Musashi Differently Hardened SS7?? Testing Review
Jan 10, 2012 20:29:19 GMT
Post by lamebmx on Jan 10, 2012 20:29:19 GMT
Hello, this is not in any way endorsed by SBG SMG or in any way related to this site. I am doing this so you dont have to. That said it can be very dangerous pushing a sword until it is un-usable or broken. Me and my friend that assisted in this both ride little kids bikes for fun still. Have never not been up to date on our tetnus shots. Scoff at broken bones and stitches. Have woken up numerous times in hospitol beds and on the pavement. Summary: Don't do this at home kiddo's. If you really want to know how good your blade is, We are just a PM away!
Alrright this will cover you basic $80 Musashi sword. Revered for the quality of the blade at such a low price tag. Needless to say I have a couple sitting around and wanted to know exacly how they lived up to the hype.
First up, results from some blade on blade with a Nepalese Khukri:
IMAG0285 by LameBMX, on Flickr
musashi taking a bite out of its victim:
IMAG0315 by LameBMX, on Flickr
Handled it pretty well, the length, and handle setup of a katana did a fair job of stopping the khukri's massive blows. on a side note the sheer mass of the khukri did a good job of stopping the katana's blows. I dont thing either one would just muscle past the other in blade on blade contact. The way the musashi's blade took the cuts to it was all right, there is a lot of spread, so no more putting it back into the saya. But it survived.
Next up is some good old fashioned hardwood, with the grain:
IMAG0292 by LameBMX, on Flickr
Buried nice and deep, Sorry my photos are a little out of order. I did all this and went back and took pictures next to the items to make something to commit it to the knowledge base. The blade had already taken a set before it took things to this level, but burying it with the grain caused another minor set. Next up against the grain:
IMAG0294 by LameBMX, on Flickr
Against the grain causes major sets and twist to blades. I believe this is due to the blade attempting to stretch to straight at the point of impact causing the blade to twist. cut a katana shaped curve from a sheet of paper and pull the back straight and see have the blade side gets all curvy.
Next up a nice chunk of wood, against the grain on the ground:
IMAG0297 by LameBMX, on Flickr
Nice cut into it, then it just exploded to pieces. blade obvously buried into the ground. So far objects have fallen, and the musashi has held up. No it is not in pristine condition, but this isnt about what it can handle and look right, but how much it can handle. Frankly at this point I am utterly amazed at how much it takes. So lets move on to a random rock falling victim to the blade. Then this aged cinderblock:
IMAG0296 by LameBMX, on Flickr
Thats right if fell victim. The cinderblock was pretty old though. The cement steps are old too:
IMAG0298 by LameBMX, on Flickr
Not real deep but:
IMAG0299 by LameBMX, on Flickr
The tip came out relatively unscathed.
I also took it to another blade, T10 and differentially hardened:
IMAG0353 by LameBMX, on Flickr
Musashi is the one on the right, with yet another bite out of the other blade stuck in it. They must not feed these blades enough at the forge, this thing sure seems hungry.
Right Metal chair test. Light strike penetration is allright:
IMAG0356 by LameBMX, on Flickr
It made it fairly far into the metal, about half as far as a T10 blade did using about the same amount of force:
IMAG0358 by LameBMX, on Flickr
With some more umph I got real penetration:
IMAG0357 by LameBMX, on Flickr
I did not really take photos, but against the chair yosh also perfomed 2 tip only strikes on the edge of the chair back. 1st one hit with about 6 inches of tip, the second one was a proper tip hit with the last inch or two of the time making contact.
from yosh: One medium strength hit followed by 1 (edit) hard hits to the flat of the chair was its demise. You can see the 2 parallel marks from it. (we are unsure of the 3rd mark) and it broke at one of the chip marks from the khukri
IMAG0359 by LameBMX, on Flickr
Again, dont do this at home. When it comes down to it, it ends with a piece of sharpened/serrated steel flying.
Lastly, I am too lazy to fight for the picture without proper equipment. But take this as proof. The Hamon on these blades is real. You can see the difference in the crystallization of the metal very easy in the cross section. Became unlazy:
IMAG0363 by LameBMX, on Flickr
T10 with known hamon on left, musashi on the right. You can make out the change in metal structure where the hamon is. it is not as well defined as on the other blade, but it is there.
