$219 Huawei folded 1085/T10 budget katana with modifications
Jan 27, 2015 0:34:40 GMT
Post by Robert in California on Jan 27, 2015 0:34:40 GMT
Sword Review: Huawei Folded 1085/T10 Budget Plus Katana:
by Robert in California
January 2015
INTRODUCTION:
Huawei is one of the top China production sword makers.
Huawei swords are available through their Ebay shop:
stores.ebay.com/huaweiswords?_trksid=p2047675.l2563
Even their budget swords are the equivalent of other makers' better swords.
Recently I asked Ebay sword seller Huawei about their $219usa "budget" folded 1085/T10 katana (below):
www.ebay.com/itm/Handmade-Clay-Folded-steel-Blade-mokko-tsuba-Shinken-Katana-Japanese-Sword-/281219458775?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4179fc66d7
It looked good in the pictures on the Huawei site. And Huawei sword reviews here at Sword Buyers Guide have been positive.
I asked for the above model but with a wide hamon blade...just because I had narrow hamon and medium width hamon swords, but I had no wide hamon katanas.
But Huawei did not have any extra wide hamon blades in stock for that model, so I waited.
I did not realize at the time that Huawei would be willing to make me a blade to order.
About a week later, Huawei (jacky) said they would make me a wide suguha blade in folded 1085/T10.
Here is what I also asked for.
The above $219 sword but with a wide suguha (straight) hamon and:
(1) full samegawa (ray skin) tsuka wrap of white/raw/fresh rayskin
(2) black tsukaito
(3) black sageo
(4) genuine buffalo horn saya (scabbard) furniture (koguchi, kojiri and kurikata)
(5) iron sword furniture (fuchi, kashira and tsuba)
(6) brass menuki
(7) one mekugi
After a few weeks, Huawei sent me some blade pictures for my approval:
Here are some pics of the folded 1085/T10 wide suguha Huawei blade:
Nice blade, I told Jacky it looked fine and to add the furniture.
Here is the iron furniture. The tsuba strongly stuck to my magnet. The fuchi and kashira less strongly...a bit weakly in fact.
And when the black paint wore off a little, the metal underneath had a yellowish tint.
Cost for the sword with all the extras came to about $285usa including shipping, which was about 465 yuan.
In about a week after that, the sword box arrived by USPS and I picked it up at my local Post Office.
FULL DISCLOSURE:
I paid Huawei the ask and was just another customer as far as Huawei was concerned. No favors asked nor given.
HISTORY:
Originally, Japan looked to China for swords. And Chinese swordsmiths came to Japan to produce and teach. And
Japan began to produce its own swords. The early Japanese swords were straight blades. Later, curved blades.
And Japanese swordsmiths increased in number and skill...until the late 1800's, during the time of the Meiji Restoration,
when the Emperor dissolved the Samurai as a class and banned the carrying of swords ("sword control") and the
long history of the Samurai and their swords came to an end. And Japan lost a unique part of its culture that it never got back.
A brand new, newly forged katana production blade has no history, compared to an antique Samurai sword (nihonto).
Nihonto are Samurai swords made in Japan. The average, good condition nihonto is a quality sword, but quite expensive.
For us mere mortals, too expensive.
And even those of us who have a nihonto, a nihonto for backyard cutting is not a good choice.
Better a more affordable katana from one of China's swordmakers. Longquan, China is a past and present location
for many swordsmiths and sword factories. Sword factories being something Japan lacks due to archaic laws forbidding
such. Demand for katanas, wakizashis, tantos and traditional Chinese sword designs being greater now, Chinese
sword makers saw the opportunity and unlike Japan, seized the opportunity.
Today, there are probably more katanas, wakizashis and tantos produced in the city of Longquan alone, than are produced in all of Japan.
China-made swords come in a wide range of quality and workmanship levels and thus also in price.
The buyer must understand that like all else in life, quality costs.
Happily, Huawei is a Chinese swordmaker who gives a lot of quality for the price.
