Review: Sinosword custom folded/laminated/DH Jian.
May 19, 2012 16:56:49 GMT
Post by Bushido on May 19, 2012 16:56:49 GMT
Hi guys!
A couple of days ago I took delivery of my first ever custom sword: A sinosword Jian.
While browsing the web for a suitable candidate for my next sword, I happened upon the sinosword website displaying lots of different styles of swords and offering full customizations of every blade with virtually anything you want. This immediately caught my interest, and since I haven't owned a jian before I thought I might just as well try one. Sent sinosword an inquiry asking about their different plain designs, blade options etc etc, and soon my sword to be was decided upon! No special reason for this very purchase really, I just like the design of Jian swords. That, plus the fact that sinosword offer major customization options for very little money! I simply had to discover what you get for your money!
All in all, my sword ended up being a plain fittings jian (with my choice of antiqued blackened fittings), with a forged, folded, laminated and differentially hardened blade (T10 core, softer folded side panels). I didn't want to spend extra money on fancy engraved fittings or the like, but instead I opted for basic looks and an advanced blade. A performance sleeper blade And I got all this for under $300! It's an orgy of metallurgy, for 300 bucks! Almost sounds too good to be true! Or does it? Let's find out!
Historical overview
Well, my sword isn't exactly period accurate as it's made from T10 steel etc, but it is a Chinese jian design based on what I understand is an original genuine sword. I think it looks traditional enough, and besides the modern steel there really isn't much to prevent this sword from having been made many many years ago. I mean, it's not exactly a science fiction sword... Good enough for me (although, I admit the historical aspect is not the reason I bought this sword)!
Full Disclosure
I bought this sword with my own money, paid full price for it and I have no personal connections what so ever to the company that made the sword. I'm as unbiased as anyone who's just received his or her new sword (however unbiased that really is ), and I will try to give an entirely objective view of the sword.
Initial Impressions
When I first unpacked the sword, I was surprised to find that the sword had been shipped in a silk sword presentation box.
I was sort of expecting the "no frills budget version" of packing materials, but included was not only the box but a sword bag as well! Not the best of quality of course, but a very pleasant and unexpected surprise! Instead of simply tearing the package open to get to the sword, I had to stop mid-way and think "wow, that's nice!" even before I had gotten anywhere near the sword! The kind of pleasant surprise that I as a customer can appreciate, it makes the initial impression even nicer! But enough of that, moving on to the sword!
The exterior of the sword is just as I had expected, the exact design that I had wished for. Blackened brass fittings with no extra frills or engravings, full black samegawa handle wrap and a black scabbard to match. No worries here, first impressions look good! I quickly unsheathed the sword and was completely blown away by the subtle swirl of the folded side panels, the clear crisp lines of the blade, the straight and fairly even hamon. This is a beauty of a blade! Initial impressions: Awesome, just what I wanted!
Statistics
Blade/Nagasa Length: 78.5 cm.
Handle/Tsuka Length (including pommel and guard): 21 cm.
Overall Length: pretty much exactly 100 cm.
Guard/Tsuba Width: 9.5 cm.
POB (Point of Balance): around 18 cm from the guard.
COP (Center of Percussion): What does this mean? :lol:
Weight: Sword only (without tassels): 1020 grams. Scabbard: just under 500 grams.
Components:
The Blade:
The blade was made with a sanmai lamination structure. The core is T10 tool steel and the side panels are folded 1045/1095 (I think) carbon steel. I was told the reason that you usually mix steel for the folded panels is because of the contrast between the different carbon content of the steel. Anyhow, the whole thing was then clayed and differentially hardened. No Idea what the edge hardness is, but it's fairly sharp and holds a nice edge. The blade looks stunning, and the quality seems good enough. Nice crisp lines, a sharp edge, well defined blade geometry with a small taper from guard to tip, beautiful and prominent hamon (not very much activity as it is pretty much straight, but for lack of a better word, it looks "purposeful"), and the subtle swirl of the folded panels looks absolutely great.
from certain angles it almost looks like a trough hardened monosteel blade, just a tiny little bit of activity. Then you turn the blade into the light and BAM! An explosion of activity throughout the entire length of the sword.
