that, no prob. The tsuka shape however doesn't feel right, and they could have taken the extra step to make the curvature flow together with the blade, but you'll find that this problem begins with the nakago.
Still, for what you paid, you got a decent deal, and it looks the quality of their swords is in the way up.
+1 karma for such a nice first post!
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Post by William Swiger on Nov 18, 2011 14:29:42 GMT
Welcome to the forum :-) Your katana looks very nice for the price you paid. Think it will look even better with a new wrap.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2011 16:05:30 GMT
Heck, I did not know we could increase Karma in reply to these...I'm going to add one more +Karma then too! Because I like the sword, pics and interesting the T-10 mono-steel is folded too! I'm "new" here myself, and sometimes I reply when my keyboard seems to be spinning which is a bad habit, But Welcome from myself too!
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Post by masahiro560 on Nov 18, 2011 16:12:31 GMT
Welcome to the forum! finally someone from the same country as me :"D I have the same kind of tsuba, one of them did have those terrible casting marks but they're can be easily blended in the design with some chisel work or polishing depending on where the casting marks are (or file them down) also that's a pretty interesting lamination line there, I was almost fooled on the 4th pic (It was the 1st that loaded for me), I took it as inazuma first but then it was a lamination line. It's a beautiful blade Anyhow, if it's silk ito I recommend buying the japanese silk ito, it is very very different from the chinese silk ito also you may want to check the mekugi for damage or double mekugi :roll: It would be inevitable anyway since you'd be removing the tsuka for new tsuka maki~ I would've recommended of waisting the tsuka to give it better handling and make it more aesthetically pleasing, but I don't know if it can be done since it's full same wrap I'm taking a guess that the saya is glossy, I'd untie the sageo so as it won't leave imprints on the saya's lacquer, then I'd tie it like this loosely. I think it's a very nice blade, close to traditional construction which i like
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Post by Adrian Jordan on Nov 18, 2011 19:58:52 GMT
Very nice sword at a very good price.
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Post by keida86 on Nov 19, 2011 11:57:09 GMT
Hello masahiro560. great to know that it wasn't only me and Aldwin(katanahunter) are the only Pinoys here.
and thank you guys for appreciating my new katana though the tsuka i really disturbing. i can't even imagine handling the tsuka with that shape. but when i save enough money i'd take it to Aldwin and have him fix it for me.
so what do you guys suggest about replacing the ito? would it be okay for if i choose the red ito or the white one?
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Post by keida86 on Nov 19, 2011 12:02:52 GMT
I asked Mr. Kane to have my katana handpolished only because I'd rather make it look more traditional than a mirror polished one.
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Post by masahiro560 on Nov 19, 2011 12:41:58 GMT
mhmmm so that's why I was wondering why the hada on your sword was standing out even if it was 12 fold. although I'd say they only took it up to uchigumori which is fine. It would probably take on a good finishing polish with hazuya and jizuya and migaki since it's surface was prepared by uchigumori stone. It's pretty traditional since it's the same polish samurai would've had on their swords. And you can't go wrong with Aldwin's tsuka-maki, I can't get my tsuka-maki as tight and as even as his :lol: (although I just make tsuka maki for my saya lacquering tools) about the ito, if you're going to handle it alot I suggest the red, or if not you can take the white ito. I just spraypainted some clear lacquer from handyman on the tsuka so that dirt would be more easier to take off or to make it less susceptible to the dirt since mine was white, although that dirt after I washed and lacquered it made it look more antique in my eyes. I'm can't stop staring at those lamination lines... they really remind me of Inazuma
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Post by keida86 on Nov 19, 2011 13:13:36 GMT
masahiro560, i have great confidence in Aldwin's tsukamaki and i will surely let him do what he can coz he's kinda like a veteran when it comes to katanas here in our country. And about the lamination line, you could only tell if it's shihozume or honsanmai lamination coz they're the only lamination processes that have a visible lamination line (and so is the soshu kitae but it shows two lamination lines bcoz of the medium and hard steel on the side panels).
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Post by masahiro560 on Nov 19, 2011 14:29:23 GMT
Kobuse has visible lamination lines also, except they're on the mune but the color difference between the two steels really is discernible, although not as visible as the ones on the sides because you know >_> The mune is an evil thing when it comes to polishing. I've always had a hard time of establishing the shape and getting it to the correct marks because my stone (and sandpaper base) wasn't shaped for the mune.
Aldwin's definitely a veteran even in his art of tsuka-maki, If you've ever had the chance of holding a tsuka he worked on you'll know it's different, he does the job correctly and aesthetically pleasing too, with alot of confidence that your tsuka will hold up to years of swinging. He even did a jabara-maki once, something that leaves me still in awe.