I regard Huawei as one of the top China swordmakers. Whoever are their swordsmiths, are above average in skill.
Huawei probably has a Master Smith, or if not, close to it.
INITIAL IMPRESSIONS:
Opening the box, the sword was plastic wrapped.
Removing the plastic wrap from the tsuka and saya (and blade), there was a very nice sword.
The sword came in a cotton sword bag of medium thickness (two layers...off white inside cloth and dark w/designs outer cloth):
The saya was gloss black painted, flawlessly done and saya furniture was actual buffalo horn per my request.
The sageo was black synthetic silk as far as I can tell.
The buffalo horn kurigata (default on the $219 is painted wood but Jacky changed the kurigata to buffalo horn for me).
Buffalo horn kojiri.
Buffalo horn koguichi.
All put together with excellent fit and finish.
On to the sword fittings.
The mildly magnetic, black painted kashira.
The mildly magnetic black painted fuchi. (that is me with a small but very strong magnet showing that the fuchi can be picked
up with a magnet (but unlike the tsuba, the fuchi and kashira stick to the magnet weakly).
The brass habaki.
The strongly magnetic iron tsuba.
The brass seppa. These seppa were different from the seppa on my non-Huawei swords in that these Huawei seppa were actually fitted to the nakago. Instead of being a loose "one size fits all" seppa like on my non-Huawei swords.
And the brass menuki. Note the alternating ito wrap.
The tsuka was, per my request, full samegawa wrap instead of panels. Removing the fuchi, the tsuka wood can be seen.
No cracks. Nice workmanship. Good fit.
This Huawei katana is a clear step above the basic Longquan budget sword, despite being Huawei's "budget" clay-tempered katana entry.
The $219usa off-the-shelf version comes with aluminum sword furniture and non-buffalo horn saya furniture to reduce the selling price,
and a non-hazuya blade polish, but Huawei seems unable to bite the budget bullet and produce a budget blade.
The blade is excellent. Shape, consistency, hamon, polish...all very good indeed!
Fit and finish of even this budget model is above the norm. Huawei does not seem to have the ability
to produce other than quality swords. And the feel of the sword in my hand is like it is an extension of my arm. Light,
lively, fast yet enough weight to be a good cutter. Best balance of any of my swords.
STATISTICS:
Length: sword + saya: 41 1/4 inches (104.8 cm)
Length: saya: 30 inches (76.2 cm)
Diameter of round-shape iron tsuba: 3 inches (7.62 cm)
Length: sword: 39 3/4 inches (101 cm)
Length: blade: 27 15/16 inches (71 cm) (muni-machi to tip of kissaki--length of edged portion of blade)
Length: tsuka: 10 3/4 inches (27.3 cm)
Width (top to bottom): saya: 1 5/8 inches (4.1 cm)
width (top to bottom): tsuka (with ito): near fuchi: 1 1/2 inch (3.8 cm) near kashira: 1 1/4 inch (3.2 cm)
Width: (side to side): tsuka w/ito: 3/4 inch (1.9 cm)
Width: blade near habaki: 1.2 inches (3 cm)
Width: blade at mid-blade: 1 inch (2.6 cm)
Width: blade at yokote: 0.91 inch (2.3 cm) (start of kissaki)
Thickness of blade: near habaki: 0.26 inch (6 1/2 mm)
Thickness of blade: mid-blade: 0.20 inch (5 mm)
Thickness of blade: near kissaki: 0.16 inch (4 mm)
Sori: 0.75 inch (1.9 cm)
Length of kissaki: 1 1/2 inch (3.8 cm)
shinogi-ji width at habaki: 0.43 inch (11 mm)
shinogi-ji width mid blade: 0.35 inch (9 mm)
shinogi-ji width at start of kissaki: 0.32 inch (8 mm)
weight of sword: 2.1 pounds (0.95 kg)
weight of sword + saya: 2.7 pounds (1.2 kg)
FEEL OF THE SWORD:
This Huawei folded 1085/T10 katana feels a little lighter than what I would call a medium weight katana.