Love it!
There are a couple of small downsides though:
The tip of the blade had a minor damage upon delivery. Not really enough to be called a rolled tip, but it's that kind of damage. Just barely shows up in the pictures, so it's not enough for me to actually be bothered by it. Just one of those minor drawbacks, doesn't really matter but would have been nice if it wasn't there. You can hardly see it in the picture, but sure enough it's there:
The other is that the lamination is sort of uneven. I don't know, this probably isn't very unusual as I imagine laminated blades are hard to make. But in some areas the lamination line goes all the way out to the edge of the blade, which efectively means the edge in that very are consists of the softer side panel steel and not the harder T10 steel. The hamon however is nice and straight and doesn't go anywhere near the edge, so I'd imagine that the entire edge is fairly rigid and well tempered. No chippings or rolls as of yet, even though I accidentaly hit the hard rigid plastic cork on one of the bottles I cut. Again, a minor issue (perhaps not an issue at all?) which doesn't really matter, but I'd have liked it even more if the lamination line had been nice and even along the entire blade. You can see the lamination line drawing dangerously close to the edge in this picture:
The last downside to the blade (And I'm nitpicking here) is that the lamination process does carry some minor traces of air bubbles. I've done a fair bit of silver smithing, and quite a bit of that has been mokumegane lamination of silver, brass and copper. When you overheat the billet and melt the silver, the silver is forced out of the billet leaving tiny bubbles/holes just where the silver bonds to the other metals. It looks sort of like that... Tiny divets just where the folded panels meet the core. Not everywhere onbiously, just a couple of spots here and there. hardly visible if the light isn't just right. And again, a very minor flaw which I don't think affects the performance of the blade in any way. It's probably only cosmetic (but once again, obviously would've been better without it). The dark spots in the following picture are in fact small pores/holes:
The Handle:
I have big hands, and this handle fits me perfectly. Lots of space and a comfortable fit for one handed swordplay, and just big enough for both my hands to fit if I want to do a two handed cut. It has a nice oval shape which tells me just enough about where the edge is pointing without becoming an axe handle. Nice eliptical shape along the length as well, a very comfortable grip I must say! The rayskin provides just enough traction, and the small flowery things (which I was a bit worried would feel uncomfortable) are hardly even noticable. A nice feature is that you can look straight through the handle through the flowers, there's a hole all the way through. Fun little detail.
The Guard:
Very plain, very tasteful design. Not much to say really, I like it. It's not overly flashy, it's subtle. And I like the way it points up towards the blade (rather than some jian guards pointing down towards the handle, which looks sort of odd to me). Habaki (or whatever it's called on a chinese sword) fits half snuggly around the blade. Some small gaps, but it feels sturdy and fits tightly.
The Pommel:
Pretty much the same as the guard, not much to say. Subtle and tasteful design, matches the guard nicely etc. I also must say that the entire handle/guard/pommel construction feels very rigid indeed. Haven't doen all that much cutting with it just yet, but two sessions in two days and it's as solid as ever. Not even a hint of anything coming lose, very sturdy. Nice!
The Scabbard:
Black (painted) rosewood with soldered (I'm assuming) and blackened brass fittings. It looks nice and does its job, but the sword does rattle around in it quite a lot. Need to fix this somehow. The fit around the blade at the very mouth of the scabbard is however very tight, you can easily shake the sword upside down without it falling out, yet it's quite easy to draw. I use my left hand thumb to puch the guard away from the scabbard just to initially loosen the sword before pulling the blade out of the scabbard which works really well. The guard fits nicely over the scabbard and the entire think looks uniform when sheathed. I like it! Detailing could be better though as the seam from the two halves of the scabbard is clearly visible along almost the entire length of the scabbard:
Also, the two middle fittings aren't fastened in any other way than simply being pushed up the tapering scabbard and are held in place by friction alone. Perhaps this is the correct/traditional way of doing things, but it means they are prone to coming undone which means you need to push them back on.
