Ronin Katana 2016 Scratch and Dent sale Dojo Elite #11
Apr 2, 2016 13:30:09 GMT
Post by Bushido on Apr 2, 2016 13:30:09 GMT
Review number two out of three guys!
Note: This is the second of my three Ronin Elite reviews, and as these swords were sent to me in one single shipment and all come from the same line and company the introduction, historical overview, disclosure and part of the initial impressions (regarding shipping and handling) will basically be the same as in my first review (the bare blade one). So if you've already read that, skip right on down to the third paragraph of the initial impressions section!
Introduction:
I've been a fan of Ronin Katana for a long while, ever since the "Good old days" on the forum when I first read Marc Kaden Ridgeways review of a Ronin Elite have I wanted one for myself. Unfortunately, being a student on a fixed low income doesn't really allow for spontaneous sword shopping extravaganzas so the dream of an Elite had to remain a dream... Now though, fresh out of school, got a job with a decent pay and all of it just so happens to coincide with the annual Ronin Scratch and Dent sale... Too good of an opportunity to pass up, if I were a superstitious man I would almost call it fate! And since I've been without an Elite for so long, I thought it best to properly compensate by getting three of them! I almost got four since i had trouble choosing between the designs and since the prices are oh so very tempting, but at the last moment I managed to regain some amount of sense and I settled on two fully dressed Elites and a bare blade. So here is the second of my three Ronin Elite reviews, featuring the Dragon themed katana! I hope you'll like it!
Historical overview:
The Japanese Katana is off course well known in the sword society. Not only because it was the weapon of the noble Samurai, but also because it embodies the pinnacle of metallurgical perfection and craftsmanship. It is a case in point when it comes to making the best use of whatever means you have available, and I'll tell you why:
Japan was poor when it came to natural resources such as iron ore, so instead the smiths turned to iron sand for their sword materials. Iron sand however has a very low carbon content and has to be smelted in a large coal fired furnace known as Tatara in order to imbue it with enough carbon to make it into a usable sword steel. The fire in these furnaces raged for days, and the master smelter had to stay awake for the entire procedure to oversee the process and add fuel and iron sand to the flame until at last is formed in the bottom of the furnace a large lump of steel known as Tamahagane. At this stage the large lump of steel it has a varying and unevenly distributed carbon content, and to solve this problem the smiths had to test small pieces of steel one by one, parting it up into small piles of steel with little or more carbon content until finally they can mix enough pieces of steel and forge it into a billet with a suitable overall carbon content. The billet is then drawn out, folded and forge welded back together over and over until the carbon has been more or less evenly distributed throughout the billet. Only then have you achieved a piece of steel which is actually suited to be forged into a sword. But that's not all! Instead of making just one uniform billet into a sword, some smiths would repeat that process of handpicking pieces of steel all over again and forge several more billets out of pieces of steel with either higher or lower carbon content than the first one to form uniform billets of tailored carbon content to be used in complex lamination techniques. That way they could make a blade with more or less carbon in different areas of the blade to best suit that individual areas intended use (IE more carbon in the edge to make it harder and have better edge retaining capabilities, and less carbon in the sword core to make it more flexible and less prone to breaking). It's no wonder katanas are surrounded by a certain kind of mysticism, considering how much work goes into the process of making one. The process I have just described only covers the procuring of the base materials necessary. After that comes the creation of the sword itself...
Suffice to say the creation of a katana from beginning to end is a very long and complicated process demanding both skill, experience and tenacity from both the master smelter, the swordsmith and the polisher and they all had to lay their very heart and sould into every single sword made. The final result was nothing short of astonishing considering the crap materials they started out with... They really took whatever they had at hand, and made the very best they could out of it.
The Ronin Katana Elite line utilizes modern materials rather than traditional iron sand, but the forging is made with that same traditional forge lamination method the japanese invented to create swords with exactly the right properties where they are needed. The lamination process used by Ronin Katana is known as Soshu Kitae, or seven panel steel lamination, and was invented and perfected by the legendary swordsmith Masamune, who combined seven pieces of steel with varying carbon content into a single sword in order to tailor the properties of various parts of the blade to best suit its intended use. The core of the swords is made from softer and more flexible steel with lower carbon content in order to absorb shocks and maintain flexibility to prevent the sword from breaking under stress, while the edge, sides and back of the blade is made from harder steel with higher carbon cointent in order to add durability and keep a sharp hard edge. Like I said, a great example of doing the best with what you have...