It handles quick and light, a nimble sword.
Yet with enough weight to it to be a decent cutter.
But it feels more like a skilled swordsman's katana....a formidable sword in skilled hands.
Not a heavy mat cutter.
In European sword terms, more like an effective saber than a heavy long sword.
It feels good in the hand.
Heavy enough to hit hard.
Light enough to not be quickly tiring.
Sort of an upper class sword.
Too nice to take to a street brawl.
More of a dueling sword.
CUTTING PERFORMANCE:
This Huawei katana is razor sharp.
Slices paper up and down the blade.
PRO/CON AND NITPICKS:
PRO:
High quality blade and outstanding fit and finish of furniture.
Sword feels quick and nimble in the hand.
Tsuka is oval, tapered, has a slight curve to it and feels good in the hand.
Flawless thick, high gloss, black paint saya paint job.
Tightest tsukaito wrap I have ever come across. So tight, pushing on the side of the ito wraps with my finger, does not move the ito even the slightest. Super tight! Amazing!
Nakago to tsuka fit is excellent.
Sword snug in saya....I can hold it upside down without the sword falling out, but only very modest pressure is needed to break the koguichi's grip on the habaki. Also, the blade to saya fit is good....precision carved and no blade-in-saya rattle.
Tsuka is nicely tapered and fairly slender in cross section. No baseball bat club-like tuska here! This tsuka is, like the blade, slender and pleasing.
CON:
Mekugi ana (hole in the nakago) was not completely smoothed. Small bit of steel splinter protruding on one side.
Tsuba had a slight amount of play that I had to make a thin seppa to correct.
I had asked for one mekugi but got two.
Everything is so flawlessly done, I hate to use it.
SUMMARY:
There are various Longquan and other Chinese location sword makers.
Hanwei perhaps the biggest and best known.
Huawei is smaller, but the quality keeps improving.
Obviously some very skilled swordsmiths work for Huawei.
And for a buyer-specs custom blade, Huawei is THE go-to smith.
RinC
2015
by Robert in California
January 2015
INTRODUCTION:
Huawei is one of the top China production sword makers.
Huawei swords are available through their Ebay shop:
stores.ebay.com/huaweiswords?_trksid=p2047675.l2563
Even their budget swords are the equivalent of other makers' better swords.
Recently I asked Ebay sword seller Huawei about their $219usa "budget" folded 1085/T10 katana (below):
www.ebay.com/itm/Handmade-Clay-Folded-steel-Blade-mokko-tsuba-Shinken-Katana-Japanese-Sword-/281219458775?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4179fc66d7
It looked good in the pictures on the Huawei site. And Huawei sword reviews here at Sword Buyers Guide have been positive.
I asked for the above model but with a wide hamon blade...just because I had narrow hamon and medium width hamon swords, but I had no wide hamon katanas.
But Huawei did not have any extra wide hamon blades in stock for that model, so I waited.
I did not realize at the time that Huawei would be willing to make me a blade to order.
About a week later, Huawei (jacky) said they would make me a wide suguha blade in folded 1085/T10.
Here is what I also asked for.
The above $219 sword but with a wide suguha (straight) hamon and:
(1) full samegawa (ray skin) tsuka wrap of white/raw/fresh rayskin
(2) black tsukaito
(3) black sageo
(4) genuine buffalo horn saya (scabbard) furniture (koguchi, kojiri and kurikata)
(5) iron sword furniture (fuchi, kashira and tsuba)
(6) brass menuki
(7) one mekugi
After a few weeks, Huawei sent me some blade pictures for my approval:
Here are some pics of the folded 1085/T10 wide suguha Huawei blade:
Nice blade, I told Jacky it looked fine and to add the furniture.
Here is the iron furniture. The tsuba strongly stuck to my magnet. The fuchi and kashira less strongly...a bit weakly in fact.