The blade did take well beyond what one should expect. It took numerous sets and was straightened out before continuing on with the tests. No picture for this one, but after taking numerous sets, it punctured throught 3/16ths plywood with no feeling of flex. Also no feeling of flex when I hit the support wood for the plywood and it could not puncture it. left a nice little gash on my thumb knuckle from the tsuba.
The tsukamaki held up well. Appears to have loosened a little at the menuki and the fuchi is now slightly domed. and this is after 2 rounds of testing, as I used the handle to test another blade. the wood core is still cracked as before. it appears to have a new crack at the mune side of the nakago-ana. neither crack is scary or has a real gap to it.
on a side note, I also learned that the mekugi setup is nice and its own fail safe. Never ever swing a sword with broken mekugi. We took tons of precautions and spent a couple minutes triple checking things before swings with the broken mekugi. I, honestly, have rarely ever felt this level of fear. However my curiousity and a quest for knowing what they can take over powered things. I did stabs and hard swung tip digs into the ground after the mekugi broke. I kept the swings hard, because well if it was a real fight, you arent going to swingly lightly because your mekugi cracked. I kept it hard, enough so the other mekugi broke during this. Again, this is a portion I will never do again. And if you think of doing it, just re-read this, because that is why I continued on. If anything ever EVER becomes loose on you sword, face reality, you are not fighting for your life and you do have the time to do proper maintence on your sword. So just do it, get it snugged back up. That being said:
IMAG0324 by LameBMX, on Flickr
Since you cant really see, the larger end of the mekugi broke off. This in turned caused things to loosen a little bit. This allows the mekugi to start to slide back out the way it gets put in. At the point things are even looser and the tsuka slides on the nakago. Final position involves a really loose tsuka and the mekugi trying to slide out the way it came in, but the handle has moved, pinning the remaining half of the mekugi in the mekugi ana up against the inside wood of the tsuka where it wants to come out, and the small end of the mekugi cannot make it all the way in the mekugi-ana thus holding the handle on well beyond what I expected. It was this careful inspection that led me to continue testing so as to determine how strong their handle design is.
Another shot where you can kind of see how it gets pinned in there:
IMAG0325 by LameBMX, on Flickr
You can see at the bottom of the mekugi where wood is disturbed from it attempting to work its way out.
I must say I am amazed at the built in failsafe, and its effectiveness. It did survive numerous swings and stabs in its "failsafe" mode. But please fella's dont push it yourselves, and for the love of not being found on the roadside, get some gas when the gas light comes on!
Alrright this will cover you basic $80 Musashi sword. Revered for the quality of the blade at such a low price tag. Needless to say I have a couple sitting around and wanted to know exacly how they lived up to the hype.
First up, results from some blade on blade with a Nepalese Khukri:
IMAG0285 by LameBMX, on Flickr
musashi taking a bite out of its victim:
IMAG0315 by LameBMX, on Flickr
Handled it pretty well, the length, and handle setup of a katana did a fair job of stopping the khukri's massive blows. on a side note the sheer mass of the khukri did a good job of stopping the katana's blows. I dont thing either one would just muscle past the other in blade on blade contact. The way the musashi's blade took the cuts to it was all right, there is a lot of spread, so no more putting it back into the saya. But it survived.
Next up is some good old fashioned hardwood, with the grain:
IMAG0292 by LameBMX, on Flickr
Buried nice and deep, Sorry my photos are a little out of order. I did all this and went back and took pictures next to the items to make something to commit it to the knowledge base. The blade had already taken a set before it took things to this level, but burying it with the grain caused another minor set. Next up against the grain:
IMAG0294 by LameBMX, on Flickr
Against the grain causes major sets and twist to blades. I believe this is due to the blade attempting to stretch to straight at the point of impact causing the blade to twist. cut a katana shaped curve from a sheet of paper and pull the back straight and see have the blade side gets all curvy.
Next up a nice chunk of wood, against the grain on the ground:
IMAG0297 by LameBMX, on Flickr
Nice cut into it, then it just exploded to pieces. blade obvously buried into the ground. So far objects have fallen, and the musashi has held up. No it is not in pristine condition, but this isnt about what it can handle and look right, but how much it can handle. Frankly at this point I am utterly amazed at how much it takes. So lets move on to a random rock falling victim to the blade. Then this aged cinderblock:
IMAG0296 by LameBMX, on Flickr
Thats right if fell victim. The cinderblock was pretty old though. The cement steps are old too:
IMAG0298 by LameBMX, on Flickr
Not real deep but:
IMAG0299 by LameBMX, on Flickr
The tip came out relatively unscathed.
