An awesome looking Chinese sword

Two thoughts come to mind:

1. The pattern on the blade is interesting and gives a unique feel to it. I can see why you'd want to have a patterned blade sword, just since it is different than usual offerings:



Thing is, it is hard to tell how the pattern got there and how stable it will be in hand. The vendor "forges the swords by over 20 different working procedures such as shammering, shovelling, filing, engraving, polishing, quenching, etc." so it is not clear the method of how this particular blade got this specific pattern.

Maybe through "stickering"?

Hence, you might have concerns about the pattern wiping off the blade with normal use. There are lots of reviews of eBay swords floating around SBG these days about titanium or tungsten or whatever coatings on blades having problems with deterioration right out of the saya, without even being used to cut.

The good news is they call it "carbon" steel, "full" tang, and a "practical" sword, so you'd expect the sword to hold up to practical use from their description. The bad news is it probably won't despite their description...

2. I say this because whenever a vendor labels the sword like this: "Chinese carbon steel handmade Han sword cool patterns practical katana *S002" it tells us they have little to no idea what they are doing.

This is either a Han sword (Chinese design) or a katana (Japanese design). It simply cannot be both at the same time. It looks more like a Han/Jian SLO than it does a katana, but you be the judge

What seems to be going on is the vendor puts as many keywords in their description as possible, so they'll get as many hits on eBay as possible, without any real thought to whether the terms used to describe the individual sword listing are accurate or conflicting. This is a bad sign. It is false advertising when a vendor lies about a product.

I get that there is a language barrier between these Chinese vendors making Japanese swords to sell to English-speaking buyers, but if you can't even tell me what kind of sword you are selling, why the hell should I bother to believe anything else you say about its forging and materials?!?

It's even worse for this listing, which is almost identical to the one you posted (minus the pattern):

www.ebay.com.au/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=221028175272&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT#ht_3634wt_1265

The sword looks like this:



And right next to this picture, they say it is a katana of honsanmai construction, like this:



which as anyone who remembers 5th grade geometry class will tell you, is obviously not true.The sword they have pictured is not a katana and hence, could not be a katana made through sanmai lamination :lol:

It is what it is, namely false advertising, marketing lies, and generally dishonesty.

Bottom line, for $70, you aren't going to get a fantastically made sword no matter where you buy it from. That's life

But you will likely get more for your $70 elsewhere... I'd hate to see anyone patronize dishonest vendors as a general rule.

Looks almost exactly like one of the tourist-trap cheapo swords I saw in China. What with it being a Han jian (the typical style of jian churned out by cheap factories), I'm even less inclined to believe that it's suitable for any cutting activities. Overall it looks really fake and tacky. It'll cost you a lot, but a Jin Shi or Sinosword jian would be much more worth it. Sinosword would probably be best for you. They'll make you a nice semi-custom jian (fittings and colors of your choice basically) for a good price (probably sub-300)

they don't have price points cause you choose the steel, the fittings (i.e. brass or iron or whatever), whether or not it's folded steel, and whether or not it's DH or TH. They sell their products expecting you to customize it in some manner, so I expect thats why they don't put base prices. What I did when I was interested was email them inquiring how much it would cost. They'll give you a rough estimate.

Yea, I really am looking forward to getting a sinosword and another huawei when I get my paycheck the 16th. Sinosword I heard is a tad more expensive than a mid range huawei right?

Yea pretty much what I thought. Debating whether I should get anything from this vendor to compare it to the others. They do have free shipping and the only other vendor that does is hanbon sword

I've seen that sword at Ryan's and ST-Swords a few weeks ago as well. Guess the forge that makes them is promoting them to the local shops. Must be a new-ish thing.

ST Swords has a Han Dao with similar fittings and handle at the moment as well. Looks like they sold out of the patterned sword.

www.ebay.com/itm/battle-ready-ha ... 3377c74a7d

I've done a bunch of research on han jians as I like the style and a while back I bought one in the classifieds here. The seller wasn't sure about who he bought it from on ebay. Basically I found out this style of jian at the $200 or under pricepoint have the same common features. I am writing about the ones with these exact fittings for the guard, pommel cap, chape and throat cover (some don't have the throat cover but have all the other parts):

-fittings are zinc alloy with brass coloured paint and clear lacquer on them. most every time the pictures are of the same fittings however the pics show the fittings with more clean up of the flash in between all the details of the fittings. the sword you'll get will have flash to file away. the paint and lacquer will scratch off or chip off if you bang them up.

-cording is nylon and cheapo quality. Glued on.

-grip core is a tube with the tang loose inside it; not fitted to the tang. the tang may have a pin similar to a katana mekugi but probably not bamboo

-tang is probably threaded on the end with a nut and washer holding down to the grip

-pommel is glued on, maybe with nails holding it in too

-scabbard is cool and nice looking wood, loose fitting though

-blade is fine and likely tempered (but be wary of any katana or jian sold around $50-60 bucks where it doesn't specifically say heat treated and tempered, as that's actually one way sellers save on costs). It's really the poor grip assembly that makes the sword not so good for use

These jians have been around for years, even the ones with the design on the blade. The design is silk-screened on (basically paint) and will scratch off easily. It usually ends up off center on most of the swords and with the geometric pattern on a symmetrical blade it can be frustratingly obvious.

Here's a link to the jian I customized. In this link I have more links about taking the sword apart and what's "under the hood". I talked to a lot of people (not just SBGers) and got a good picture of the commonality of these jians when I was researching my sword.

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=6008&hilit=+jian