Blunt Sinosword heavy discount sword
Sept 29, 2018 19:20:26 GMT
Post by roy on Sept 29, 2018 19:20:26 GMT
Hello everyone,
as the title might suggest I have recently bought a katana from Sinosword from their collection of heavily discounted swords. Those heavy discount sword are swords which generally have flaws on the hamon and therefore could not be sold to customers that placed a custom order. Instead of simply disposing those “flawed” blades they are sold at a discounted price and described by Sinosword as “[for] tameshigiri cutting practice at very reasonable price”. To give you an idea of what I paid for it, the sword was 99$ and shipping was 50$.
Further I would like to explain that while I am a new user and my first post is sort of a complaint, I do not want to tarnish, or trash talk Sinosword in any capacity. I simply want to ask the experienced users of this forum that have dealt with Sinosword before if they have any suggestions as how to solve my problem.
Back to my sword. The sword in itself is very nice, as far as I can discern that. There is zero (0, zilch) saya rattle, the grip is wrapped tightly and feels very secure. The fittings look nice and feel solid. The blade itself is folded and quite beautiful to look at, except for the polishing at the tip. This was sort of recognizable from the pictures on the Sinosword website and is completely fine, as this is in fact a “flawed” and therefore discounted sword. Further there was no rust on the blade except for some incredibly minor spots, which was a worry of mine after having read multiple reports of rusted blades. Up until this point, the sword was exactly as I had hoped. Unfortunately, as soon as I tried to test the sharpness of the blade by cutting a piece of paper, I was quite disappointed. The blade failed to cut paper and I conducted a series of other tests to gauge the sharpness of the blade. The end result was me running the entire length of the blade across my arm (I knew it was blunt at this point ) without any damage. So yes, that is my problem: The sword that was advertised as “[for] tameshigiri cutting practice” is as blunt as a decorative sword.
When I contacted Sinosword regarding this the first suggestion was to “polish” the blade myself with 1000 grit sandpaper. This was not really satisfying for me, because a) to my knowledge I had paid for a sharp sword; b) sharpening a blade this long is quite difficult and I would go as far as to say impossible for an amateur without scuffing the polish and making mistakes. Also, with how blunt the blade is we are not only talking about a simple touch-up, but properly sharpening the blade in the first place, which might require a lower grit and more work; and c) I would have to spend the time and money to buy the sharpening supplies and to actually sharpen the blade.
When I shot Sinosword another email, they offered me to return the sword for a refund if I was not satisfied with it. First of all, I was a bit put off by that language, because even though I had supplied them with video proof of how blunt the blade was, it seems they do not acknowledge that they forgot to sharpen the blade. It felt more to me that they thought I was pestering them because the blade was not sharp enough (subjective), and not because the blade was not sharp at all (objective in my opinion). This might very well be a result of the language barrier, so I do not want to imply any ill intent from Sinosword. In any case, they did offer to refund me. Having read the recent threads about sending swords back to China, I would like to avoid this option if possible. It seems sending the sword back to China would be a serious waste of a good sword, as it would be sacrificed on the altar of the entity known as the Shanghai customs. I would also like to avoid the general headache associated with this option. In addition, I have already paid the local customs fees which I would be eating if I sent the sword back.
Which brings me to the actual point of this thread: What other options do I have? It seems having the sword sharpened by someone who knows what he is doing here in Europe could easily cost as much as the sword did in the first place and is therefore not viable. Doing it myself is not exactly what I paid for and trying to return the sword to China seems like a nightmare. Does anyone here have another possible solution?
Thank you for reading this wall of text and thanks in advance to anyone trying to help. All feedback and suggestions are appreciated.
Roy
as the title might suggest I have recently bought a katana from Sinosword from their collection of heavily discounted swords. Those heavy discount sword are swords which generally have flaws on the hamon and therefore could not be sold to customers that placed a custom order. Instead of simply disposing those “flawed” blades they are sold at a discounted price and described by Sinosword as “[for] tameshigiri cutting practice at very reasonable price”. To give you an idea of what I paid for it, the sword was 99$ and shipping was 50$.
Further I would like to explain that while I am a new user and my first post is sort of a complaint, I do not want to tarnish, or trash talk Sinosword in any capacity. I simply want to ask the experienced users of this forum that have dealt with Sinosword before if they have any suggestions as how to solve my problem.
Back to my sword. The sword in itself is very nice, as far as I can discern that. There is zero (0, zilch) saya rattle, the grip is wrapped tightly and feels very secure. The fittings look nice and feel solid. The blade itself is folded and quite beautiful to look at, except for the polishing at the tip. This was sort of recognizable from the pictures on the Sinosword website and is completely fine, as this is in fact a “flawed” and therefore discounted sword. Further there was no rust on the blade except for some incredibly minor spots, which was a worry of mine after having read multiple reports of rusted blades. Up until this point, the sword was exactly as I had hoped. Unfortunately, as soon as I tried to test the sharpness of the blade by cutting a piece of paper, I was quite disappointed. The blade failed to cut paper and I conducted a series of other tests to gauge the sharpness of the blade. The end result was me running the entire length of the blade across my arm (I knew it was blunt at this point ) without any damage. So yes, that is my problem: The sword that was advertised as “[for] tameshigiri cutting practice” is as blunt as a decorative sword.
When I contacted Sinosword regarding this the first suggestion was to “polish” the blade myself with 1000 grit sandpaper. This was not really satisfying for me, because a) to my knowledge I had paid for a sharp sword; b) sharpening a blade this long is quite difficult and I would go as far as to say impossible for an amateur without scuffing the polish and making mistakes. Also, with how blunt the blade is we are not only talking about a simple touch-up, but properly sharpening the blade in the first place, which might require a lower grit and more work; and c) I would have to spend the time and money to buy the sharpening supplies and to actually sharpen the blade.
When I shot Sinosword another email, they offered me to return the sword for a refund if I was not satisfied with it. First of all, I was a bit put off by that language, because even though I had supplied them with video proof of how blunt the blade was, it seems they do not acknowledge that they forgot to sharpen the blade. It felt more to me that they thought I was pestering them because the blade was not sharp enough (subjective), and not because the blade was not sharp at all (objective in my opinion). This might very well be a result of the language barrier, so I do not want to imply any ill intent from Sinosword. In any case, they did offer to refund me. Having read the recent threads about sending swords back to China, I would like to avoid this option if possible. It seems sending the sword back to China would be a serious waste of a good sword, as it would be sacrificed on the altar of the entity known as the Shanghai customs. I would also like to avoid the general headache associated with this option. In addition, I have already paid the local customs fees which I would be eating if I sent the sword back.
Which brings me to the actual point of this thread: What other options do I have? It seems having the sword sharpened by someone who knows what he is doing here in Europe could easily cost as much as the sword did in the first place and is therefore not viable. Doing it myself is not exactly what I paid for and trying to return the sword to China seems like a nightmare. Does anyone here have another possible solution?
Thank you for reading this wall of text and thanks in advance to anyone trying to help. All feedback and suggestions are appreciated.
Roy