Ronin Katanas are forged in the Doutanuki style, which means they are a bit wider and thicker and have more niku (a meatier edge) compared to other katana, making them into brutal heavy duty performance cleavers with lots of cutting presence. They were made for one thing and one thing only: Battle toughness. They were intended to be sturdy, sharp and reliable, and meant survive the harsh conditions of ongoing fighting for as long as possible and continue to perform during the entire battle no matter what. They are literally like the Juggernaut of katana, once they build momentum they stop at nothing and just cleave straight through the target!
I like to think of the Ronin Elite line as a modern incarnation of a historical mindset of traditional swordsmiths. The materials and tools may be modern, but the mentality remains true to tradition. They utilize modern means to manufacture traditional complex lamination techniques and forge traditionally tough doutanuki style swords in order to provide the sword community with affordable pieces of quality equipment rich in both heritage and performance. They may not be a 100% historically accurate, as i said they use modern materials and tools, they have two mekugi pins instead of one as would have been historically accurate... But these are not made to be exact historical replicas, they are made to be performance swords. And modern steel and double mekugi pins for added safety just add to that! And with that in mind I still think they make a pretty good job of using a traditional mindset in a modern industry. You get both a piece of history and a piece of modern performance! How they can manufacture such complex swords while retaining affordability is impressive to say the least if you ask me, and then consider the fact that they sell these scratched and dented pieces at half of that already affordable price... The value for money should by all logic be simply astonishing, am I right? Well, that's what we're here to find out!
Full Disclosure:
I bought this sword at the annual Ronin Katana Scratch and Dent sale at half of the normal retail price expecting it to be somewhat flawed. I paid for it using my own money, and I am in no way affiliated with the Ronin Katana sword company. I have however bought a scratch and dent Ronin Dojo Pro at a previous S&D sale and I had a very good buying experience that time so I'd be lying if i said I didn't have high hopes for this sword as well. I like my Dojo Pro katana very much, and I have read a lot of positive Elite reviews which may have raised my expectations slightly. But that's about as biased as this review can get, I get no personal gain from writing it but I do it simply because I want to show you guys what you can expect when buying from the Ronin S&D sale!
Enough talk, here we go!
Initial Impressions:
I dunno if it is Daniel or Chris who is actually hands on responsible for keeping things running and handling orders over at Ronin Katana nowadays, but whoever handled mine has my deepest gratitude for doing me a huge personal favor without me even asking for it and without any obligation to do so. Let's just say it has to do with me being an overseas buyer and leave it at that, but that was a very positive initial impression right there I tell ya!
The swords were shipped to me in a large brown box, and inside of that box were three smaller boxes. Contained in these smaller boxes, suspended in U-shaped styrofoam pieces, were the swords, each wrapped in a sword bag. The smaller boxes had quite a bit of wiggle room inside the larger box and could easily slide back and forth in there, so perhaps there could have been a bit more packing material to fill the void just to be on the safe side. It may however be that the swedish customs department is responsible for the lack of extra packing material since they had opened the package upon arrival, but the box didn't look like it had taken a lot of abuse anyhow so in the end it doesn't really matter. Everything got here safe and sound. Just thought I'd mention it.
When I opened up the small box containing the Dragon themed Katana I was pleasantly surprised to see this very nice silk sword bag. I honestly wasn't expecting that, I thought since this is a scratch and dent item it would be no frills or extras... To to find this very nice high quality sword bag included was a very nice surprise!
Opening up the sword bag we find the sword itself. My initial impression of this sword is that things are looking very good... Nice and shiny black lacquered saya with no dings or scratches, nicely cast dragon tsuba, fuchi and kashira, tight alternating ito, no rattling at all when I shake it... Very impressed so far! Unsheathing the blade we find thius beautifully active genuine hamon, nice and crisp lines with geometric yokote, the blade is nice and straight... Little tiny spec of surface rust on the blade and some minor scratches towards the kissaki, but no nicks or chips as far as the eye can see, Habaki fits great around the blade... Man, the guys at Ronin sure are tough when it comes to quality control... So far all I've managed to uncover are some minor cosmetical flaws, and for that I got this extremely well made complex sword at half the normal retail price. That is kind of insane. It all seems very promising so far... Let's move on for now.
Statistics and specifications:
Blade/Nagasa Length: ca 725mm
Blade/Nagasa width: 32mm at the habaki, 24mm just prior the kissaki.
