Simon Lee swords review
Oct 27, 2018 15:57:41 GMT
Post by laionidas on Oct 27, 2018 15:57:41 GMT
Introduction
So, following a call in this thread for a review of Simon Lee swords, I figured I’d write an in-depth review of the wakizashi I own. I bought the sword second-hand, about a year and a half ago. I felt comfortable buying it, since the seller was living close to my home town, allowing me to see the sword first. We’d agreed on a price of €150 I think, but I ended up paying €200, which was closer to the seller’s asking price, and as having seen and ‘field-stripped’ the sword, I felt like it was worth it.
fig.1: the sword
How I got it
The sword had some issues that were immediately visible. There was some surface rust on the blade and a single large blemish on the monouchi, which I suspect to have been caused by improper cleaning after backyard tameshigiri, followed by dousing the blade in an excessive amount of choji oil; when I first unsheathed the blade for inspection, it came out of the saya wet. The monouchi was also somewhat dull. Most curiously it came with a rather rough carbon fibre tsuba and saya. These were actually modifications made by the seller. He was an enthousiast, but not an active budo or koryu practitioner, so his approach to sword collecting differed somewhat from mine. I found him to be a very decent guy though, and through his profession he was rather skilled working with wood and carbon fibre. The carbon sleeve fitted over the originally glossy lacquered saya was actually executed quite nicely, and it seems like in the process he replaced the original kurigata with one he made from ebony. The kurigata looks better than what I suspect would have been the original and remains by far the best piece of the saya alltogether. I guess as a non-practitioner, the fact that the texture of the carbon sleeve somewhat impedes sayabiki, and that it looks ‘off’ from a traditional perspective, are less of an issue. To me, on a sword that I intend to use (for tameshigiri), the saya is of little importance when making a purchase, and the sayabiki argument is not as strong on a wakizashi, than it would be on a daito. If I can ever be bothered, I’ll probably coat the saya with a layer of artisan boat lacquer; that should give it a finish somewhat like a same wrapped saya,.. with a twist. Luckily, the seller did manage to dig up the original kiku tsuba, though in retrospect, that one is of such inferior quality that it also mattered little, but we’ll get back to that later. The polyesther sageo was tied in the traditional display knot, and though it’s also a bit dirty, I’ve never untied it, because I know I can just bin it if I would.
Servicing the blade
After wiping clean any choji residue, and letting the saya dry out a bit, I set on repolishing the blade, also to resharpen the monouchi. I used a big block of pine, covered with rough leather, which I made specifically for sword maintenance, and a fine polishing compound. You can see a picture below, from when I was restoring another sword.
fig.2: polishing blockThe repolish removed all of the surface rust, and most of the blemish. Under magnification, some miniscule pitting can be seen on the kisaki, but nothing of the sort that would affect tameshigiri performance, or significantly devalue a second-hand Chinese made shinken. Actually, I am not sure whether it is due to some of the surface rust biting in, or due to minor flaws in the forging.
Finally, the blade came with what appeared to be a genuine hadori polish, which was lost with the repolish. The thing with a hadori polish is though, that it has to be done properly, or not at all. A mediocre hadori polish still give an impression of a stronger hamon, but a lot of detail (of the hada) is lost The hadori polish on this blade was not done really well, and I felt like I was looking at the steel through a vaseline smeared lens. The hamon was clearly visible, but even with that, the edges were blurry. As such, nothing was really lost by removing the hadori polish. After the repolish the structure of the steel was clearly visible, as well as the hamon, which is real, and not too shabby either. It even follows the line of the kisaki, like it’s supposed to (I tried taking a picture of this, but this is difficult to do with a smartphone).
The steel
The seller bought it himself, and subsequently sold it to me as tamahagane. This I never believed for a second. Real Japanese tamahagane would be far too expensive for a sword that would have cost between $600-$800 new. It also makes no sense to, once one has committed tousing it, to not opt for a geometric yokote (the yokote on the blade is cosmetic). Also, I can not really distinguish any (sanmai) lamination. The hada doesn’t look remotely like what I’ve seen in nihonto either. It could be that they used Chinese iron-sand, but more likely they simply forged the blade following the method of stacking pieces of conventional metal of various hardness like a jigsaw, covering them with clay and tatami, and them hammering them into a billet; what one could call traditional forging, with conventional ore. I don’t think of this like a ‘trick’ though. It seems like the smith had the right intentions, and tried to get as close to the real deal as he could, hence the blade is also signed, and came with a hadori polish.
fig.3: the hada
The koshirae
Yeah,.. on this, I agree with what has allready been said by others apparently. Even with after-market carbon fibre modifications aside, the original fittings were/are still garbage. Don’t get me wrong, they are proportionate, they look good, the ito is tight enough, they have the right geometery, and stylistically they have been picked with taste, but quality wise they just fail. The tsuka is build with real same, but no hishigami. The seppa are good quality, made out of red copper, but rather too thick (unusual). Fuchi, kashira, and tsuba are made out of McDonald’s happy meal alloys. The tsuka does friction-fit, but in fact it does so to the extend that the sword can not be ‘field-stripped’ without using a significant amount of force. As a result, the McDo tsuba has somewhat warped. At some point I will replace the tsuba, and I am thinking of shaving the inside of the tsuka somewhat. Regular maintenance currently is a real hassle, and I fear that the fittings will deteriorate further because of the amount of force required for even the most basic dissassembly.
