Hung Shing TS Windgliders
May 18, 2012 1:08:57 GMT
Post by Lonely Wolf Forge on May 18, 2012 1:08:57 GMT
Hey guys, im here to do a review of 2 Hung Shing wind gliders i received from Ricky of Hung Shing True Sharp. I paid full price for these swords with my own money, and this is my unbiased review.
First i want to elaborate on how i came to get these blades, i was looking around for a bare project blade for an upcoming project, and i had inquired with Ricky about whether or not he would be making another run of his wind glider series. Since the design has been improved upon, the windgliders are no more, but ricky offered me 2 of the Demo blades he had leftover from the windgliders, so i was more than happy to take them off his hands. :mrgreen:
Ok onto the review, The swords arrived very well packaged in a timely manner, and were undamaged in transit.
Both swords are in used condition, as they were advertised by ricky as the demo blades i recieved two swords from ricky, a shinogi zukuri, and a samgako, both swords have their flaws simply because they are used, but keep in mind what i was looking for was no more than a bare blade, i was actually surprised when i opened the package to see that ricky had assembled the bare blades and what i recieved was two fully assembled swords with saya, the handle wrap on the samgako was very tight and comfortable, in a battle wrap style with black ito over red samegawa, the shinogi is a brown battle wrap over black samegawa, but the wrap is a bit loose, clearly from use. no problem though. Both swords fit properly in their scabbards with little to no rattle, and the fittings are pretty decent, especially for the price.
Lets move on to what really matters when were talking about hung shing....the blades
The blades are T-10 differentially hardened with real hamon, the hamon is very nicely executed and at no point along the edge does it dip off. The blades are both extremely sharp, honestly ive never seen a blade so sharp except my great grandpas strait razor. The blades had scuffs and scratch marks from sharpening and cutting, but i plan on giving both blades a fresh polish and bath to enhance the hamon. The blades on these two swords are both very wide performance type geometry, and are very unique compared to other katanas ive seen. The shingi katana feels a bit tip heavy but not in a bad way, i feel like i could really slice into something nice and thick with ease. The samgako is what really impressed me, its extremely fast and light, and the geometry resembles that of a hira zukuri, this blade really speaks to me, and im deff in love with it. I need to handle them a bit more and get used to them before i do a cutting video, but i did cut 2 bottles with the samgako, it was like slicing the air, these are called wind gliders for a reason...there was no resistance whatsoever and it really gives meaning to the term "silent cut" even on the heavy plastic bottle it was effortless. with practice i think ill be able to pull off some nice trick cuts. i dont have any pics right now, i just got home and opened these up like 20 minutes ago, but rest assured as soon as i get time, and heal up a bit from my broken ribs ill do a cutting video.
all in all i give these blades a 10/10 for what they are, a dedicated light cutter made for trick cuts on tatami, i would not recommend one of these for hard targets at all, that is not what they are intended for, but i would feel pretty safe if i had to defend myself with one...these were made to cut and cut WELL.
PROS
-scary sharp
-unique geometry/design
-very agile
-very affordable, alot of bang for your buck
CONS
-non traditional geometry may be a turn off for some
-not capable (IMO) of taking on harder targets, not really a con unless your misinformed about their purpose.
-its so sharp that if you have an oops moment youl probably lose an appendage :lol:
First i want to elaborate on how i came to get these blades, i was looking around for a bare project blade for an upcoming project, and i had inquired with Ricky about whether or not he would be making another run of his wind glider series. Since the design has been improved upon, the windgliders are no more, but ricky offered me 2 of the Demo blades he had leftover from the windgliders, so i was more than happy to take them off his hands. :mrgreen:
Ok onto the review, The swords arrived very well packaged in a timely manner, and were undamaged in transit.
Both swords are in used condition, as they were advertised by ricky as the demo blades i recieved two swords from ricky, a shinogi zukuri, and a samgako, both swords have their flaws simply because they are used, but keep in mind what i was looking for was no more than a bare blade, i was actually surprised when i opened the package to see that ricky had assembled the bare blades and what i recieved was two fully assembled swords with saya, the handle wrap on the samgako was very tight and comfortable, in a battle wrap style with black ito over red samegawa, the shinogi is a brown battle wrap over black samegawa, but the wrap is a bit loose, clearly from use. no problem though. Both swords fit properly in their scabbards with little to no rattle, and the fittings are pretty decent, especially for the price.
Lets move on to what really matters when were talking about hung shing....the blades
The blades are T-10 differentially hardened with real hamon, the hamon is very nicely executed and at no point along the edge does it dip off. The blades are both extremely sharp, honestly ive never seen a blade so sharp except my great grandpas strait razor. The blades had scuffs and scratch marks from sharpening and cutting, but i plan on giving both blades a fresh polish and bath to enhance the hamon. The blades on these two swords are both very wide performance type geometry, and are very unique compared to other katanas ive seen. The shingi katana feels a bit tip heavy but not in a bad way, i feel like i could really slice into something nice and thick with ease. The samgako is what really impressed me, its extremely fast and light, and the geometry resembles that of a hira zukuri, this blade really speaks to me, and im deff in love with it. I need to handle them a bit more and get used to them before i do a cutting video, but i did cut 2 bottles with the samgako, it was like slicing the air, these are called wind gliders for a reason...there was no resistance whatsoever and it really gives meaning to the term "silent cut" even on the heavy plastic bottle it was effortless. with practice i think ill be able to pull off some nice trick cuts. i dont have any pics right now, i just got home and opened these up like 20 minutes ago, but rest assured as soon as i get time, and heal up a bit from my broken ribs ill do a cutting video.
all in all i give these blades a 10/10 for what they are, a dedicated light cutter made for trick cuts on tatami, i would not recommend one of these for hard targets at all, that is not what they are intended for, but i would feel pretty safe if i had to defend myself with one...these were made to cut and cut WELL.
PROS
-scary sharp
-unique geometry/design
-very agile
-very affordable, alot of bang for your buck
CONS
-non traditional geometry may be a turn off for some
-not capable (IMO) of taking on harder targets, not really a con unless your misinformed about their purpose.
-its so sharp that if you have an oops moment youl probably lose an appendage :lol: