Hanbon Musashi Double Bo-Hi Custom
Jun 12, 2014 8:30:07 GMT
Post by aussiedan on Jun 12, 2014 8:30:07 GMT
Hi Everyone
Today I will be reviewing a Hanbon (swordmaker688) sword which I ordered from ebay. I came across Hanbon, or Swordsmith Yao due to some reviews I have read and after checking out the ebay store I thought I can give that a shot. This is actually the 2nd sword I ordered from Hanbon.
The base of the sword is the "Japanese Samurai Musashi Katana with Double Bo-Hi, clay tempered". But I made some changes to it using the options Hanbon offers in their store.
Their ebay store is easy to navigate with good pictures, explanation and various types and models available.
The sword was listed for USD $268.84 with the option to make an offer. So I thought, well, how about I customise it to my liking and offer 200. Knowing that might be pushing it a bit, they came back to me and suggested $250. Fair enough I thought and agreed. I sent them the list on how I would like it to look, they confirmed and I got the shipping confirmation on the same day together with a tracking number from EMS. Shipping is included in the price, which is nice since it needs to be shipped to Australia.
Communication with Xu (he seems to take care of the whole process) is as good and nice as it gets. Very friendly, helpful and response times are incredible. They even keep an eye on the tracking and send you an email when the parcel arrives at your local delivery hub.
9 days later the sword was delivered (if the local company wouldn't have messed it up it would have arrived 2 days earlier).
Full Disclosure
I am a new, still fairly unexperienced amateur sword collector, with no links to the vendor or manufacturer and paid the full price. I own a few katana production blades. This is my 2nd sword from this seller.
Initial Impression
Wrapped in yellow plastic, the styro-foam box was undamaged by the looks of it. I opened it carefully and there it was, a golden, yellow ish bag (aparently it is silk but I am not an expert on fabric so I am not sure). But it feels nice and soft. The bag is wrapped in plastic and also inside is an envelope with a card, some care instructions, a big thank you letter and some Chinese currency. The card actually has "I love you forever" printed on it, which I don't think is the best choice but, alas.
When I picked up this new member of my sword family it seemed fairly light. Which is what I was looking for. I pulled it out of the bag and was very, very, very happy with my choice. A beauty! The tsuka was sealed in plastic and the blade was covered in plastic as well and heavily oiled.
PICTURES
imgur.com/a/8U4ON
Statistics
Overall Length: 40.9 inch /104 cm
Nagasa (Blade) Length: 27.8 inch / 70.5 cm
Handle Length: 10.6 inch / 27cm
Kissaki Shape: CHU-KISSAKI
Blade Shape: SHINOGI-ZUKURI
Blade Material: Folded AISI 1060 steel, clay tempered (1024 layers)
Tsuba Material: Iron
Blade Width (near Habaki): 1.26 inch / 3.2cm
Blade Width (near Kissaki): 0.91inch / 2.3cm
Weight (with Saya ): 2.71 lbs / 1.23 kg (approximately)
Weight (without Saya): 2.22 lbs / 1.01 kg (approximately)
Saya Material: High Quality Hard Wood + Bull Horn
Handle Material: Genuine Ray skin + Hard wooden
I chose the following customisations:
(The numbers are the codes as listed on their store website)
Samegawa: Black (R004)
Tsuka-ito: Synthetic Silk Red (C10) himeri maki style
Sageo: Black/Red (G06)
Saya: S21
Iron Tsuba: IT14
This is the original listing:
www.ebay.com.au/itm/JAPANESE-SAMURAI-MUSASHI-SWORD-KATANA-DOUBLE-BO-HI-LIGHTEN-CALY-TEMPERED-BLADE-/111329377754?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19ebbf7dda
Tsuka
(Please note that in some pictures the ito appears to be more of a pink colour due to use of flash I guess. It is actually a very nice Red!)
The shape of the tsuka is haichi, tightly wrapped with synthetic silk. The diamonds are evenly shaped and the samegawa is consistently black in colour and of good density I think. The golden menuki appears to be in some sort of dragon shape but I am reasonably sure it is plastic. It certainly sits very tight under the ito. This is probably the only thing I would do different the next time. Choose a nicer and darker menuki.