And when the black paint wore off a little, the metal underneath had a yellowish tint.
Cost for the sword with all the extras came to about $285usa including shipping, which was about 465 yuan.
In about a week after that, the sword box arrived by USPS and I picked it up at my local Post Office.
FULL DISCLOSURE:
I paid Huawei the ask and was just another customer as far as Huawei was concerned. No favors asked nor given.
HISTORY:
Originally, Japan looked to China for swords. And Chinese swordsmiths came to Japan to produce and teach. And
Japan began to produce its own swords. The early Japanese swords were straight blades. Later, curved blades.
And Japanese swordsmiths increased in number and skill...until the late 1800's, during the time of the Meiji Restoration,
when the Emperor dissolved the Samurai as a class and banned the carrying of swords ("sword control") and the
long history of the Samurai and their swords came to an end. And Japan lost a unique part of its culture that it never got back.
A brand new, newly forged katana production blade has no history, compared to an antique Samurai sword (nihonto).
Nihonto are Samurai swords made in Japan. The average, good condition nihonto is a quality sword, but quite expensive.
For us mere mortals, too expensive.
And even those of us who have a nihonto, a nihonto for backyard cutting is not a good choice.
Better a more affordable katana from one of China's swordmakers. Longquan, China is a past and present location
for many swordsmiths and sword factories. Sword factories being something Japan lacks due to archaic laws forbidding
such. Demand for katanas, wakizashis, tantos and traditional Chinese sword designs being greater now, Chinese
sword makers saw the opportunity and unlike Japan, seized the opportunity.
Today, there are probably more katanas, wakizashis and tantos produced in the city of Longquan alone, than are produced in all of Japan.
China-made swords come in a wide range of quality and workmanship levels and thus also in price.
The buyer must understand that like all else in life, quality costs.
Happily, Huawei is a Chinese swordmaker who gives a lot of quality for the price.
I regard Huawei as one of the top China swordmakers. Whoever are their swordsmiths, are above average in skill.
Huawei probably has a Master Smith, or if not, close to it.
INITIAL IMPRESSIONS:
Opening the box, the sword was plastic wrapped.
Removing the plastic wrap from the tsuka and saya (and blade), there was a very nice sword.
The sword came in a cotton sword bag of medium thickness (two layers...off white inside cloth and dark w/designs outer cloth):
The saya was gloss black painted, flawlessly done and saya furniture was actual buffalo horn per my request.
The sageo was black synthetic silk as far as I can tell.
The buffalo horn kurigata (default on the $219 is painted wood but Jacky changed the kurigata to buffalo horn for me).
Buffalo horn kojiri.
Buffalo horn koguichi.
All put together with excellent fit and finish.
On to the sword fittings.
The mildly magnetic, black painted kashira.
The mildly magnetic black painted fuchi. (that is me with a small but very strong magnet showing that the fuchi can be picked
up with a magnet (but unlike the tsuba, the fuchi and kashira stick to the magnet weakly).
The brass habaki.
The strongly magnetic iron tsuba.
The brass seppa. These seppa were different from the seppa on my non-Huawei swords in that these Huawei seppa were actually fitted to the nakago. Instead of being a loose "one size fits all" seppa like on my non-Huawei swords.
And the brass menuki. Note the alternating ito wrap.
The tsuka was, per my request, full samegawa wrap instead of panels. Removing the fuchi, the tsuka wood can be seen.
No cracks. Nice workmanship. Good fit.
This Huawei katana is a clear step above the basic Longquan budget sword, despite being Huawei's "budget" clay-tempered katana entry.
The $219usa off-the-shelf version comes with aluminum sword furniture and non-buffalo horn saya furniture to reduce the selling price,
and a non-hazuya blade polish, but Huawei seems unable to bite the budget bullet and produce a budget blade.
The blade is excellent. Shape, consistency, hamon, polish...all very good indeed!