Handling Characteristics
I imagined (and hoped) that the Jian would be a fast, nimble one hander with good handling characteristics, and thus far it's everything I could've hoped for. I've done a little bit of test cutting, and I like the way this sword handles! It's my first one handed straight blade type sword, but I found it very pleasant to cut with. The handle gives just enough feedback for me to know (sort of, in my untrained state) where the edge is, and at just about a kg the entire thing feels light and nimble. It's not lightning fast like a rapier or smallsword, but I'd still describe it as pretty fast. Although, I'm not the smallest of guys and I guess it would take a bit of physique to whack her around without effort. She fits me nicely though! Not the lightest, but not the heaviest either! Cuts can easily be turned around and aimed at a second or third target, she takes corners pretty well!
There's a little bit, but not a lot, of flex to the blade, and despite a couple of "home runs!" :lol: there is no damage to neither the edge nor the straightness of the blade what so ever. Seems to hold up nicely!
Test Cutting:
Please bear in mind that this is the first sword of this type that I have ever owned, not to mention cut with. I have no training in chinese swordsmanship, I just do what feels natural. I'm also taking a fairly careful aproach to the cutting as I haven't done any cutting in a long time, and I wouldn't want to hurt myself or the sword. Hence the "stiff" moves. But all in all, I really like cutting with thi sword! Even managed some silent cuts on the very first couple of tries (if 1 litre bottles counts as silent that is, or perhaps they are considered too easy due to the sheer mass of the things?). Anyhow, please excuse my (non-existent) form and all that
The editing is mostly down to me being insanely nervous about damaging my brand new sword and checking the edge for damage all the time, which wasn't really fun to watch. But yes, I also edited out some of the worst cuts... :oops: :lol:
Conclusions
Well then, to conclude this review of a Sinosword custom Jian:
There were a couple of minor drawbacks as I have previously stated, but there was also a couple of pleasant surprises! And all in all, most of the sword was just how I had expected it to be. And at under $300, I think it's hard to beat this level of customization options and craftsmanship. If I had contracted one of the more prominent swordsmiths to make me a blade like this, the result would've likely been way better. But we would also be talking a price numbering in thousands of dollars, and I don't have thousands of dollar. This sword fits me nicely, both quality wise and price wise!
A short word on dealing with the company, sinosword: There is a small language barrier, which means you need to be very specific and make yourself understandable when talking to them. You need to specify exactly what you want and in what way you want it done. waiting time wise I was given an initial date of 40 days for the completion of my sword. It ended up taking two months and then a couple of days, but if you're in a hurry you probably shouldnt look to custom work either way. two months seems like a reasonable amount of time for such a complex sword to be made, I don't complain. I do however feel that contact could be improved quite a bit as I mostly had to contact sinosword myself to get status updates. They didn't contact me when the deadline was up to notify me of what was going on, but instead I gave them ten or so days of extra time before contacting them myself and was then told it would take some more time. Also, they are prone to ignoring some of your questions so there was quite a bit of repeating myself before getting all the info I wanted :lol:
To sum up:
Pros
- Price! great value for money!
- The blade (the metallurgy and everything), it is simply awesome.
- Nice samegawa handle wrap!
- a sword box for display, a nice and unexpected feature.
- Sharp edge. More than enough for bottles and light targets (haven't tried heavy targets), and you can get paper cuts with a bit of technique (although, this isn't exactly easy).
- Nice polish! No scratches or stuff like that on the blade, although there was a bit of scratches to the blackened fittings.
- Sturdy construction, nothing has come undone despite heavy cutting sessions and hard swings.
- Your custom sword means extra special "Mine"-feelings for it! You designed it, you dictated how it should look and be made, it's YOURS!
Cons
- You get what you pay for, can't expect everything to be perfect at this level.
- Cheap and plain fittings (although this is what I wanted and what I payed for, just saying that a more ornate sword will cost you more).
- Edge is only semisharp.
- Slightly rolled tip.
- Minor imperfections in the lamination process.
The Bottom Line
All in all, Mr Van Yang of Sinosword has treated me very nicely and I've enjoyed making business with them! I think the end product is not perfect, but excellent value for the money and I would, with my limited amount of knowledge, recommend them to a friend. I love my sword, and I hope you've enjoyed reading this review and I hope you now feel that you know a bit more about this fairly unknown sword company. Hopefully it's been helpful to you in a way that makes it easier to decide whether or not to make business with them. Thanks for reading!