Blade/Nagasa thickness: 7.5mm at the habaki, 6mm just prior the kissaki.
Handle/Tsuka Length: ca 268mm
Overall Length: ca 1002mm (1055 with saya)
Guard/Tsuba Width: ca 80mm.
Guard/Tsuba thickness: 5.5mm.
POB (Point of Balance): ca 130mm from the tsuba.
Sori (spine curvature height): Hard to say since I haven't dissassembled the sword and can't meassure exactly from the end of the nakago, but I've made a rough estimated meassurement of about 31mm based on the location of the rear mekugi and guessing where the nakago ends inside the tsuka...
Weight: ca 1220g (not including saya).
Components:
The Blade/Nagasa
I figure the main thing (pretty much) about a Ronin Katana is that almost mythical Soshu Kitae seven panel laminated blade. I may not be an expert, I don't have a huge amount of experience when it comes to swords so I may not be the guy to go to if you want to know what is truly good and what is not. But I think I know enough to point out a quality blade from among some lower quality ones, and I think this is a quality blade. The lines are sharp and crisp, the kissaki geometry is genuine and prominent witch wide shoulders and proper geometric yokote rather than a cross polished kissake, the hamon, which is in the gunome style (wave pattern), is very genuine and vivid and it really pops out even in low light, and if you look close you can see traces of the lamination lines along the edge where the steels of varying carbon content meet. When I bought this sword I bought it as Scratched and dented. I expected it to have flaws, as Ronin Katana specifically state that you should expect nicks, dings, chips, scratches and rust. So I had my mind set on a blade that might in the worst case scenario even be chipped, and I was ok with that seeing as the price is as low as it is. Worst case scenario it would still be a nice beater. Yet all I've found as far as blade flaws goes is a small spot of very shallow surface rust, and some minor scratches in the polish here and there. That's it. This is not a beater, this is still a really nice sword. The blade is straight and true, the edge is paper cutting sharp along the major portion of the blade (the innermost decimeter closest to the habaki is not), the geometry is stunning, the Hamon is breathtaking... This is a fully functional (and easily fixable as far as cosmetical flaws go) complexely laminated blade with genuine hamon and geometric yokote made by a master craftsman, and I paid $450 for it. Just look at it. What a beauty.
Note: This is the second of my three Ronin Elite reviews, and as these swords were sent to me in one single shipment and all come from the same line and company the introduction, historical overview, disclosure and part of the initial impressions (regarding shipping and handling) will basically be the same as in my first review (the bare blade one). So if you've already read that, skip right on down to the third paragraph of the initial impressions section!
Introduction:
I've been a fan of Ronin Katana for a long while, ever since the "Good old days" on the forum when I first read Marc Kaden Ridgeways review of a Ronin Elite have I wanted one for myself. Unfortunately, being a student on a fixed low income doesn't really allow for spontaneous sword shopping extravaganzas so the dream of an Elite had to remain a dream... Now though, fresh out of school, got a job with a decent pay and all of it just so happens to coincide with the annual Ronin Scratch and Dent sale... Too good of an opportunity to pass up, if I were a superstitious man I would almost call it fate! And since I've been without an Elite for so long, I thought it best to properly compensate by getting three of them! I almost got four since i had trouble choosing between the designs and since the prices are oh so very tempting, but at the last moment I managed to regain some amount of sense and I settled on two fully dressed Elites and a bare blade. So here is the second of my three Ronin Elite reviews, featuring the Dragon themed katana! I hope you'll like it!