The bamboo mekugis are well centered and of "clean" shape. The fuchi and kashira are plain black and sit tight on the tsuka. Nothing fancy. But that was the plan.
Habaki, Seppa, Tsuba
The habaki and seppa are the standard type but fit nicely with no movement. The tsuba is solid iron, black and outlines a crane and fits well into the general appearance. It is cut well with no sharp edges etc. Simple but nice.
Saya
I was worried at first about the "natural" looking saya at first, but must admit that it actually looks great and is a welcome difference to all the black sayas. There is no rattling and the blade slides in and out nicely. It is a fairly tight at the koyiguchi but I much prefer that to being too loose. The koyiguchi, kurigata and kojiri are horn. The sageo is thick (kakucho?)and the black and red look fantastic. I couldn't figure out yet what the different wrappings are called but I think it is Ronin Musubi. This one has four strings on each side of the kurigata though.
Blade
The double bo-hi looks amazing and the two ground lines are perfectly parallel and even. I believe this is called Futasuji-Hi. The unsharpened edge is of Iorimune style which appears to be the most common one. The blade is straight and centered well into the tsuka. I can't see any scratches along the blade or the kissaki. The kissaki profile is not perfect but you would have to look very closely to notice. The hamon is very nice. Gunome I believe, common during the late Kamakura period. In some spots the hamon touches the shinogi and the boshi is chumaru style and nicely done. The grain pattern (hada) can be seen along the blade. I think this particular type is called "Itame". I haven't done any cutting but the blade is very sharp and sturdy despite the double bo-hi.
Handling
Light and easy to manoeuvre. The tsuka feels good in the hand and thanks to the double bo-hi you get a nice sound (tachikaze) when swung.
Pros
- Blade looks fantastic
- tsukamaki grate
- saya
- exactly as ordered
Cons
- Menuki are cheap and too "golden"
- Kissaki profile
Bottom Line
What a great buy! I received exactly the options I wanted, quality is great, customer service is awesome and the price of USD $250 is more than acceptable. This is the cheapest sword I bought so far and the overall package is so much better than the Chikara or the Kagetoraken. Very happy! I will be buying another sword from Hanbon (swordmaker688).
Hope this helps and if you got any questions please let me know!
Cheers
Today I will be reviewing a Hanbon (swordmaker688) sword which I ordered from ebay. I came across Hanbon, or Swordsmith Yao due to some reviews I have read and after checking out the ebay store I thought I can give that a shot. This is actually the 2nd sword I ordered from Hanbon.
The base of the sword is the "Japanese Samurai Musashi Katana with Double Bo-Hi, clay tempered". But I made some changes to it using the options Hanbon offers in their store.
Their ebay store is easy to navigate with good pictures, explanation and various types and models available.
The sword was listed for USD $268.84 with the option to make an offer. So I thought, well, how about I customise it to my liking and offer 200. Knowing that might be pushing it a bit, they came back to me and suggested $250. Fair enough I thought and agreed. I sent them the list on how I would like it to look, they confirmed and I got the shipping confirmation on the same day together with a tracking number from EMS. Shipping is included in the price, which is nice since it needs to be shipped to Australia.
Communication with Xu (he seems to take care of the whole process) is as good and nice as it gets. Very friendly, helpful and response times are incredible. They even keep an eye on the tracking and send you an email when the parcel arrives at your local delivery hub.
9 days later the sword was delivered (if the local company wouldn't have messed it up it would have arrived 2 days earlier).
Full Disclosure
I am a new, still fairly unexperienced amateur sword collector, with no links to the vendor or manufacturer and paid the full price. I own a few katana production blades. This is my 2nd sword from this seller.
Initial Impression
Wrapped in yellow plastic, the styro-foam box was undamaged by the looks of it. I opened it carefully and there it was, a golden, yellow ish bag (aparently it is silk but I am not an expert on fabric so I am not sure). But it feels nice and soft. The bag is wrapped in plastic and also inside is an envelope with a card, some care instructions, a big thank you letter and some Chinese currency. The card actually has "I love you forever" printed on it, which I don't think is the best choice but, alas.
When I picked up this new member of my sword family it seemed fairly light. Which is what I was looking for. I pulled it out of the bag and was very, very, very happy with my choice. A beauty! The tsuka was sealed in plastic and the blade was covered in plastic as well and heavily oiled.
