Katana and Wakizashi from flea-market
Jan 23, 2012 0:37:14 GMT
Post by guest123 on Jan 23, 2012 0:37:14 GMT
Hello all!
Here's the story - Had a tip a couple of weeks ago from my Iaido friend that there is a guy at our local Chinese flea-market that sells decent and functional Iaito (blunt sword for kata training made mostly of stainless steel or some kind of aluminum alloy) for a small price of 35 euro a piece...
Just to make this clear - you cannot buy a decent (and functional) sword anywhere in this whole dam country (and the customs does not make it easy to import one) - there are many places where you can buy a wall hanger with a plastic handle in a color of your own choice but nothing close to functional. And when we say "decent sword" here - it mostly means that it has all the right parts made from the (more or less) right material and that it would not fall apart on you when you swing it. Anyway this was a big deal and I went today to check it out with a couple of friends.
So when we got there, to our surprise, the guy had already sold all of his Iaito (he did not have that many to begin with and the news spreads fast here :) but now he had... sharp Iaito... xD - the seller did not know very much about them so nobody knew from what kind of metal they were made or is the metal hardened or not (*edited 11.feb - after the consult with a friend who is a metalurgist - it is medium/low carbon steel, probably 1045 of maybe lower carbon, and it is not hardened)... all I know is that they looked like usable stuff and that the blade reacted to my magnet test :P. And the guy now wanted 45 euro for a katana and 40 euro for a wakizashi. After a bit of friendly haggle we got 2 katana and one wakizashi for 120 euro, along with free single sword stands for each one.
Happy Chinese New Year to us! xD
Historical overview
For the historical overview I think it is sufficient to say that the wakizashi has a ninja motif on the tsuka-kashira, a samurai that looks like the one from a cheap 90's platform video game on fuchi and some Chinese letters on the tsuba :). No hamon and the samegawa is an obvious fake. Despite this, I like the fittings because they look solid and massive. The shape of the sword is what you call a random low end katana shape.
Buy two and get the third one with a discount... :p ... and a free stand...
Statistic
Wakizashi:
Blade/Nagasa Length: 48cm
Handle/Tsuka Length: 20cm
POB (Point of Balance): 9cm from the tsuba
Weight: 800gr
Width at hamachi: 3.1cm
-> mune: 8mm - fat little thing ;)
Width at yokote: 2.2cm
-> mune: 4mm
Katana:
Blade/Nagasa Length: 69cm
Handle/Tsuka Length: 27cm
POB (Point of Balance): 15cm from the tsuba
Weight: 1000gr
Width at hamachi: 3cm
-> mune: 8mm
Width at yokote: 2.3cm
-> mune: 3.5mm
Components
Kissaki
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly... xD
Wakisahi on top side, and it has a very nicely shaped kissaki. Katana in the middle has badly shaped kissaki, and the one on the bottom is ... just ... wtf! :D This is not photoshoped, it is the real deal... You saw it here firs folks! :D
Kissaki on two katana...
Habaki
Habaki on all the swords are badly fitted on the mune-ha axis - they all move a couple of mm... On the sides, the katana has a gap, and wakizashi has a nicely fitted habaki.
Habaki from the katana in front, wakizashi in the background...
Habaki on wakizashi...
Tsuba
Tsuba looks pretty nice actually... They do not react to magnet - nor does the fuchi, kashira or menukis...
Tsuka
The end knot of wakizashi is oposite from the end knot of katana... don't know why ?.... The wrap is pretty tight, but not alternating... Menuki is, of course, a dragon... :)
(*edit - the one in the middle actually has a bit of tapering to it - you can see it in the rest of the pictures - somebody kind of knew what he/she was doing there... :) the others are more or less straight)
Fake ray skin...
Fuchi
Samurai with a spear motif...
Kashira
Katana (left) and wakizahi tsuka-kashira...
Saya
Saya looks nice with the smooth pebbles / matte base... One of them is chipped a bit but no biggie for this price... :p And the outer layer is plastic I think - for all three saya...
(*edit - it is actually like a kind of crumbly white plaster, and it is not holding too well - it is cracking and crumbling a bit...)
Saya for the katana...
Saja for the wakizashi...
Handling characteristics
It would be better for me if they had POB a bit further from the tsuba, but this is not too bad. One thing puzzles me a bit - they all have a bo-hi, but there is no loud tachikaze (or "woosh")... There is a little bit but not enough for a sword with bo-hi... Maybe it is because the bo-hi is not crisp enough, or because it is a bit on the wide and shallow side... not sure really... ?
As for the actual cutting - I'm not doing it until I find out what kind of metal is in these blades and what hardness are they... not sure how to do that yet...
Pros/Cons
+ cheap
+ has all the parts :)
+ usable for Iaido kata... maybe for cutting - not sure...
+ pretty tight wrap on the tsuka... for now...
+ solid looking tsuba, fuchi and kashira
+/- sharp
- cheap :)
- *not hardened medium/low carbon steel (most likely 1045, or maybe lower carbon steel)
- quality control issues (slightly bent here, ugly kissaki there... x)
- loose habaki
- fake samgawa
- half-plastic saya (*and the finish is cracking/crumbling a bit)
*edited 11.feb - added the steel type after the consult with the metalurgist - not hardened 1045 or maybe lower carbon
*edited 11.feb - beneath the lacquer on the saya, there is some strange white substance - like a kind of crumbly white plaster - and it is crumbling (like a cracked egg shell) and falling off a bit (along with the pieces of the lacquer). Maybe because of the cold weather we're having... ;p
*edited 13. feb - the tsuka on one of three flee-market swords is actually properly tapered... Hanwei should bow their heads in shame... x)
Here's the story - Had a tip a couple of weeks ago from my Iaido friend that there is a guy at our local Chinese flea-market that sells decent and functional Iaito (blunt sword for kata training made mostly of stainless steel or some kind of aluminum alloy) for a small price of 35 euro a piece...