Although the lack of katana craftsmen in our country is kinda tough on us who wants to customize our blades~ I'm trying to learn four crafts concerning katana because of it.
Btw have you checked the nakago and the tsuka-core of your sword? Be extra careful about the tsuka when taking it off to take a look at the nakago, it's on there tight (For both of my swords and even in the extra shirasaya I ordered). The hit-wrist-while-holding-tsuka method doesn't work for their swords, I'd recommend the rubber mallet if you're going to take a look at it. If you're not going to remove it though just pay extra attention to the mekugi until you can have it customized, I'd really recommend on replacing the mekugi since all four of the mekugi on my swords were..... chopsticks.. although if you don' plan to swing it much then the mekugi won't be a problem.
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Post by I Frammenti Di Fede on Nov 20, 2011 21:07:59 GMT
Hazuya and Jizuya would have little to no effect on this katana. You have to remember that we are using modern steels and which are by no means traditional. T-10/1095 steels are generally much to hard for you to get any results with hazuya or jizuya. So any of the older techniques like hadori polish or nugui polish will not really work and I doubt any of the chinese forges are doing any of this. You're much better off using a chemical etch to bring out the hamon or hada on this type of blade.
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Post by LastGodslayer on Nov 20, 2011 22:15:37 GMT
Another Sinosword katana owner (Mikejapan) had success with Hazuya and Jizuya. He didn't get a traditional look however, but he did get a lot more contrast.
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Post by I Frammenti Di Fede on Nov 20, 2011 23:53:36 GMT
That is likely because he "polished" it. Just from rubbing the fine stone against it would have had the same effect of using an ultra fine sandpaper. You're not going to notice the kind of reaction you'd get, much less none of us are even trained in how to use these stones...
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Post by masahiro560 on Nov 21, 2011 7:29:59 GMT
Ultra Sandpaper effect with jizuya and hazuya only means that an amateur is making the polish, much less not knowing what the difference between this piece of jizuya to that piece of jizuya.
The thing with store bought 'prelacquered jizuya and hazuya' is that it's a gamble if it will work with your sword. Hazuya and Jizuya will work on modern steel, however it is dependent on the properties of the jizuya and hazuya stones.
The thing with Nugui is that it won't work on non-folded swords because there are no layers for the nugui particles to settle in, Nugui is like inlaying the nugui particles to make the steel color a bit darker, it also needs certain knowledge to know what nugui mix is required by the sword, Some swords don't need nugui, some need it, one nugui mix will work for this sword and not for that sword.
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Post by LastGodslayer on Nov 21, 2011 13:35:19 GMT
Well, I have theory I'm working on about Nugui. I have heard from various sources that nugui won't work on modern steels due to a number of reasons, but there are other things going on besides particle inclusion, and the particular mix of nugui and the porosity of the steel are the most important factors to get an effect. My greatest issue at this point is how to get the nugui to react differently to the martensitic and pearlitic structure. I guess my theory will either check out or be shot down when I test it. (sorry, if this works it'll become a trade secret so I can't share much more for now)
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Post by keida86 on Nov 22, 2011 4:52:33 GMT
Hello masahiro560,
may I know where is your location in the Philippines? and are you a JSA practitioner too?
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Post by I Frammenti Di Fede on Nov 22, 2011 7:52:43 GMT
Yes, I am well aware of the fact that jizuya and hazuya stones much be selected by hardness for each individual blade (and a good polisher/togishi will know how to select them for how the steel will react), and usually most hazuya and jizuya you find on ebay etc is of pretty low quality (pretty much most stones you're getting now are low quality). It was more of the fact that I don't really think a 16 year old could get good results on his t-10 sino blade from buying hazuya after reading about the technique for about 20 minutes . Nugui was a bad example but it was just to kinda get the point across that the traditional methods weren't quite meant for this steel type. But I'm just passing on info I've gotten from other polishers off SFI during the problems I came across.
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Post by masahiro560 on Nov 22, 2011 8:20:41 GMT
I get the fact that you need proper knowledge on using hazuya and jizuya. Can I ask who you are referring to as the 16 year old?
IMO I think age is not a factor in getting good results but the knowledge, will and skill of the person who is doing the job. And may i ask how did you obtain this knowledge that this 16 year old had just read for about 20 minutes and then tried out hazuya and jizuya on the blade? Even a 30/40/50 year old cannot get good results without the knowledge of performing shiage-togi.
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