Miao Dao!

Very, very nice. Will you be producing these, or was this just an experimental thing?

Yum.

I can produce them. But there are certain complications as you will see below.

They are slightly different from katana.

The balance is different
That thing has a 38" blade

Big swords are hard to ship. However custom orders are welcome as cost isn't as big an issue! I could always shorten it slightly but even then they are too big for many countries.

I still will add one to my personal collection at some point though

Short of the HUGE SWORD bit, what other complications would a production run present? I can't tell if it's some trick of the light or oil or what have you, but that blade looks to be folded and differentially hardened. Is this so?

You mention the balance differs from a katana; I imagine with a blade some 10" longer on average that it would. But is it farther down, or do the double fullers and perhaps a longer...hilt (calling it a tsuka would probably be a no-no in this case, but I don't know the appropriate term for this type of sword) actually balance it closer? 38" is something I might be able to get into.

But the question is, IF you were to produce them, what would be the cost? Any idea? Otherwise, any estimates on what ONE would run?

Random just use English terms. I don't scare away beginners with terminology seeing as noone really is familiar with Chinese terms anyway. English terms will more than suffice.

Well the Chinese almost always fullered their dao and had more distal taper than the katana. The result is a sword balancing closer to the hilt than their Japanese counterparts.

The Chinese mostly did not use differential hardening after the Tang Dynasty. After which it was exported and became all the rage in Japan. DH did come up in China a bit but wasn't as popular as in Japan.

This sword was done in san mei lamination and what you see is the folded sides of the sandwich and the hardened center plate protruding from between the cheeks

If I were to do production it would be probably in the $400 range for a monosteel.

A custom exactly like this would run somewhere in the neighborhood of 800-900 big ones.

Ah, san mai. Just as good, I guess. Pretty, anyway.

A balance point close to the hilt would probably be best for a behemoth like this, at lease I imagine I'd personally be more comfortable. $400 is more than I'm willing to put out for a monosteel, granting even the sheer size of the thing, but 8-900 for an exact duplicate seems quite reasonable. Hmm...

well the PoB isn't close to hilt. just not as far down as say Japanese nodachi.

lol ok here's a more accurate measurement. I'd place the PoB somewhere around 5" from the guard.

A somewhat lower quality miao dao in action. I like how he shakes it at the beginning to show everyone its not a wushu blade LOL.