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Post by Cottontail Customs on Dec 30, 2014 0:29:09 GMT
My point is why waist the cash and time on 10 different Ebay vendors who are all getting the same swords from the same sweat shop in Lonquan? Do you know this for sure or are you just speculating? After getting to see and handle many swords from many of the ebay sellers, I have noticed a lot of differences in quality of work and in price. I believe they do not all share the same forge but I don't know this for sure. I'll also state my opinion that I think there are many working on these swords that are above the "sweat shop" skill level. -Josh
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Post by Robert in California on Dec 30, 2014 1:03:48 GMT
I saw a cute saying, "The 90 percent of dishonest politicians make the remaining 10 percent look bad." ---- There is a need for "buyer beware" and I applaud Digs for his efforts to ferret out the good from the bad.
When he can prove it.
Did not prove it on the hon-sanmai since he proved a blade can be hon-sanmai with no core steel visible. Did prove it on the more recent sanmai...well done! Good job Digs! IMO, based on his admirable sanmai analysis, Dig's and his buddy are due a refund. The "sanmai" blade, to any reasonable observation, thanks to Dig's work, was not sanmai. But it was advertised as Sanmai and so IMO, a refund is due.
A danger of production shops that make some of their own blades but also buy blades from others to then re-sell is that the sub-contractor can send the retail sword shop blades that are not what they are supposed to be.
In the recent Sanmai Katana1980 katana case, it was pretty, and it was folded, but it was no Sanmai though advertised as such. I do know that Katana1980 makes some of their blades but not all....they do buy from other sources. And so "buyer beware" can apply to the blade buyers at Katana1980 as well.
I shall try to dig a bit and will share what I learn. A valuable purpose of SBG is to fact find...to the best of our abilities and share those findings with others. RinC
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Post by Robert in California on Dec 30, 2014 1:08:12 GMT
p.s. IMO Longquan production swords come in a wide range of qualities and levels of workmanship. So it is inaccurate to make sweeping generalizations. There is good, bad and indifferent....all being offered. The important thing buyers should expect is in accuracy of descriptions. RinC
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Post by Adrian Jordan on Dec 30, 2014 1:17:11 GMT
p.s. IMO Longquan production swords come in a wide range of qualities and levels of workmanship. So it is inaccurate to make sweeping generalizations. There is good, bad and indifferent....all being offered. The important thing buyers should expect is in accuracy of descriptions. RinC Those are my own thoughts exactly. The best we can do is point out vendors with a history of inaccurate/dishonest statements and/or poor business practices.
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Post by nddave on Dec 30, 2014 3:32:08 GMT
Well maybe I'm being too hard on Ebay but overall I'm not a big fan of doing business with China anyway so the above is more a personal opinion to avoid Ebay and the China direct vendors than anything.
I absolutely agree that if a few members are willing to try the less knows or shadier vendors for the sake of knowledge and reviews, more power to them. I just feel it's too much a risk for me or more budget buyers to run the Ebay gamut.
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Post by Robert in California on Dec 30, 2014 15:38:24 GMT
Ok, here is what I have so far found out re. the "sanmai" of Digs. I'll also post a response at Dig's "fake sanmai" thread as that is where the discussion of it would be best. ---- Katana1980 used to have swordsmiths of higher skill level. There was one smith good enough to make hon-sanmai but a bigger outfit offered him about 50% more money than Katana1980 was paying and so he left. Which ended Katana1980's hon-sanmai ability. ----- And some months back, Katana1980 also lost his most skilled remaining swordsmith. Currently, Katana1980's remaining swordsmiths are skilled enough for mono steel blades, but their sanmai blade making ability is such that for every two sanmai blades they made, one did not come out right so a 50% failure rate, but Katana1980 still had to pay the smiths for the time and effort, successful or not. So Katana1980 sub-contracted his sanmai blades out....recently bought a batch of 120 blades....(let me continue this now at Dig's "fake sanmai" thread...hopping over there now. RinC
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