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Post by raf2 on Oct 8, 2012 19:57:08 GMT
Brief intro and a couple of questions. I've been a gun and knife guy for the better part of 25 years. I am now making my entry into swords. My preference are Japanese swords, well Katana's. I want some nice swords, mainly wall hangers or ones I can practice some slow Kata's. (I do have Bokken) I moved just over 3 years ago from Western NY to the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. I do not miss the snow! Recently, I bought an inexpensive Water Dragon Katana from Swordsnarmory. Nothing special, but something I can take apart, learn to clean, handle etc... For ~$40 why not. I actually like look of the Zatoichi Stick from a collectors perspective and recently ordered a Paul Chen Forged Zatoichi Stick Sword from Swords of Might for under $200. I chose them because of the recommendation on SBG and price. I came within a whisker of getting one from Ryan swords, but my reading here changed my mind. However, I am a bit concerned as I have not seen any changes in my order status "awaiting fulfillment", in almost 2 weeks and I have received some kind of email asking if I received it, but it is from a noreply account. You would think the system would say 'shipped'. I have tried using their online contact form to no avail with zero response and calling them just gets me in voice prompt hell, then get hung up on. I was hoping that I would have had it in 2 weeks as I assumed it was in stock and shipping from PA. I head to Fort Bliss TX, Sunday and I don't want this thing sitting out at my front door. Has anyone else had problems with these folks? Is their ordering system hosed? So that leads to my next question. In terms of reliable service, shipping with good pricing/quality who is your favorite vendor? PS: And YES that really is my in the Avatar with my compact 45 cal.
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Post by VPanovec on Oct 9, 2012 0:50:54 GMT
Welcome to the Forum and welcome to swords. Warning: They're addictive. Be careful with the Zatoichi. Like it says in the SBG review, there's no guard to prevent your hand from slipping during a thrust. I learned that one the hard way. Fortunately it wasnt deep. Unfortunately I cant help you with your order from Swords of Might as I havent ordered from them personally, but you should try to get ahold of them and see what is going on.
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Post by jcbarnett on Oct 9, 2012 1:52:42 GMT
Welcome! There are a lot of "gun guys" here that also are deeply into swords. Lots of information here - there are some pretty 'sharp' members that can help with most any concern or question regarding swords. I too have a Zatoichi - fun to cut with but stick with fairly easy cuts - the lack of a guard is inherently dangerous.
As far as good vendors - Kult of Athena as well our own SBG Sword Store are very good.
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Post by raf2 on Oct 9, 2012 20:02:27 GMT
I wasn't planning on doing cuts with the Zatoichi more for show and a little handling. Perhaps one day I will do light cuts, but no plans as of now.
What I really want to get is some custom painting on the saya. Do you know of anyone that does this, or a;ready has painted ones? Not sure exactly what I want, perhaps a dragon. Like I said, most of what I am doing is for a personal collection, so I want a few eye candy pieces for it.
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Post by Adrian Jordan on Oct 9, 2012 21:13:39 GMT
Welcome to SBG!
I've had great success with ordering from Swordnarmory. I've also ordered from the SBG Store twice with fantastic results. Kult of Athena is highly recommended as well.
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Post by raf2 on Oct 9, 2012 21:42:15 GMT
Just thinking I would love to get a 2 piece Bokken that I can take in my checked luggage when I travel... I am out and about 2x month and I would like to get some practice in while in my motel room. Has anyone ever heard of something like this? I don't think I could take something like this to Germany next month though
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Post by Rifleman Lizard on Oct 9, 2012 22:10:41 GMT
I used to carry shinai and bokken between international airports. Total nightmare. They're often not allowed in checked luggage because of their size but every time I insisted on putting them through European and Japanese customs; I had to pay extortionate surcharges to have them labelled and passed on as individual checkings.
For wooden sticks they end up being very expensive. Not worth the hassle.
As far as I know there are no manufacturers of take-down bokken but it would be simple to alter a full one using a locking screw plug and socket system. The balance would shift but only slightly.
Welcome to SBG.
