Review: Iron Tiger Forge's Noble Plant Jian
Feb 21, 2017 1:50:25 GMT
Post by unlikely on Feb 21, 2017 1:50:25 GMT
Disclaimer: I am not formally trained in wielding a sword, so keep that in mind. The forms and cuts I used were performed on my rather poor understanding of a video on jian cuts from a surviving manual from the Ming dynasty.
Introduction
I saw this sword on Kult of Athena. At my tender age of 19 and having just gotten a job and been working for about a week, I thought I'd hop back on the sword train after being off of it since my mid-late teens. For the past three years I've found myself getting more and more into Chinese history, so I started looking at Chinese swords. And the Lord did grin. Because I looked on KoA and found this particular Jian $85 off the normal KoA price, and a further $40 off for a blemish. It has a nice blend of simplicity and elegance that I couldn't pass up.
Historical Overview
While I am no expert on Chinese weaponry, I guess I know a bit about the jian. Its basic form can be dated back to the Han dynasty (roughly a contemporary to Rome); at the time of its inception, it could have been made out of iron or bronze. It remained in Chinese culture up until the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911. It's worth noting that jian (pronounced jien), literally means "sword", so it is a slightly nebulous term, but generally it is specific to this particular form of sword. The other most common Chinese sword, the dao, literally means single-edged sword, so they can be differentiated. The jian traditionally featured a distal taper, with the area near the hilt to be the thickest and also unsharpened for parrying blows. This is a rough analogy, but it could be said that jian is to China as rapier is to Europe (**IN HOLLYWOOD CINEMA**, before you go tearing my walls down, I know that the rapier was not exclusively used by nobility. Just how it's portrayed in cinema ); it is the weapon of gentlemen and scholars.
A note about the design: The idea of the plum being a noble plant stems from Buddhism, and from what I can recall from my World Religions class last semester, it is synonymous with winter. According to the KoA description, it represents reaching humility through hardship, in this case the hardship being winter. It's a nice sentiment to be sure, but definitely a bit of a gimmick.
A note about the design: The idea of the plum being a noble plant stems from Buddhism, and from what I can recall from my World Religions class last semester, it is synonymous with winter. According to the KoA description, it represents reaching humility through hardship, in this case the hardship being winter. It's a nice sentiment to be sure, but definitely a bit of a gimmick.
Full Disclosure
In addition to the disclaimer at the beginning, keep in mind that this sword was from the blemish sale on KoA. The issues that is unique to it due to its somewhat rough shape will be discussed later. Otherwise, I'm just some dude that has a vague inkling about what he's doing. Carry on.
Initial Impressions
Came packed nice and tight from KoA. The sword box was in a faux silk bag, though it's quite pretty. I don't know if it's normal for the actual BOX to come in a bag, I've only ever heard of the sword itself being in a bag. The sword box is what I would consider Ikea-grade; it's nice to look at, but upon close inspection you can see its cheap construction. The box is definitely particle board, which I know because there is a part at a joint in the box where the epoxy seems to have failed somewhat and you can see that it is clearly particle board. I am too lazy to go back, take a picture of it, and upload it however. It's not a big deal and I'm not really upset by it. The box has gold foil which I can only assume provides the name of the sword in addition to the name of the forge (my understanding of Mandarin is very, very slim. What very little I know I've picked up from my historical readings), and it's a neato little touch. There is rust on one of the hinges, it's definitely cheap steel painted to look like brass. This, and the expanded wood, makes me believe that this box was left somewhere humid for too long, which is probably why it ended up in the blemish sale. Taken in at a distance however, you can't notice these little flaws and it is definitely presentable. It came with a basic sword care kit.
The sword itself, in its scabbard, looks excellent. Well, initially it had what looked like dried epoxy on the scabbard in a few places, but I got rid of that. Now that's done, and it looks really nice. Simple and elegant. I unsheath it, and my heart drops a little: it's got pitting. I would've been more than okay with rust or another easy fix, but pitting, not so much. It's fine pitting but it pops up in a lot of places. However, it's so fine it is actually difficult to get it in a picture on my terrible, 4-year-old first gen Android phone. At this point I'd like to apologize my poor photographers...man...ship. Photographersmanship. And, much like the box, taken in from a few feet back it's almost impossible to notice anything wrong. As I've owned it for about a business week now I've gotten used to it and I don't really notice it anymore unless I'm nice and intimate with it, sanding and polishing it. Otherwise, the everything else was just fine. The brass fittings look great and the handle's ridge form is easy to get a grip on, and looks nice.