Just to make this clear - you cannot buy a decent (and functional) sword anywhere in this whole dam country (and the customs does not make it easy to import one) - there are many places where you can buy a wall hanger with a plastic handle in a color of your own choice but nothing close to functional. And when we say "decent sword" here - it mostly means that it has all the right parts made from the (more or less) right material and that it would not fall apart on you when you swing it. Anyway this was a big deal and I went today to check it out with a couple of friends.
So when we got there, to our surprise, the guy had already sold all of his Iaito (he did not have that many to begin with and the news spreads fast here :) but now he had... sharp Iaito... xD - the seller did not know very much about them so nobody knew from what kind of metal they were made or is the metal hardened or not (*edited 11.feb - after the consult with a friend who is a metalurgist - it is medium/low carbon steel, probably 1045 of maybe lower carbon, and it is not hardened)... all I know is that they looked like usable stuff and that the blade reacted to my magnet test :P. And the guy now wanted 45 euro for a katana and 40 euro for a wakizashi. After a bit of friendly haggle we got 2 katana and one wakizashi for 120 euro, along with free single sword stands for each one.
Happy Chinese New Year to us! xD
Historical overview
For the historical overview I think it is sufficient to say that the wakizashi has a ninja motif on the tsuka-kashira, a samurai that looks like the one from a cheap 90's platform video game on fuchi and some Chinese letters on the tsuba :). No hamon and the samegawa is an obvious fake. Despite this, I like the fittings because they look solid and massive. The shape of the sword is what you call a random low end katana shape.
Buy two and get the third one with a discount... :p ... and a free stand...
Statistic
Wakizashi:
Blade/Nagasa Length: 48cm
Handle/Tsuka Length: 20cm
POB (Point of Balance): 9cm from the tsuba
Weight: 800gr
Width at hamachi: 3.1cm
-> mune: 8mm - fat little thing ;)
Width at yokote: 2.2cm
-> mune: 4mm
Katana:
Blade/Nagasa Length: 69cm
Handle/Tsuka Length: 27cm
POB (Point of Balance): 15cm from the tsuba
Weight: 1000gr
Width at hamachi: 3cm
-> mune: 8mm
Width at yokote: 2.3cm
-> mune: 3.5mm
Components
Kissaki
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly... xD
Wakisahi on top side, and it has a very nicely shaped kissaki. Katana in the middle has badly shaped kissaki, and the one on the bottom is ... just ... wtf! :D This is not photoshoped, it is the real deal... You saw it here firs folks! :D
Kissaki on two katana...
Habaki
Habaki on all the swords are badly fitted on the mune-ha axis - they all move a couple of mm... On the sides, the katana has a gap, and wakizashi has a nicely fitted habaki.
Habaki from the katana in front, wakizashi in the background...
Habaki on wakizashi...
Tsuba
Tsuba looks pretty nice actually... They do not react to magnet - nor does the fuchi, kashira or menukis...
Tsuka
The end knot of wakizashi is oposite from the end knot of katana... don't know why ?.... The wrap is pretty tight, but not alternating... Menuki is, of course, a dragon... :)
(*edit - the one in the middle actually has a bit of tapering to it - you can see it in the rest of the pictures - somebody kind of knew what he/she was doing there... :) the others are more or less straight)
Fake ray skin...
Fuchi
Samurai with a spear motif...
Kashira
Katana (left) and wakizahi tsuka-kashira...
Saya
Saya looks nice with the smooth pebbles / matte base... One of them is chipped a bit but no biggie for this price... :p And the outer layer is plastic I think - for all three saya...
(*edit - it is actually like a kind of crumbly white plaster, and it is not holding too well - it is cracking and crumbling a bit...)
Saya for the katana...
Saja for the wakizashi...
Handling characteristics
It would be better for me if they had POB a bit further from the tsuba, but this is not too bad. One thing puzzles me a bit - they all have a bo-hi, but there is no loud tachikaze (or "woosh")... There is a little bit but not enough for a sword with bo-hi... Maybe it is because the bo-hi is not crisp enough, or because it is a bit on the wide and shallow side... not sure really... ?
As for the actual cutting - I'm not doing it until I find out what kind of metal is in these blades and what hardness are they... not sure how to do that yet...
Pros/Cons
+ cheap
+ has all the parts :)
+ usable for Iaido kata... maybe for cutting - not sure...
+ pretty tight wrap on the tsuka... for now...
+ solid looking tsuba, fuchi and kashira
+/- sharp
- cheap :)
- *not hardened medium/low carbon steel (most likely 1045, or maybe lower carbon steel)
- quality control issues (slightly bent here, ugly kissaki there... x)
- loose habaki
- fake samgawa
- half-plastic saya (*and the finish is cracking/crumbling a bit)
*edited 11.feb - added the steel type after the consult with the metalurgist - not hardened 1045 or maybe lower carbon
*edited 11.feb - beneath the lacquer on the saya, there is some strange white substance - like a kind of crumbly white plaster - and it is crumbling (like a cracked egg shell) and falling off a bit (along with the pieces of the lacquer). Maybe because of the cold weather we're having... ;p
*edited 13. feb - the tsuka on one of three flee-market swords is actually properly tapered... Hanwei should bow their heads in shame... x)