YarinoHanzo Tombo Katana
Mar 25, 2014 21:08:15 GMT
Post by Jussi Ekholm on Mar 25, 2014 21:08:15 GMT
Introduction
This sword was sent to me by YarinoHanzo to review. I do not own this sword, and I do not receive anything from reviewing this. But I did get a chance to check a sword I did not otherwise might have had.
This sword is of the highest tier of YarinoHanzo offerings, as this model is one from the Superior line. In overall these are quite nice looking 1095 DH swords. Seeing this in person I must say it's a lot nicer than on the website.
Historical Overview
It's a katana, and the fittings are historically inspired. Not 100% copies, but inspired by original fittings.
Full Disclosure
I received this sword to give a review of it. I do not gain anything from reviewing this, but I do get to check out this sword and cut with it. I will send it back after my review.
Of course it's always bit weird for me when the sword is not mine. I'm so used that I only have my own stuff. However I will give an honest review of this sword.
Initial Impressions
I'll share the impressions on the packaging & side treats.
The Superior line from YarinoHanzo comes with a wooden box. Even though this is more stylized and plain than your average box, I can't explain why I hate these boxes...
Sageo is not put on, and it's advertised as Japanese made sageo. The sword bag that this sword has looked actually quite nice, I liked the plain look on it.
Sword cleaning kit was the basic one that usually comes with boxed swords from this forge.
I know many might like these side treats (box, cleaning kit etc.), personally I'd rather just have the sword without these.
My initial impression on the sword itself was, it's quite a bit like Ronin Elite.
Statistics
Nagasa: 72,4 cm
Nakago: 26,8 cm
Sori: 2,3 cm
Motohaba: 3,2 cm
Sakihaba: 2,35 cm
Moto-gasane: 6,5 mm
Moto-shinogi-gasane: 7 mm
Saki-gasane: 5 mm
Saki-shinogi-gasane: 5,5 mm
Kissaki: 5 cm
Bare blade weight: 804 g
Weight in koshirae: 1227 g
Steel: 1095
Tsuka: 27,7 cm - weight 157 g
Tsuba: 8,5 x 7,9 cm, thickness 6,5 mm - weight 226 g
Fuchi: 41 x 25 x 11 mm
Kashira: 39 x 19 x 13 mm
Blade
Here you can see the sugata.
Nakago is pretty well done, unfortunately machi are typical Longquan and habaki is slapped on. You can see YarinoHanzo logo on the tang.
I must say that the hamon on this is pretty good looking. Polish is about the typical polish on DH Longquan blades.
Here you can see the kissaki shape and bo-hi termination. Unfortunately this sword had a dull spot at yokote. I must say that the blade feels well made.
Here is the geometry shot that people like to see.
Koshirae
Koshirae of this sword is actually a lot nicer that you usually find on Longquan stuff.
Tsuka has good curvature and shape. Tsukamaki is Brown "Chinese" silk (the one that does not feel as nice as Japanese silk), it's done with hishigami and it's alternating. It's tight and quite even, I think this is a good tsuka.
All of the fittings are Tombo themed, and actually quite nice. Unfortunately the tsuba was upside down from the forge but I turned it around later. I was surprised how the tsuba looked quite pleasing in hand. I didn't really like it in photos. However it's very massive and it weighs 226 grams.
Saya is kuroroishime, and has horn koiguchi, kurikata and kojiri.
Cutting
Cutting medium was freestanding soaked (10-30 min soak) newspaper rolls and some very hard cardboard tube. Newspaper roll soaking time was varying as I was cutting with 4 swords and did not remember how long each roll soaked up.
This sword cut the medium sized rolls with ease. This is a good cutting sword. The very thick roll on the bottom pic proved to be too challenging target for me, but sword did cut very deep in it. Medium sized rolls were fun to cut with this one. As this is quite heavy sword I did not feel very comfortable in single handed cutting with this.
Then onto freestanding cardboard tubes. These thin walled ones were fun to cut with this, and the sword did very well.
Then was the time for thick walled monstertube. This was very hard cardboard tube, and had much thicker walls. I couldn't cut through this, and sword got stuck on both cuts I made to this tube. Unfortunately this very hard target made a bit of edge damage to the sword.
Cutting resulted in a minor nick to the edge. The area damaged is about 3mm, and just the size of the thickness of the wall of that hard tube. I don't think this was due to my poor cutting technique, just due to the tube being very hard cutting target. As I didn't force my cuts through this target, I just let them stuck inside it as I didn't want to damage the sword.
Bit hard to picture it, it's more noticeable with bare eyes.
Conclusion
I must say this sword surprised me positively. I would have not thought these to be so good in overall quality. I think this is pretty nice package as it is.
Unfortunately the minor damage that occured during my cutting did make me think bit negatively about the durability of these. I've cut similar sized tubes with other swords before and no edge damage has occurred.
Softer targets like newspaper rolls and tatami omote would definately be good targets for this. But hard targets like these cardboard tubes and bamboo might not be the best cutting medium.