Fit and finish of even this budget model is above the norm. Huawei does not seem to have the ability
to produce other than quality swords. And the feel of the sword in my hand is like it is an extension of my arm. Light,
lively, fast yet enough weight to be a good cutter. Best balance of any of my swords.
STATISTICS:
Length: sword + saya: 41 1/4 inches (104.8 cm)
Length: saya: 30 inches (76.2 cm)
Diameter of round-shape iron tsuba: 3 inches (7.62 cm)
Length: sword: 39 3/4 inches (101 cm)
Length: blade: 27 15/16 inches (71 cm) (muni-machi to tip of kissaki--length of edged portion of blade)
Length: tsuka: 10 3/4 inches (27.3 cm)
Width (top to bottom): saya: 1 5/8 inches (4.1 cm)
width (top to bottom): tsuka (with ito): near fuchi: 1 1/2 inch (3.8 cm) near kashira: 1 1/4 inch (3.2 cm)
Width: (side to side): tsuka w/ito: 3/4 inch (1.9 cm)
Width: blade near habaki: 1.2 inches (3 cm)
Width: blade at mid-blade: 1 inch (2.6 cm)
Width: blade at yokote: 0.91 inch (2.3 cm) (start of kissaki)
Thickness of blade: near habaki: 0.26 inch (6 1/2 mm)
Thickness of blade: mid-blade: 0.20 inch (5 mm)
Thickness of blade: near kissaki: 0.16 inch (4 mm)
Sori: 0.75 inch (1.9 cm)
Length of kissaki: 1 1/2 inch (3.8 cm)
shinogi-ji width at habaki: 0.43 inch (11 mm)
shinogi-ji width mid blade: 0.35 inch (9 mm)
shinogi-ji width at start of kissaki: 0.32 inch (8 mm)
weight of sword: 2.1 pounds (0.95 kg)
weight of sword + saya: 2.7 pounds (1.2 kg)
FEEL OF THE SWORD:
This Huawei folded 1085/T10 katana feels a little lighter than what I would call a medium weight katana.
It handles quick and light, a nimble sword.
Yet with enough weight to it to be a decent cutter.
But it feels more like a skilled swordsman's katana....a formidable sword in skilled hands.
Not a heavy mat cutter.
In European sword terms, more like an effective saber than a heavy long sword.
It feels good in the hand.
Heavy enough to hit hard.
Light enough to not be quickly tiring.
Sort of an upper class sword.
Too nice to take to a street brawl.
More of a dueling sword.
CUTTING PERFORMANCE:
This Huawei katana is razor sharp.
Slices paper up and down the blade.
PRO/CON AND NITPICKS:
PRO:
High quality blade and outstanding fit and finish of furniture.
Sword feels quick and nimble in the hand.
Tsuka is oval, tapered, has a slight curve to it and feels good in the hand.
Flawless thick, high gloss, black paint saya paint job.
Tightest tsukaito wrap I have ever come across. So tight, pushing on the side of the ito wraps with my finger, does not move the ito even the slightest. Super tight! Amazing!
Nakago to tsuka fit is excellent.
Sword snug in saya....I can hold it upside down without the sword falling out, but only very modest pressure is needed to break the koguichi's grip on the habaki. Also, the blade to saya fit is good....precision carved and no blade-in-saya rattle.
Tsuka is nicely tapered and fairly slender in cross section. No baseball bat club-like tuska here! This tsuka is, like the blade, slender and pleasing.
CON:
Mekugi ana (hole in the nakago) was not completely smoothed. Small bit of steel splinter protruding on one side.
Tsuba had a slight amount of play that I had to make a thin seppa to correct.
I had asked for one mekugi but got two.
Everything is so flawlessly done, I hate to use it.
SUMMARY:
There are various Longquan and other Chinese location sword makers.
Hanwei perhaps the biggest and best known.
Huawei is smaller, but the quality keeps improving.
Obviously some very skilled swordsmiths work for Huawei.
And for a buyer-specs custom blade, Huawei is THE go-to smith.
RinC
2015