Regards,
Anton.
A couple of days ago I took delivery of my first ever custom sword: A sinosword Jian.
While browsing the web for a suitable candidate for my next sword, I happened upon the sinosword website displaying lots of different styles of swords and offering full customizations of every blade with virtually anything you want. This immediately caught my interest, and since I haven't owned a jian before I thought I might just as well try one. Sent sinosword an inquiry asking about their different plain designs, blade options etc etc, and soon my sword to be was decided upon! No special reason for this very purchase really, I just like the design of Jian swords. That, plus the fact that sinosword offer major customization options for very little money! I simply had to discover what you get for your money!
All in all, my sword ended up being a plain fittings jian (with my choice of antiqued blackened fittings), with a forged, folded, laminated and differentially hardened blade (T10 core, softer folded side panels). I didn't want to spend extra money on fancy engraved fittings or the like, but instead I opted for basic looks and an advanced blade. A performance sleeper blade And I got all this for under $300! It's an orgy of metallurgy, for 300 bucks! Almost sounds too good to be true! Or does it? Let's find out!
Historical overview
Well, my sword isn't exactly period accurate as it's made from T10 steel etc, but it is a Chinese jian design based on what I understand is an original genuine sword. I think it looks traditional enough, and besides the modern steel there really isn't much to prevent this sword from having been made many many years ago. I mean, it's not exactly a science fiction sword... Good enough for me (although, I admit the historical aspect is not the reason I bought this sword)!
Full Disclosure
I bought this sword with my own money, paid full price for it and I have no personal connections what so ever to the company that made the sword. I'm as unbiased as anyone who's just received his or her new sword (however unbiased that really is ), and I will try to give an entirely objective view of the sword.
Initial Impressions
When I first unpacked the sword, I was surprised to find that the sword had been shipped in a silk sword presentation box.
I was sort of expecting the "no frills budget version" of packing materials, but included was not only the box but a sword bag as well! Not the best of quality of course, but a very pleasant and unexpected surprise! Instead of simply tearing the package open to get to the sword, I had to stop mid-way and think "wow, that's nice!" even before I had gotten anywhere near the sword! The kind of pleasant surprise that I as a customer can appreciate, it makes the initial impression even nicer! But enough of that, moving on to the sword!
The exterior of the sword is just as I had expected, the exact design that I had wished for. Blackened brass fittings with no extra frills or engravings, full black samegawa handle wrap and a black scabbard to match. No worries here, first impressions look good! I quickly unsheathed the sword and was completely blown away by the subtle swirl of the folded side panels, the clear crisp lines of the blade, the straight and fairly even hamon. This is a beauty of a blade! Initial impressions: Awesome, just what I wanted!
Statistics
Blade/Nagasa Length: 78.5 cm.
Handle/Tsuka Length (including pommel and guard): 21 cm.
Overall Length: pretty much exactly 100 cm.
Guard/Tsuba Width: 9.5 cm.
POB (Point of Balance): around 18 cm from the guard.
COP (Center of Percussion): What does this mean? :lol:
Weight: Sword only (without tassels): 1020 grams. Scabbard: just under 500 grams.
Components:
The Blade:
The blade was made with a sanmai lamination structure. The core is T10 tool steel and the side panels are folded 1045/1095 (I think) carbon steel. I was told the reason that you usually mix steel for the folded panels is because of the contrast between the different carbon content of the steel. Anyhow, the whole thing was then clayed and differentially hardened. No Idea what the edge hardness is, but it's fairly sharp and holds a nice edge. The blade looks stunning, and the quality seems good enough. Nice crisp lines, a sharp edge, well defined blade geometry with a small taper from guard to tip, beautiful and prominent hamon (not very much activity as it is pretty much straight, but for lack of a better word, it looks "purposeful"), and the subtle swirl of the folded panels looks absolutely great.
from certain angles it almost looks like a trough hardened monosteel blade, just a tiny little bit of activity. Then you turn the blade into the light and BAM! An explosion of activity throughout the entire length of the sword.
Love it!