Historical overview:
The Japanese Katana is off course well known in the sword society. Not only because it was the weapon of the noble Samurai, but also because it embodies the pinnacle of metallurgical perfection and craftsmanship. It is a case in point when it comes to making the best use of whatever means you have available, and I'll tell you why:
Japan was poor when it came to natural resources such as iron ore, so instead the smiths turned to iron sand for their sword materials. Iron sand however has a very low carbon content and has to be smelted in a large coal fired furnace known as Tatara in order to imbue it with enough carbon to make it into a usable sword steel. The fire in these furnaces raged for days, and the master smelter had to stay awake for the entire procedure to oversee the process and add fuel and iron sand to the flame until at last is formed in the bottom of the furnace a large lump of steel known as Tamahagane. At this stage the large lump of steel it has a varying and unevenly distributed carbon content, and to solve this problem the smiths had to test small pieces of steel one by one, parting it up into small piles of steel with little or more carbon content until finally they can mix enough pieces of steel and forge it into a billet with a suitable overall carbon content. The billet is then drawn out, folded and forge welded back together over and over until the carbon has been more or less evenly distributed throughout the billet. Only then have you achieved a piece of steel which is actually suited to be forged into a sword. But that's not all! Instead of making just one uniform billet into a sword, some smiths would repeat that process of handpicking pieces of steel all over again and forge several more billets out of pieces of steel with either higher or lower carbon content than the first one to form uniform billets of tailored carbon content to be used in complex lamination techniques. That way they could make a blade with more or less carbon in different areas of the blade to best suit that individual areas intended use (IE more carbon in the edge to make it harder and have better edge retaining capabilities, and less carbon in the sword core to make it more flexible and less prone to breaking). It's no wonder katanas are surrounded by a certain kind of mysticism, considering how much work goes into the process of making one. The process I have just described only covers the procuring of the base materials necessary. After that comes the creation of the sword itself...
Suffice to say the creation of a katana from beginning to end is a very long and complicated process demanding both skill, experience and tenacity from both the master smelter, the swordsmith and the polisher and they all had to lay their very heart and sould into every single sword made. The final result was nothing short of astonishing considering the crap materials they started out with... They really took whatever they had at hand, and made the very best they could out of it.
The Ronin Katana Elite line utilizes modern materials rather than traditional iron sand, but the forging is made with that same traditional forge lamination method the japanese invented to create swords with exactly the right properties where they are needed. The lamination process used by Ronin Katana is known as Soshu Kitae, or seven panel steel lamination, and was invented and perfected by the legendary swordsmith Masamune, who combined seven pieces of steel with varying carbon content into a single sword in order to tailor the properties of various parts of the blade to best suit its intended use. The core of the swords is made from softer and more flexible steel with lower carbon content in order to absorb shocks and maintain flexibility to prevent the sword from breaking under stress, while the edge, sides and back of the blade is made from harder steel with higher carbon cointent in order to add durability and keep a sharp hard edge. Like I said, a great example of doing the best with what you have...
Ronin Katanas are forged in the Doutanuki style, which means they are a bit wider and thicker and have more niku (a meatier edge) compared to other katana, making them into brutal heavy duty performance cleavers with lots of cutting presence. They were made for one thing and one thing only: Battle toughness. They were intended to be sturdy, sharp and reliable, and meant survive the harsh conditions of ongoing fighting for as long as possible and continue to perform during the entire battle no matter what. They are literally like the Juggernaut of katana, once they build momentum they stop at nothing and just cleave straight through the target!
I like to think of the Ronin Elite line as a modern incarnation of a historical mindset of traditional swordsmiths. The materials and tools may be modern, but the mentality remains true to tradition. They utilize modern means to manufacture traditional complex lamination techniques and forge traditionally tough doutanuki style swords in order to provide the sword community with affordable pieces of quality equipment rich in both heritage and performance. They may not be a 100% historically accurate, as i said they use modern materials and tools, they have two mekugi pins instead of one as would have been historically accurate... But these are not made to be exact historical replicas, they are made to be performance swords. And modern steel and double mekugi pins for added safety just add to that! And with that in mind I still think they make a pretty good job of using a traditional mindset in a modern industry. You get both a piece of history and a piece of modern performance! How they can manufacture such complex swords while retaining affordability is impressive to say the least if you ask me, and then consider the fact that they sell these scratched and dented pieces at half of that already affordable price... The value for money should by all logic be simply astonishing, am I right? Well, that's what we're here to find out!
Full Disclosure:
I bought this sword at the annual Ronin Katana Scratch and Dent sale at half of the normal retail price expecting it to be somewhat flawed. I paid for it using my own money, and I am in no way affiliated with the Ronin Katana sword company. I have however bought a scratch and dent Ronin Dojo Pro at a previous S&D sale and I had a very good buying experience that time so I'd be lying if i said I didn't have high hopes for this sword as well. I like my Dojo Pro katana very much, and I have read a lot of positive Elite reviews which may have raised my expectations slightly. But that's about as biased as this review can get, I get no personal gain from writing it but I do it simply because I want to show you guys what you can expect when buying from the Ronin S&D sale!
Enough talk, here we go!