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Taran
Member
Posts: 2,621
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Post by Taran on Oct 10, 2012 15:38:25 GMT
I made a hard case out of a 4" diameter PVC pipe for my longbow. I don't see why such a thing (smaller, of course) wouldn't work for your bokken. I have traveled with it to and from Alaska, Texas, and Missouri. Plus road trips. Inside the USA, it's not an issue at all.
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Post by DavidW on Oct 11, 2012 9:33:18 GMT
Kult Of Athena has great customer service and good prices/shipping. Vast range of FUNCTIONAL swords, and they know their stuff. Ask them a question about a sword, and they will answer it.
SwordnArmory is really good for munetoshi blades. I don't know of any other major vendor that sells munetoshi actually.
The SBG sword store comes out with really nice deals every now and then. Free shipping in the states, so that's a plus, and they often offer Ricky's sharpening service (owner of ) for many of their katanas. From the videos and reviews I've seen, Ricky makes blades SCARY SHARP.
TrueSwords is sells a lot of those generic stainless steel stuff you'd find at flea markets and whatnot, but they have the best prices on Musashi blades (Which are superb starter blades from what I've heard). I've bought a lot of novelty/semprinis-and-giggles items from them (wolverine claws, kubaton keychain, belt knife, etc.) that are fun to have around, but they also sell good brand name stuff like Kabar, SOG, and CRKT knives and daggers. They also have the best prices on Cold Steel items (including swords). I really like TS cause they have super fast shipping and AMAZING customer service. Cheap shipping too (though that was probably cause they're based in Georgia and I used to live in SC).
Budk is another option to TS, though I wouldn't recommend it. They tend to exaggerate marketing and their customer service is somewhat weak when compared to TS. Budk has a larger range of stainless steel swords and novelty stuff (including military surplus and "survival" gear) and slightly cheaper prices than TS, but they have little to offer in way of functional swords. The only functional swords they sell are Shinwa, which appear to be lesser quality versions of Musashi, even though the Shinwas cost the same or more...so overall not worth it.
There are good ebay vendors. Ebay vendors can be very tricky, as the quality will vary. The general consensus is that Ryansword/tckruan88 are pretty bad, but Huawei, ST-Nihonto, and swordmaker688/swordsmith668 are pretty decent, with huawei being the best in quality. You can also customize the color of the wrapping (ito), saya (sheath), rayskin (same) for their swords and pick your own hanguard (tsuba). Also, all the ebay vendors I listed have a wide range of japanese blade styles, including naginata, wakizashi, tanto, chokuto (including the "hollywood ninja" styled tip), shobu-zukuri, shirasaya, and colored blades (simply for aesthetic appeal). They also offer the aforementioned styles with folded steel and/or clay tempered.
Roninkatana.com offer tough 1060 thorough-hardened (no wavy hamon pattern on the blade) katana for a nice beater. They also have high quality fittings and QC, not to mention free shipping in the states. Roninkatana is a forum member here as well.
Cheness blades used to be retailed, but now they switched to buying direct from them only (cheness.com). Their 9260 blades are hella durable (I have a cheness Oniyuri that can attest to that), and their prices aren't too bad. Great beaters.
.com offers extremely sharp and durable thorough-hardened blades like their new RK-2 and their tamahagane swords (nihonto replicas). However, they're rather small scale production and the demand for their swords is high, so they're constantly out of stock. Ricky is actually a forum member here, he goes by the name of dadaochen.
Keep in mind that the reviews on the main site are out of date, as new makers have come in and prices have changed. For instance, the Hanwei Tinker swords used to be considered the best value for cheap medieval swords, but ever since the fire at the factory, many hanwei sword prices have gone through the roof, so it's no longer considered best value. I've seen quite a few beginners on this forum purchase the Cheness Kaze katana because Paul features it on the main site as his favorite one. However, Cheness quality on their fittings seem to vary just a tad, and their blades don't always come that sharp (my oniyuri has a hard time slicing printer paper, and doesn't exactly excel on plastic bottles, though I'm pretty sure it would do well on bamboo).
Hope this massive wall of text helps.
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