There are a couple of small downsides though:
The tip of the blade had a minor damage upon delivery. Not really enough to be called a rolled tip, but it's that kind of damage. Just barely shows up in the pictures, so it's not enough for me to actually be bothered by it. Just one of those minor drawbacks, doesn't really matter but would have been nice if it wasn't there. You can hardly see it in the picture, but sure enough it's there:
The other is that the lamination is sort of uneven. I don't know, this probably isn't very unusual as I imagine laminated blades are hard to make. But in some areas the lamination line goes all the way out to the edge of the blade, which efectively means the edge in that very are consists of the softer side panel steel and not the harder T10 steel. The hamon however is nice and straight and doesn't go anywhere near the edge, so I'd imagine that the entire edge is fairly rigid and well tempered. No chippings or rolls as of yet, even though I accidentaly hit the hard rigid plastic cork on one of the bottles I cut. Again, a minor issue (perhaps not an issue at all?) which doesn't really matter, but I'd have liked it even more if the lamination line had been nice and even along the entire blade. You can see the lamination line drawing dangerously close to the edge in this picture:
The last downside to the blade (And I'm nitpicking here) is that the lamination process does carry some minor traces of air bubbles. I've done a fair bit of silver smithing, and quite a bit of that has been mokumegane lamination of silver, brass and copper. When you overheat the billet and melt the silver, the silver is forced out of the billet leaving tiny bubbles/holes just where the silver bonds to the other metals. It looks sort of like that... Tiny divets just where the folded panels meet the core. Not everywhere onbiously, just a couple of spots here and there. hardly visible if the light isn't just right. And again, a very minor flaw which I don't think affects the performance of the blade in any way. It's probably only cosmetic (but once again, obviously would've been better without it). The dark spots in the following picture are in fact small pores/holes:
The Handle:
I have big hands, and this handle fits me perfectly. Lots of space and a comfortable fit for one handed swordplay, and just big enough for both my hands to fit if I want to do a two handed cut. It has a nice oval shape which tells me just enough about where the edge is pointing without becoming an axe handle. Nice eliptical shape along the length as well, a very comfortable grip I must say! The rayskin provides just enough traction, and the small flowery things (which I was a bit worried would feel uncomfortable) are hardly even noticable. A nice feature is that you can look straight through the handle through the flowers, there's a hole all the way through. Fun little detail.
The Guard:
Very plain, very tasteful design. Not much to say really, I like it. It's not overly flashy, it's subtle. And I like the way it points up towards the blade (rather than some jian guards pointing down towards the handle, which looks sort of odd to me). Habaki (or whatever it's called on a chinese sword) fits half snuggly around the blade. Some small gaps, but it feels sturdy and fits tightly.
The Pommel:
Pretty much the same as the guard, not much to say. Subtle and tasteful design, matches the guard nicely etc. I also must say that the entire handle/guard/pommel construction feels very rigid indeed. Haven't doen all that much cutting with it just yet, but two sessions in two days and it's as solid as ever. Not even a hint of anything coming lose, very sturdy. Nice!
The Scabbard:
Black (painted) rosewood with soldered (I'm assuming) and blackened brass fittings. It looks nice and does its job, but the sword does rattle around in it quite a lot. Need to fix this somehow. The fit around the blade at the very mouth of the scabbard is however very tight, you can easily shake the sword upside down without it falling out, yet it's quite easy to draw. I use my left hand thumb to puch the guard away from the scabbard just to initially loosen the sword before pulling the blade out of the scabbard which works really well. The guard fits nicely over the scabbard and the entire think looks uniform when sheathed. I like it! Detailing could be better though as the seam from the two halves of the scabbard is clearly visible along almost the entire length of the scabbard:
Also, the two middle fittings aren't fastened in any other way than simply being pushed up the tapering scabbard and are held in place by friction alone. Perhaps this is the correct/traditional way of doing things, but it means they are prone to coming undone which means you need to push them back on.