Speaking of getting intimate with swords, it was dull. KoA advertised it as sharp, but it was dull. Also, the tip is just BAAAAAAAAARELY off, it's not a symmetrical point. But it's a-okay by me for the price range. Again, it's very hard to notice unless up close.
MOVING ON!
The sword itself, in its scabbard, looks excellent. Well, initially it had what looked like dried epoxy on the scabbard in a few places, but I got rid of that. Now that's done, and it looks really nice. Simple and elegant. I unsheath it, and my heart drops a little: it's got pitting. I would've been more than okay with rust or another easy fix, but pitting, not so much. It's fine pitting but it pops up in a lot of places. However, it's so fine it is actually difficult to get it in a picture on my terrible, 4-year-old first gen Android phone. At this point I'd like to apologize my poor photographers...man...ship. Photographersmanship. And, much like the box, taken in from a few feet back it's almost impossible to notice anything wrong. As I've owned it for about a business week now I've gotten used to it and I don't really notice it anymore unless I'm nice and intimate with it, sanding and polishing it. Otherwise, the everything else was just fine. The brass fittings look great and the handle's ridge form is easy to get a grip on, and looks nice.
Speaking of getting intimate with swords, it was dull. KoA advertised it as sharp, but it was dull. Also, the tip is just BAAAAAAAAARELY off, it's not a symmetrical point. But it's a-okay by me for the price range. Again, it's very hard to notice unless up close.
MOVING ON!
Statistics
Blade length: 28 inches. KoA advertised 28 1/4, not that a quarter of an inch matters too much.
Handle length: 6 inches. KoA advertised 5 7/8, but I won't complain about the extra eighth of an inch as it helps me out.
Guard width: 3 inches.
PoB: 3 1/2 inches from the guard, roughly.
Weight (taken from KoA): 2 pounds 7.5 ounces.
The pommel is threaded and is glued on after the fact. I'm not ballsy enough to rip off the permanent pommel but here is a picture taken from another thread featuring the tang on a different jian model offered by Iron Tiger Forge. I assume that all of their products feature tangs similar to this beefy behemoth, but maybe I'm wrong, although due note that the model pictured here is definitely larger than the Noble Plant Jian:
The blade is made of 1045 and 1060 carbon steel folded together. This means it's relatively soft and gracefully switches from being bent to true (though I haven't done anything like pushing down on it until it makes a 90 degree angle), it is nice and stiff, but if you give the tip of the blade a firm tap it'll wobble back and forth until returning to true. It's oddly pleasing to me for some reason that it's nice and stiff but it handles bending in such a springlike fashion; not gonna lie, I think it's because it reminds me of the door stops I used to play with and abuse when I was a kid. The folds are rather difficult to notice when not in the proper lighting. It does have a nice distal taper, the proportions are excellent to my untrained eye. However, again, there is pitting (I've tried to throw in pictures where one can see the pitting), and it was dull. I had to sharpen it; it wasn't that difficult to sharpen. I have not done any hardcore durability testing, and I probably won't. The thing is just too pretty.
Handle:
The handle is easy to get a good grip on and keep a good grip on, however after some heavier strokes you may start to feel those ridges in the wood if you don't have gloves. The finish is sort of matte with a curious lack of finish at particular intervals; the KoA description implies that this is meant to mimic bamboo, which it does somewhat well. The wood is rather nebulously described as "wood" on KoA, and I took this to mean that they use whatever is on hand. Whatever it is, it's nicer than the stuff the box is made out of, and it's hard enough to hurt after heavy swings. I think it'd feel pretty bad to cut at an armored target, another sword, a log, etc. with this thing. It is beautiful though, and matches the rest of the jian quite nicely.
Guard:
The guard is dense brass, which is typical of Chinese work. I personally bought an old Chinese brass vase which research suggests comes from late Qing or Republican China, and the thing is so dense and stout I feel like I could beat someone to death with it. KoA says that it is handmade. I find this claim dubious, however upon close inspection I can't see any casting lines, so it may be true. The detail of it is frankly quite impressive, particularly given the price range. It's simplicity and elegance at its finest in my eyes. However, this thing is HEAVY, and it negatively impacts handling (more on that later). It also features a rain guard, which really ties the handle and guard in with the rest of the sword aesthetically.
