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Post by Jussi Ekholm on Oct 29, 2012 17:35:21 GMT
I've seen couple of Musashi swords, and personally I'm not impressed of their quality, but I must admit they are pretty good for the price you are paying. I know I'm bit snobbish when it comes to swords and I do realize that these are under 100$ swords for US living collectors, but personally I would save for bit better quality sword. But I think this will be fairly good buy for 80$. Changing tsuba may or may not be easy, it depends. Changing habaki is far more trickier. Most likely you will have to also adjust tsuka and saya. Redoing tsukamaki is possible, but depending on the ito you'd want to use, quite an investment for sub-100$ sword. I agree with your reasoning that it would be good idea to get a 2nd sword that Josh at Cottontail would work on, as personally I see his work way above 80$ Musashi's. Good work deserves good blade to go with it. Maybe saving up a bit more, as I believe you'd be happier when sending bit better blade for customization. I wish all the best to your collecting, once you get bit by the sword bug, it usually results in more swords in the future.
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Post by kingrikoraru on Oct 29, 2012 18:28:11 GMT
Yea but you have to agreed that for a first blade that also second as a beater, amusashi is a good choice. Personally, I wouldn't even use an expensive hanwei except for some really light cutting
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Post by OttoVonFaart on Oct 29, 2012 22:07:31 GMT
The issue isn't that I need to "save for a bit better sword." I could afford to buy an actual nihonto but I'm not sophisticated enough to appreciate anything of that quality. For my first purchase, I'll be immensely satisfied with almost any functional katana that's reasonably well made, of decent quality high carbon steel, robust & cuts decently. Basically a katana that's "good enough" is fine for me. Hopefully sharp enough to slice a tomato paper thin while it's flying through the air without bruising the skin & tough enough to chop up rolled beach mats without damaging the blade. I can wait awhile before I get something that's decent enough for some casual tsujigiri <grin> just kidding. I like the idea of having a functional platform to work with and do some of the stuff I want to become skillful enough to do with it ~ like tsuba & habaki replacement and eventually apply samegawa and do tsukamaki. Since I own the appropriate tools, have a decent workshop & am not without some woodworking skills, I want to learn to make tsuka from scratch. OK... all that will probably take me until I'm 75 years old. But I'm recently retired and some day (with luck) I'm going to be 75 anyway.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 29, 2012 22:16:43 GMT
Dont waste your money on a super cheap sword, you can get decent stuff for under $200 from St-Nihonto and Huawei, for a bit more you can get a Ronin Dojo Pro. Just get yourself anything half decent to begin with before yiu start worrying about what you want to do in the next few decades! You've got way too much information now from everyone on this forum, no excuse for procrastination...
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Post by aussie-rabbit on Oct 30, 2012 2:36:40 GMT
That is a good place to start, you may switch to middle ages swords, either way an inexpensive first sword is the way to go. like all things sharp expect to do a little work on the edge before you get to the tomato slicing stage. Always live long enough to be a problem to your children
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Post by Jussi Ekholm on Oct 30, 2012 11:44:25 GMT
Hopefully you didn't take my post in wrong way. The word saving can be changed to investing. I'm impressed by your view, it's nice to read such a response. And I agree fully that proper appreciating comes with collecting years. And it's a good thing that you have realistic expectations from a production sword in this price range. Like I said in my first post, I'm not a fan of Musashi products, the couple I've seen have been mediocre. The ones I've seen have not been of their new widely popular lines. And I know many here will say you that they are good, and they do have the first hand knowledge. They don't appeal to me that much, and you can't get them cheaply to Finland (like I said for US living buyers they are a pretty good deal), so when living in here it's wiser to invest a bit better swords. As you said money isn't a problem, I would recommend taking a look at the popular swords in c.300$ range. There are many a lot better options in that range. One of my favorites in sub-300$ market would be Dynasty Forge Musha, owned one that was really sharp out of the box. Unfortunately I didn't cut with it as I sold it onwards. But that is one example that I'd consider to be good first sword. Lots of other great options too, check the forum for more recommendations. Getting that Musashi for a beater sword/customization practice might be also a good option. Tinkering with swords is quite fun. Plenty of online resources to offer valuable help, and if you are a book guy like myself, here are couple good recommendations. www.amazon.com/Craft-Japanese-Sw ... 087011798X www.amazon.com/The-Art-Japanese- ... 805312408/ www.amazon.com/The-Art-Tsukamaki ... 984377956/
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Post by OttoVonFaart on Oct 30, 2012 12:42:53 GMT
It's probably not important, but I'm glad you partially agree with me about "good enough" being OK for a first sword. The more I think on it, the more attractive the idea of learning to work on some of the cosmetics myself. I know that a lot of people here collect swords but I've never particularly been a collector of anything. OK, I own multiple fly rods, the least expensive of which cost well above $500 US. But all of them are for different types of fly fishing. Some are for fishing big salt water fish, one specifically for sea trout in Denmark, one for salmon & steelhead and a hand made bamboo light trout rod that's worth more than my automobile. But they are all for different types of fishing. I suppose that the same could be said of katana but I am not at that level of sophistication. I've been fly fishing for about 40 years and have developed some degree of expertise. But it's taken me all those years to get to the point that my little "collection" of fly rods became anything someone would refer to as a collection. I don't expect to have the time to actually "collect" katana. One thing that does appeal to me to collect... Tsuba! Even the inexpensive reproductions of classic Japanese tsuba are beautiful works of art. Like a inexpensive print of a fabulous painting, they have their own utility. Once I receive some of the tsuba I have already ordered, I'll be making some individual frames for display... but there will always be at least one I can display on a katana (once that's in my hands.) By the way, I particularly like some of the offerings from ArtsFeng. Better quality than most of the inexpensive crap offered on e-Bay & a nice selection.
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