I also took it to another blade, T10 and differentially hardened:
IMAG0353 by LameBMX, on Flickr
Musashi is the one on the right, with yet another bite out of the other blade stuck in it. They must not feed these blades enough at the forge, this thing sure seems hungry.
Right Metal chair test. Light strike penetration is allright:
IMAG0356 by LameBMX, on Flickr
It made it fairly far into the metal, about half as far as a T10 blade did using about the same amount of force:
IMAG0358 by LameBMX, on Flickr
With some more umph I got real penetration:
IMAG0357 by LameBMX, on Flickr
I did not really take photos, but against the chair yosh also perfomed 2 tip only strikes on the edge of the chair back. 1st one hit with about 6 inches of tip, the second one was a proper tip hit with the last inch or two of the time making contact.
from yosh: One medium strength hit followed by 1 (edit) hard hits to the flat of the chair was its demise. You can see the 2 parallel marks from it. (we are unsure of the 3rd mark) and it broke at one of the chip marks from the khukri
IMAG0359 by LameBMX, on Flickr
Again, dont do this at home. When it comes down to it, it ends with a piece of sharpened/serrated steel flying.
Lastly, I am too lazy to fight for the picture without proper equipment. But take this as proof. The Hamon on these blades is real. You can see the difference in the crystallization of the metal very easy in the cross section. Became unlazy:
IMAG0363 by LameBMX, on Flickr
T10 with known hamon on left, musashi on the right. You can make out the change in metal structure where the hamon is. it is not as well defined as on the other blade, but it is there.
The blade did take well beyond what one should expect. It took numerous sets and was straightened out before continuing on with the tests. No picture for this one, but after taking numerous sets, it punctured throught 3/16ths plywood with no feeling of flex. Also no feeling of flex when I hit the support wood for the plywood and it could not puncture it. left a nice little gash on my thumb knuckle from the tsuba.
The tsukamaki held up well. Appears to have loosened a little at the menuki and the fuchi is now slightly domed. and this is after 2 rounds of testing, as I used the handle to test another blade. the wood core is still cracked as before. it appears to have a new crack at the mune side of the nakago-ana. neither crack is scary or has a real gap to it.
on a side note, I also learned that the mekugi setup is nice and its own fail safe. Never ever swing a sword with broken mekugi. We took tons of precautions and spent a couple minutes triple checking things before swings with the broken mekugi. I, honestly, have rarely ever felt this level of fear. However my curiousity and a quest for knowing what they can take over powered things. I did stabs and hard swung tip digs into the ground after the mekugi broke. I kept the swings hard, because well if it was a real fight, you arent going to swingly lightly because your mekugi cracked. I kept it hard, enough so the other mekugi broke during this. Again, this is a portion I will never do again. And if you think of doing it, just re-read this, because that is why I continued on. If anything ever EVER becomes loose on you sword, face reality, you are not fighting for your life and you do have the time to do proper maintence on your sword. So just do it, get it snugged back up. That being said:
IMAG0324 by LameBMX, on Flickr
Since you cant really see, the larger end of the mekugi broke off. This in turned caused things to loosen a little bit. This allows the mekugi to start to slide back out the way it gets put in. At the point things are even looser and the tsuka slides on the nakago. Final position involves a really loose tsuka and the mekugi trying to slide out the way it came in, but the handle has moved, pinning the remaining half of the mekugi in the mekugi ana up against the inside wood of the tsuka where it wants to come out, and the small end of the mekugi cannot make it all the way in the mekugi-ana thus holding the handle on well beyond what I expected. It was this careful inspection that led me to continue testing so as to determine how strong their handle design is.
Another shot where you can kind of see how it gets pinned in there:
IMAG0325 by LameBMX, on Flickr
You can see at the bottom of the mekugi where wood is disturbed from it attempting to work its way out.
I must say I am amazed at the built in failsafe, and its effectiveness. It did survive numerous swings and stabs in its "failsafe" mode. But please fella's dont push it yourselves, and for the love of not being found on the roadside, get some gas when the gas light comes on!