Pommel: I didn't take a picture of the pommel specifically because you can see it clearly enough in the above picture on the granite slab. It's kind of awkward; I don't like how it just sorta wraps around a wooden end tip type thing, and more importantly, I think that if it were solid brass like the guard, it could do the balance some favors. Probably the most disappointing part of this sword for me, aesthetically and functionally. KoA also advertises it as handmade, again I find this dubious, but again I can find no cast marks.
Scabbard:
The scabbard and the guard meet to create a wonderful piece of work, though being honest I think it'd make more sense if the chafe piece were facing the opposite direction so it actually looked more like the guard were blossoming into the scabbard. Much like the grip, it has a nice grain and a consistent finish, although it is less matte than the grip. The fitting in the middle is somewhat loose and I imagine that it's just a bad friction fit. the other two fittings fit nice and tight. The points where the two different pieces glued together to form the aesthetic exterior meet are incredibly hard to find, which to me means it was well done. The interior of the scabbard looks like the exterior pretty-pretty wood is formed around what looks like bamboo slats. It also fits like a dream, shaking it with the sword in upside-down and it does not fall out. Overall it's surprisingly well-made. Maybe the only complaint is that the fitting at the end of the scabbard is not of the same quality detailing as the rest of the sword, but it's pretty thick, thicker than the other scabbard fittings, and durable.
Thanks for reading!
Handle length: 6 inches. KoA advertised 5 7/8, but I won't complain about the extra eighth of an inch as it helps me out.
Guard width: 3 inches.
PoB: 3 1/2 inches from the guard, roughly.
Weight (taken from KoA): 2 pounds 7.5 ounces.
The pommel is threaded and is glued on after the fact. I'm not ballsy enough to rip off the permanent pommel but here is a picture taken from another thread featuring the tang on a different jian model offered by Iron Tiger Forge. I assume that all of their products feature tangs similar to this beefy behemoth, but maybe I'm wrong, although due note that the model pictured here is definitely larger than the Noble Plant Jian:
Components
Blade: The blade is made of 1045 and 1060 carbon steel folded together. This means it's relatively soft and gracefully switches from being bent to true (though I haven't done anything like pushing down on it until it makes a 90 degree angle), it is nice and stiff, but if you give the tip of the blade a firm tap it'll wobble back and forth until returning to true. It's oddly pleasing to me for some reason that it's nice and stiff but it handles bending in such a springlike fashion; not gonna lie, I think it's because it reminds me of the door stops I used to play with and abuse when I was a kid. The folds are rather difficult to notice when not in the proper lighting. It does have a nice distal taper, the proportions are excellent to my untrained eye. However, again, there is pitting (I've tried to throw in pictures where one can see the pitting), and it was dull. I had to sharpen it; it wasn't that difficult to sharpen. I have not done any hardcore durability testing, and I probably won't. The thing is just too pretty.
Handle:
The handle is easy to get a good grip on and keep a good grip on, however after some heavier strokes you may start to feel those ridges in the wood if you don't have gloves. The finish is sort of matte with a curious lack of finish at particular intervals; the KoA description implies that this is meant to mimic bamboo, which it does somewhat well. The wood is rather nebulously described as "wood" on KoA, and I took this to mean that they use whatever is on hand. Whatever it is, it's nicer than the stuff the box is made out of, and it's hard enough to hurt after heavy swings. I think it'd feel pretty bad to cut at an armored target, another sword, a log, etc. with this thing. It is beautiful though, and matches the rest of the jian quite nicely.
Guard:
The guard is dense brass, which is typical of Chinese work. I personally bought an old Chinese brass vase which research suggests comes from late Qing or Republican China, and the thing is so dense and stout I feel like I could beat someone to death with it. KoA says that it is handmade. I find this claim dubious, however upon close inspection I can't see any casting lines, so it may be true. The detail of it is frankly quite impressive, particularly given the price range. It's simplicity and elegance at its finest in my eyes. However, this thing is HEAVY, and it negatively impacts handling (more on that later). It also features a rain guard, which really ties the handle and guard in with the rest of the sword aesthetically.
Pommel: I didn't take a picture of the pommel specifically because you can see it clearly enough in the above picture on the granite slab. It's kind of awkward; I don't like how it just sorta wraps around a wooden end tip type thing, and more importantly, I think that if it were solid brass like the guard, it could do the balance some favors. Probably the most disappointing part of this sword for me, aesthetically and functionally. KoA also advertises it as handmade, again I find this dubious, but again I can find no cast marks.