PICTURES
imgur.com/a/8U4ON
Statistics
Overall Length: 40.9 inch /104 cm
Nagasa (Blade) Length: 27.8 inch / 70.5 cm
Handle Length: 10.6 inch / 27cm
Kissaki Shape: CHU-KISSAKI
Blade Shape: SHINOGI-ZUKURI
Blade Material: Folded AISI 1060 steel, clay tempered (1024 layers)
Tsuba Material: Iron
Blade Width (near Habaki): 1.26 inch / 3.2cm
Blade Width (near Kissaki): 0.91inch / 2.3cm
Weight (with Saya ): 2.71 lbs / 1.23 kg (approximately)
Weight (without Saya): 2.22 lbs / 1.01 kg (approximately)
Saya Material: High Quality Hard Wood + Bull Horn
Handle Material: Genuine Ray skin + Hard wooden
I chose the following customisations:
(The numbers are the codes as listed on their store website)
Samegawa: Black (R004)
Tsuka-ito: Synthetic Silk Red (C10) himeri maki style
Sageo: Black/Red (G06)
Saya: S21
Iron Tsuba: IT14
This is the original listing:
www.ebay.com.au/itm/JAPANESE-SAMURAI-MUSASHI-SWORD-KATANA-DOUBLE-BO-HI-LIGHTEN-CALY-TEMPERED-BLADE-/111329377754?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19ebbf7dda
Tsuka
(Please note that in some pictures the ito appears to be more of a pink colour due to use of flash I guess. It is actually a very nice Red!)
The shape of the tsuka is haichi, tightly wrapped with synthetic silk. The diamonds are evenly shaped and the samegawa is consistently black in colour and of good density I think. The golden menuki appears to be in some sort of dragon shape but I am reasonably sure it is plastic. It certainly sits very tight under the ito. This is probably the only thing I would do different the next time. Choose a nicer and darker menuki.
The bamboo mekugis are well centered and of "clean" shape. The fuchi and kashira are plain black and sit tight on the tsuka. Nothing fancy. But that was the plan.
Habaki, Seppa, Tsuba
The habaki and seppa are the standard type but fit nicely with no movement. The tsuba is solid iron, black and outlines a crane and fits well into the general appearance. It is cut well with no sharp edges etc. Simple but nice.
Saya
I was worried at first about the "natural" looking saya at first, but must admit that it actually looks great and is a welcome difference to all the black sayas. There is no rattling and the blade slides in and out nicely. It is a fairly tight at the koyiguchi but I much prefer that to being too loose. The koyiguchi, kurigata and kojiri are horn. The sageo is thick (kakucho?)and the black and red look fantastic. I couldn't figure out yet what the different wrappings are called but I think it is Ronin Musubi. This one has four strings on each side of the kurigata though.
Blade
The double bo-hi looks amazing and the two ground lines are perfectly parallel and even. I believe this is called Futasuji-Hi. The unsharpened edge is of Iorimune style which appears to be the most common one. The blade is straight and centered well into the tsuka. I can't see any scratches along the blade or the kissaki. The kissaki profile is not perfect but you would have to look very closely to notice. The hamon is very nice. Gunome I believe, common during the late Kamakura period. In some spots the hamon touches the shinogi and the boshi is chumaru style and nicely done. The grain pattern (hada) can be seen along the blade. I think this particular type is called "Itame". I haven't done any cutting but the blade is very sharp and sturdy despite the double bo-hi.
Handling
Light and easy to manoeuvre. The tsuka feels good in the hand and thanks to the double bo-hi you get a nice sound (tachikaze) when swung.
Pros
- Blade looks fantastic
- tsukamaki grate
- saya
- exactly as ordered
Cons
- Menuki are cheap and too "golden"
- Kissaki profile
Bottom Line
What a great buy! I received exactly the options I wanted, quality is great, customer service is awesome and the price of USD $250 is more than acceptable. This is the cheapest sword I bought so far and the overall package is so much better than the Chikara or the Kagetoraken. Very happy! I will be buying another sword from Hanbon (swordmaker688).
Hope this helps and if you got any questions please let me know!
Cheers