In overall this is a good sword.
This sword was sent to me by YarinoHanzo to review. I do not own this sword, and I do not receive anything from reviewing this. But I did get a chance to check a sword I did not otherwise might have had.
This sword is of the highest tier of YarinoHanzo offerings, as this model is one from the Superior line. In overall these are quite nice looking 1095 DH swords. Seeing this in person I must say it's a lot nicer than on the website.
Historical Overview
It's a katana, and the fittings are historically inspired. Not 100% copies, but inspired by original fittings.
Full Disclosure
I received this sword to give a review of it. I do not gain anything from reviewing this, but I do get to check out this sword and cut with it. I will send it back after my review.
Of course it's always bit weird for me when the sword is not mine. I'm so used that I only have my own stuff. However I will give an honest review of this sword.
Initial Impressions
I'll share the impressions on the packaging & side treats.
The Superior line from YarinoHanzo comes with a wooden box. Even though this is more stylized and plain than your average box, I can't explain why I hate these boxes...
Sageo is not put on, and it's advertised as Japanese made sageo. The sword bag that this sword has looked actually quite nice, I liked the plain look on it.
Sword cleaning kit was the basic one that usually comes with boxed swords from this forge.
I know many might like these side treats (box, cleaning kit etc.), personally I'd rather just have the sword without these.
My initial impression on the sword itself was, it's quite a bit like Ronin Elite.
Statistics
Nagasa: 72,4 cm
Nakago: 26,8 cm
Sori: 2,3 cm
Motohaba: 3,2 cm
Sakihaba: 2,35 cm
Moto-gasane: 6,5 mm
Moto-shinogi-gasane: 7 mm
Saki-gasane: 5 mm
Saki-shinogi-gasane: 5,5 mm
Kissaki: 5 cm
Bare blade weight: 804 g
Weight in koshirae: 1227 g
Steel: 1095
Tsuka: 27,7 cm - weight 157 g
Tsuba: 8,5 x 7,9 cm, thickness 6,5 mm - weight 226 g
Fuchi: 41 x 25 x 11 mm
Kashira: 39 x 19 x 13 mm
Blade
Here you can see the sugata.
Nakago is pretty well done, unfortunately machi are typical Longquan and habaki is slapped on. You can see YarinoHanzo logo on the tang.
I must say that the hamon on this is pretty good looking. Polish is about the typical polish on DH Longquan blades.
Here you can see the kissaki shape and bo-hi termination. Unfortunately this sword had a dull spot at yokote. I must say that the blade feels well made.
Here is the geometry shot that people like to see.
Koshirae
Koshirae of this sword is actually a lot nicer that you usually find on Longquan stuff.
Tsuka has good curvature and shape. Tsukamaki is Brown "Chinese" silk (the one that does not feel as nice as Japanese silk), it's done with hishigami and it's alternating. It's tight and quite even, I think this is a good tsuka.
All of the fittings are Tombo themed, and actually quite nice. Unfortunately the tsuba was upside down from the forge but I turned it around later. I was surprised how the tsuba looked quite pleasing in hand. I didn't really like it in photos. However it's very massive and it weighs 226 grams.
Saya is kuroroishime, and has horn koiguchi, kurikata and kojiri.
Cutting
Cutting medium was freestanding soaked (10-30 min soak) newspaper rolls and some very hard cardboard tube. Newspaper roll soaking time was varying as I was cutting with 4 swords and did not remember how long each roll soaked up.
This sword cut the medium sized rolls with ease. This is a good cutting sword. The very thick roll on the bottom pic proved to be too challenging target for me, but sword did cut very deep in it. Medium sized rolls were fun to cut with this one. As this is quite heavy sword I did not feel very comfortable in single handed cutting with this.
Then onto freestanding cardboard tubes. These thin walled ones were fun to cut with this, and the sword did very well.
Then was the time for thick walled monstertube. This was very hard cardboard tube, and had much thicker walls. I couldn't cut through this, and sword got stuck on both cuts I made to this tube. Unfortunately this very hard target made a bit of edge damage to the sword.
Cutting resulted in a minor nick to the edge. The area damaged is about 3mm, and just the size of the thickness of the wall of that hard tube. I don't think this was due to my poor cutting technique, just due to the tube being very hard cutting target. As I didn't force my cuts through this target, I just let them stuck inside it as I didn't want to damage the sword.
Bit hard to picture it, it's more noticeable with bare eyes.
Conclusion
I must say this sword surprised me positively. I would have not thought these to be so good in overall quality. I think this is pretty nice package as it is.
Unfortunately the minor damage that occured during my cutting did make me think bit negatively about the durability of these. I've cut similar sized tubes with other swords before and no edge damage has occurred.
Softer targets like newspaper rolls and tatami omote would definately be good targets for this. But hard targets like these cardboard tubes and bamboo might not be the best cutting medium.
In overall this is a good sword.