Scabbard:
The scabbard and the guard meet to create a wonderful piece of work, though being honest I think it'd make more sense if the chafe piece were facing the opposite direction so it actually looked more like the guard were blossoming into the scabbard. Much like the grip, it has a nice grain and a consistent finish, although it is less matte than the grip. The fitting in the middle is somewhat loose and I imagine that it's just a bad friction fit. the other two fittings fit nice and tight. The points where the two different pieces glued together to form the aesthetic exterior meet are incredibly hard to find, which to me means it was well done. The interior of the scabbard looks like the exterior pretty-pretty wood is formed around what looks like bamboo slats. It also fits like a dream, shaking it with the sword in upside-down and it does not fall out. Overall it's surprisingly well-made. Maybe the only complaint is that the fitting at the end of the scabbard is not of the same quality detailing as the rest of the sword, but it's pretty thick, thicker than the other scabbard fittings, and durable.
Handling
As I alluded to earlier in this review, the handling isn't exactly perfect, but it's not terrible. For what it is, with the sculpted, dense brass fittings, it could definitely be worse. However, I think due to the construction of the pommel, the PoB is established too far out for the jian. In full swing it'll get about 2/3 of the way through the action before you can successfully stop it. I expected it to handle slightly worse that it actually is, so I guess that technically means I am impressed. If the pommel were a full on, heavy-as-heck piece of brass like the other fittings I think it'd fare much better, but because it seems like they decided to skimp out on the pommel for whatever reason it's a bit unwieldy. However, that does mean that it gets some momentum going. Kinda fun.
EDIT** Upon swinging it, I noticed a faint rattling. The pommel is somewhat loose, but that's from when I was twisting to see it could come off and then discovered it was glued on, and then stopped. The pommel rattles some when swinging, so apparently even though it is threaded AND glued, it is still somewhat loose. I doubt it'll go anywhere though if it's glued on. Nothing else seems to be wrong with the construction though.
- Tip of the sword is not perfect
- Folding is difficult to notice
- Weird epoxy on the scabbard
- Shoddy display box
** In the cons I tried to veer away from the cons unique to my jian due to the fact that I knew I was getting a blemished product when I bought it. However, I don't know if the rusted box fittings are endemic to where these things are stored or what, so I figured I would put that in the cons.
EDIT** Upon swinging it, I noticed a faint rattling. The pommel is somewhat loose, but that's from when I was twisting to see it could come off and then discovered it was glued on, and then stopped. The pommel rattles some when swinging, so apparently even though it is threaded AND glued, it is still somewhat loose. I doubt it'll go anywhere though if it's glued on. Nothing else seems to be wrong with the construction though.
Test Cutting
My cutting thus far has been fairly limited to air and a couple of plastic bottles (due to a very limited supply of victi-- targets). However, I will say this much, it is fun. After I put an edge on it, the thing is so blasted unbalanced that it gets some nice momentum and I cut through the bottles three times a piece, and the bottom of the bottles never moved once. It's really satisfying. Again however, it's so pretty I don't think I will ever take it to a log or what have you.
Conclusion
Cons: -Handling is clumsy even on a good day I'm satisfied with my purchase because I got what I was expecting. If you are expecting a high performance cutting sword, you will be disappointed. However, if you want a gorgeous jian that is a relatively fun cutter for a pretty good price considering the quality of the fittings, you won't be disappointed. Even with the pitting, the rest of the package is so sexy that I don't really notice it because the guard, rainguard and handle are so attractive. This is a functional, fun display piece I'd say. It's very attractive and functional, but has a myriad of small little problems (with the exception of the handling), but I'm really nitpicking with them.
Pros: +Beautiful, high quality fittings
+Elegant proportions of the blade
+Scabbard is of excellent quality considering the price point
Pros: +Beautiful, high quality fittings
+Elegant proportions of the blade
+Scabbard is of excellent quality considering the price point
- Tip of the sword is not perfect
- Folding is difficult to notice
- Weird epoxy on the scabbard
- Shoddy display box
** In the cons I tried to veer away from the cons unique to my jian due to the fact that I knew I was getting a blemished product when I bought it. However, I don't know if the rusted box fittings are endemic to where these things are stored or what, so I figured I would put that in the cons.
Thanks for reading!