Shirly Sword $60 katana - under the hood
Jan 13, 2014 8:50:11 GMT
Post by chrisperoni on Jan 13, 2014 8:50:11 GMT
Mail on Sunday?! And it's a SWORD! Excellent start to my morning. With the recent snowy weather the local CanPost service had to delay deliveries for a few days last week, and to make up for this they had staff working today. After thanking the delivery person for working on her day off, I eagerly cut open the yellow tape wrapped styrofoam and had a quick glance at my newest sharpie.
First impression was "wow, that is much more sparkly blue than I expected" - in reference to the saya. In bright light it glitters A LOT. Next up I regarded the slightly smaller than average tsuba - good - that was what I wanted and in the auction page pics it did look a bit smaller; chose the right one. Further inspecting found pretty much what I expected: average blade with typical bohi, decently tight but non alternating ito, fake same, alloy fuchi/kashira, ok habaki -- but I'm not sure about the notch in the front -- my other katana did not have that, & seeing copper seppa as shown in the listing was nice. With no spare time to get into it further, I set the sword aside to give it a better look in the evening.
Here's the pictures taken this morning. You can see in the 2nd image how bright and glittery the saya gets in direct sunlight, the other pics were taken outside in overcast light.
I've just come in now from my shop, after taking the sword apart and taking some more pictures. What I've found is again pretty much what I expected. The mekugi are decent and came out cleanly. The tsuka and nakago were drilled at the same time, the nakago itself actually has a decent shape to it (but no file marks). Some of the more unsightly bits are hidden where you can't see them without tearing the katana down. As you can see below the tsuka side seppa is chewed up, as is that side of the tsuba, and the tsuka has a very wide gap at the seam on the mune side.. sort of. The gap is there and about 2 inches long, but is at least glued up already. Inside the tsuka the mune side at the mouth has a bit of that crunchy weird glue we see sometimes, being used to shim it up a bit I guess. It also appears the habaki might be glued to the blade.
I'll be lacquering the ito, epoxying the tsuka/nakago permanently before I call it ready for use as the "house beater sword". For the price of $60 all in it's not bad and decent enough for light use. Oh, and here's the ebay listing for as long as the link still works: www.ebay.ca/itm/221341946365?ssP ... 1497.l2649
Edit/add: couple of other little 'extras' some might like - basic black sword bag included, a certificate for the katana, nakago is engraved with mei.
First impression was "wow, that is much more sparkly blue than I expected" - in reference to the saya. In bright light it glitters A LOT. Next up I regarded the slightly smaller than average tsuba - good - that was what I wanted and in the auction page pics it did look a bit smaller; chose the right one. Further inspecting found pretty much what I expected: average blade with typical bohi, decently tight but non alternating ito, fake same, alloy fuchi/kashira, ok habaki -- but I'm not sure about the notch in the front -- my other katana did not have that, & seeing copper seppa as shown in the listing was nice. With no spare time to get into it further, I set the sword aside to give it a better look in the evening.
Here's the pictures taken this morning. You can see in the 2nd image how bright and glittery the saya gets in direct sunlight, the other pics were taken outside in overcast light.
I've just come in now from my shop, after taking the sword apart and taking some more pictures. What I've found is again pretty much what I expected. The mekugi are decent and came out cleanly. The tsuka and nakago were drilled at the same time, the nakago itself actually has a decent shape to it (but no file marks). Some of the more unsightly bits are hidden where you can't see them without tearing the katana down. As you can see below the tsuka side seppa is chewed up, as is that side of the tsuba, and the tsuka has a very wide gap at the seam on the mune side.. sort of. The gap is there and about 2 inches long, but is at least glued up already. Inside the tsuka the mune side at the mouth has a bit of that crunchy weird glue we see sometimes, being used to shim it up a bit I guess. It also appears the habaki might be glued to the blade.
I'll be lacquering the ito, epoxying the tsuka/nakago permanently before I call it ready for use as the "house beater sword". For the price of $60 all in it's not bad and decent enough for light use. Oh, and here's the ebay listing for as long as the link still works: www.ebay.ca/itm/221341946365?ssP ... 1497.l2649
Edit/add: couple of other little 'extras' some might like - basic black sword bag included, a certificate for the katana, nakago is engraved with mei.