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Post by Sugiyama on Feb 26, 2013 21:15:35 GMT
Alright, I've got some more questions for you. Before that, I just want to say thank you to all the people who replied to my first post.
Anyway, I've heard many stories of production katana having partially-sharpened blades. I was wondering what the safest and easiest way would be to sharpen a katana if this happens. Should I use a knife sharpener, a waterstone or whetstone, an electric sharpener, a belt sander, or what? (I've heard of people using each of these things to sharpen a sword at least once).
Second, between Cheness and Ronin Katana, who would you recommend? I was going to either get a custom mounted 9260 blade, or a Dojo Pro Model 0017.
Finally, is a 1" sori a bit too deep for a katana? Does this affect cutting ability? The Dojo Pro Model 17 has a 1" instead of the usual .5" sori. Chris from Ronin Katana (who was very quick to respond to my emails) said that the extra curvature would only affect drawing practice, but otherwise the curvature was for the heck of it. I just want to make sure this is true.
Thanks again for the warm welcome and all the help I've gotten!
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Post by MOK on Feb 26, 2013 23:12:45 GMT
Not at all. Many historical nihonto have much deeper sori than that. Modern production katana, on the other hand, seem to be modeled almost exclusively after the relatively shallow and symmetrical curves of swords from the Edo period onwards. From what I hear, in general Ronin Katana seem preferable these days over Cheness, as the latter are apparently having severe difficulties with quality control and customer service lately. (FWIW, I do love my Cheness Oniyuri.) For touching up an insufficiently sharp edge on a production sword, you really shouldn't need anything else than two or three grits of stones or diamond laps (for example, the steel-bodied Dianova lapstones are excellent, if you can get them where you are). For dealing with actually blunt non-edges or the eventually inevitable dents and nicks, you might want a couple different grades of larger stones and/or sandpapers of up to 2000 grit depending on how shiny a finish you want. There are several good, in-depth tutorials on sharpening all kinds of blades on these very forums, just use the search engine and you should be able to find plenty of instruction and even videos showing how to do it.
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Post by Sugiyama on Feb 26, 2013 23:27:24 GMT
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Post by MOK on Feb 26, 2013 23:33:54 GMT
I really don't know about Smith's, specifically, but if the stones are of good quality, it should be fine. Someone here probably has personal experience with that one, or just about any item you can find. PS. Of course, Japanese water stones would be the Zen way to go.
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Post by Sugiyama on Feb 27, 2013 1:43:42 GMT
One final question, do you think DF Musha or Dojo Pro is better?
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Post by aussie-rabbit on Feb 27, 2013 11:40:53 GMT
The Ronin dojo pro is the better choice IMHO - The Cheness currently has issues direct from the factory with quality control, customer service and other problems.
Dealing with Ronin is a much better experience.
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