Handling Characteristics
I imagined (and hoped) that the Jian would be a fast, nimble one hander with good handling characteristics, and thus far it's everything I could've hoped for. I've done a little bit of test cutting, and I like the way this sword handles! It's my first one handed straight blade type sword, but I found it very pleasant to cut with. The handle gives just enough feedback for me to know (sort of, in my untrained state) where the edge is, and at just about a kg the entire thing feels light and nimble. It's not lightning fast like a rapier or smallsword, but I'd still describe it as pretty fast. Although, I'm not the smallest of guys and I guess it would take a bit of physique to whack her around without effort. She fits me nicely though! Not the lightest, but not the heaviest either! Cuts can easily be turned around and aimed at a second or third target, she takes corners pretty well!
There's a little bit, but not a lot, of flex to the blade, and despite a couple of "home runs!" :lol: there is no damage to neither the edge nor the straightness of the blade what so ever. Seems to hold up nicely!
Test Cutting:
Please bear in mind that this is the first sword of this type that I have ever owned, not to mention cut with. I have no training in chinese swordsmanship, I just do what feels natural. I'm also taking a fairly careful aproach to the cutting as I haven't done any cutting in a long time, and I wouldn't want to hurt myself or the sword. Hence the "stiff" moves. But all in all, I really like cutting with thi sword! Even managed some silent cuts on the very first couple of tries (if 1 litre bottles counts as silent that is, or perhaps they are considered too easy due to the sheer mass of the things?). Anyhow, please excuse my (non-existent) form and all that
The editing is mostly down to me being insanely nervous about damaging my brand new sword and checking the edge for damage all the time, which wasn't really fun to watch. But yes, I also edited out some of the worst cuts... :oops: :lol:
Conclusions
Well then, to conclude this review of a Sinosword custom Jian:
There were a couple of minor drawbacks as I have previously stated, but there was also a couple of pleasant surprises! And all in all, most of the sword was just how I had expected it to be. And at under $300, I think it's hard to beat this level of customization options and craftsmanship. If I had contracted one of the more prominent swordsmiths to make me a blade like this, the result would've likely been way better. But we would also be talking a price numbering in thousands of dollars, and I don't have thousands of dollar. This sword fits me nicely, both quality wise and price wise!
A short word on dealing with the company, sinosword: There is a small language barrier, which means you need to be very specific and make yourself understandable when talking to them. You need to specify exactly what you want and in what way you want it done. waiting time wise I was given an initial date of 40 days for the completion of my sword. It ended up taking two months and then a couple of days, but if you're in a hurry you probably shouldnt look to custom work either way. two months seems like a reasonable amount of time for such a complex sword to be made, I don't complain. I do however feel that contact could be improved quite a bit as I mostly had to contact sinosword myself to get status updates. They didn't contact me when the deadline was up to notify me of what was going on, but instead I gave them ten or so days of extra time before contacting them myself and was then told it would take some more time. Also, they are prone to ignoring some of your questions so there was quite a bit of repeating myself before getting all the info I wanted :lol:
To sum up:
Pros
- Price! great value for money!
- The blade (the metallurgy and everything), it is simply awesome.
- Nice samegawa handle wrap!
- a sword box for display, a nice and unexpected feature.
- Sharp edge. More than enough for bottles and light targets (haven't tried heavy targets), and you can get paper cuts with a bit of technique (although, this isn't exactly easy).
- Nice polish! No scratches or stuff like that on the blade, although there was a bit of scratches to the blackened fittings.
- Sturdy construction, nothing has come undone despite heavy cutting sessions and hard swings.
- Your custom sword means extra special "Mine"-feelings for it! You designed it, you dictated how it should look and be made, it's YOURS!
Cons
- You get what you pay for, can't expect everything to be perfect at this level.
- Cheap and plain fittings (although this is what I wanted and what I payed for, just saying that a more ornate sword will cost you more).
- Edge is only semisharp.
- Slightly rolled tip.
- Minor imperfections in the lamination process.
The Bottom Line
All in all, Mr Van Yang of Sinosword has treated me very nicely and I've enjoyed making business with them! I think the end product is not perfect, but excellent value for the money and I would, with my limited amount of knowledge, recommend them to a friend. I love my sword, and I hope you've enjoyed reading this review and I hope you now feel that you know a bit more about this fairly unknown sword company. Hopefully it's been helpful to you in a way that makes it easier to decide whether or not to make business with them. Thanks for reading!
Regards,
Anton.