Initial Impressions:
I dunno if it is Daniel or Chris who is actually hands on responsible for keeping things running and handling orders over at Ronin Katana nowadays, but whoever handled mine has my deepest gratitude for doing me a huge personal favor without me even asking for it and without any obligation to do so. Let's just say it has to do with me being an overseas buyer and leave it at that, but that was a very positive initial impression right there I tell ya!
The swords were shipped to me in a large brown box, and inside of that box were three smaller boxes. Contained in these smaller boxes, suspended in U-shaped styrofoam pieces, were the swords, each wrapped in a sword bag. The smaller boxes had quite a bit of wiggle room inside the larger box and could easily slide back and forth in there, so perhaps there could have been a bit more packing material to fill the void just to be on the safe side. It may however be that the swedish customs department is responsible for the lack of extra packing material since they had opened the package upon arrival, but the box didn't look like it had taken a lot of abuse anyhow so in the end it doesn't really matter. Everything got here safe and sound. Just thought I'd mention it.
When I opened up the small box containing the Dragon themed Katana I was pleasantly surprised to see this very nice silk sword bag. I honestly wasn't expecting that, I thought since this is a scratch and dent item it would be no frills or extras... To to find this very nice high quality sword bag included was a very nice surprise!
Opening up the sword bag we find the sword itself. My initial impression of this sword is that things are looking very good... Nice and shiny black lacquered saya with no dings or scratches, nicely cast dragon tsuba, fuchi and kashira, tight alternating ito, no rattling at all when I shake it... Very impressed so far! Unsheathing the blade we find thius beautifully active genuine hamon, nice and crisp lines with geometric yokote, the blade is nice and straight... Little tiny spec of surface rust on the blade and some minor scratches towards the kissaki, but no nicks or chips as far as the eye can see, Habaki fits great around the blade... Man, the guys at Ronin sure are tough when it comes to quality control... So far all I've managed to uncover are some minor cosmetical flaws, and for that I got this extremely well made complex sword at half the normal retail price. That is kind of insane. It all seems very promising so far... Let's move on for now.
Statistics and specifications:
Blade/Nagasa Length: ca 725mm
Blade/Nagasa width: 32mm at the habaki, 24mm just prior the kissaki.
Blade/Nagasa thickness: 7.5mm at the habaki, 6mm just prior the kissaki.
Handle/Tsuka Length: ca 268mm
Overall Length: ca 1002mm (1055 with saya)
Guard/Tsuba Width: ca 80mm.
Guard/Tsuba thickness: 5.5mm.
POB (Point of Balance): ca 130mm from the tsuba.
Sori (spine curvature height): Hard to say since I haven't dissassembled the sword and can't meassure exactly from the end of the nakago, but I've made a rough estimated meassurement of about 31mm based on the location of the rear mekugi and guessing where the nakago ends inside the tsuka...
Weight: ca 1220g (not including saya).
Components:
The Blade/Nagasa
I figure the main thing (pretty much) about a Ronin Katana is that almost mythical Soshu Kitae seven panel laminated blade. I may not be an expert, I don't have a huge amount of experience when it comes to swords so I may not be the guy to go to if you want to know what is truly good and what is not. But I think I know enough to point out a quality blade from among some lower quality ones, and I think this is a quality blade. The lines are sharp and crisp, the kissaki geometry is genuine and prominent witch wide shoulders and proper geometric yokote rather than a cross polished kissake, the hamon, which is in the gunome style (wave pattern), is very genuine and vivid and it really pops out even in low light, and if you look close you can see traces of the lamination lines along the edge where the steels of varying carbon content meet. When I bought this sword I bought it as Scratched and dented. I expected it to have flaws, as Ronin Katana specifically state that you should expect nicks, dings, chips, scratches and rust. So I had my mind set on a blade that might in the worst case scenario even be chipped, and I was ok with that seeing as the price is as low as it is. Worst case scenario it would still be a nice beater. Yet all I've found as far as blade flaws goes is a small spot of very shallow surface rust, and some minor scratches in the polish here and there. That's it. This is not a beater, this is still a really nice sword. The blade is straight and true, the edge is paper cutting sharp along the major portion of the blade (the innermost decimeter closest to the habaki is not), the geometry is stunning, the Hamon is breathtaking... This is a fully functional (and easily fixable as far as cosmetical flaws go) complexely laminated blade with genuine hamon and geometric yokote made by a master craftsman, and I paid $450 for it. Just look at it. What a beauty.