fig.4: the koshirae, the leather koiguchi-kun was made by yours truly for transport
The blade
At this point some of you might wonder why I decided to pay more for this sword, than I had initially agreed upon with the seller. Now I’ll explain why. First of all, the steel, while not authentic tamahagane, is more than decent, and the differential hardening seems to have been done the right way too. The not-tamahagane grain looks very nice, so does the hamon, and it’s just a pleasure to have a blade like this made out of this steel. The blade itself, in it’s shape and balance, is superbly interesting. Though relatively narrow (as opposed to wide), the blade is really thick, but comes with strong dorsal and a fair amount of distal taper. While I don’t think it actually has fumbari, the sori is very reminiscent of that of a tachi. What’s even thicker is the nakago, which is also long, shaped at the right angle, and chisel-signed in Chinese without nonsense. It is held in place by a single mekugi, even though it could easily accomodate two. This is positive: historically a single mekugi was the norm, and modern production blades coming with ‘two for safety’ tells you more about those blades, than about safety. I haven’t weighed the sword, but it’s heavy, heavier than some of the koto katana we train with. With the shape of the blade as it is, you’d expect good balance, but to be honest the balance is a bit dissapointing. It feels quite tip-heavy for a strongly tapered, heavy-tanged blade like this. This is probably due partially, or in full, to the quality of the koshirae. It might actually benefit from a heavier tsuka and tsuba. That said, there’s no amending that it’s, well,.. heavy. A beefy 1,65 shaku one-handed blade is never going to handle like a chopstick. At the dojo, this sword is known as the kodachi, as everyone agrees it is not something for everyday carry in your standard daisho. It’s a small sword to stand by itself, for someone dedicated to the small sword, perhaps only bringing a daito with a bamboo blade in the saya, to deceive his opponent into thinking he carries a pair.
fig.5: the nagasa has a length of 49,9 (cm)
fig.6: the nakago, with omote mei, has a length of 20,4 (cm)
fig.7: beefy!
Conclusion and advice
The last paragraph should have given it away: I like this sword a lot! Wakizashi shinken are uncommon and overpriced. When you do manage to find one, it tends to be either more of an o-tanto or, on the other end of the spectrum, a naoshi. The simple hi-less, tapered and curved armour punchers are a rarity. Even though it is not everything it might have been said to be, Simon Lee seems to know what he is doing. Prices for his products seem to have dropped somewhat in recent years, so you should be able to obtain a sword like this for around $400 excluding shipping and possible import taxes. They say he doesn’t do bare blades or shirasaya, but that’s probably because that’s basically what you’re getting anyway. The koshirae it comes with should be considered only a placeholder and/or something simply workable. I doubt Simon Lee cares about koshirae himself. He could of course have offered better fittings, but that would be reflected in the price too. My advice would be, that Simon Lee swords are worth considering if you’re interested in the steel. Then, when you order, forgo a hadori or whitening polish, and choose the most basic koshirae he offers. You’ll end up with a nice sword at a fair price.
So, following a call in this thread for a review of Simon Lee swords, I figured I’d write an in-depth review of the wakizashi I own. I bought the sword second-hand, about a year and a half ago. I felt comfortable buying it, since the seller was living close to my home town, allowing me to see the sword first. We’d agreed on a price of €150 I think, but I ended up paying €200, which was closer to the seller’s asking price, and as having seen and ‘field-stripped’ the sword, I felt like it was worth it.
fig.1: the sword
How I got it
The sword had some issues that were immediately visible. There was some surface rust on the blade and a single large blemish on the monouchi, which I suspect to have been caused by improper cleaning after backyard tameshigiri, followed by dousing the blade in an excessive amount of choji oil; when I first unsheathed the blade for inspection, it came out of the saya wet. The monouchi was also somewhat dull. Most curiously it came with a rather rough carbon fibre tsuba and saya. These were actually modifications made by the seller. He was an enthousiast, but not an active budo or koryu practitioner, so his approach to sword collecting differed somewhat from mine. I found him to be a very decent guy though, and through his profession he was rather skilled working with wood and carbon fibre. The carbon sleeve fitted over the originally glossy lacquered saya was actually executed quite nicely, and it seems like in the process he replaced the original kurigata with one he made from ebony. The kurigata looks better than what I suspect would have been the original and remains by far the best piece of the saya alltogether. I guess as a non-practitioner, the fact that the texture of the carbon sleeve somewhat impedes sayabiki, and that it looks ‘off’ from a traditional perspective, are less of an issue. To me, on a sword that I intend to use (for tameshigiri), the saya is of little importance when making a purchase, and the sayabiki argument is not as strong on a wakizashi, than it would be on a daito. If I can ever be bothered, I’ll probably coat the saya with a layer of artisan boat lacquer; that should give it a finish somewhat like a same wrapped saya,.. with a twist. Luckily, the seller did manage to dig up the original kiku tsuba, though in retrospect, that one is of such inferior quality that it also mattered little, but we’ll get back to that later. The polyesther sageo was tied in the traditional display knot, and though it’s also a bit dirty, I’ve never untied it, because I know I can just bin it if I would.
Servicing the blade
After wiping clean any choji residue, and letting the saya dry out a bit, I set on repolishing the blade, also to resharpen the monouchi. I used a big block of pine, covered with rough leather, which I made specifically for sword maintenance, and a fine polishing compound. You can see a picture below, from when I was restoring another sword.
fig.2: polishing block
Finally, the blade came with what appeared to be a genuine hadori polish, which was lost with the repolish. The thing with a hadori polish is though, that it has to be done properly, or not at all. A mediocre hadori polish still give an impression of a stronger hamon, but a lot of detail (of the hada) is lost The hadori polish on this blade was not done really well, and I felt like I was looking at the steel through a vaseline smeared lens. The hamon was clearly visible, but even with that, the edges were blurry. As such, nothing was really lost by removing the hadori polish. After the repolish the structure of the steel was clearly visible, as well as the hamon, which is real, and not too shabby either. It even follows the line of the kisaki, like it’s supposed to (I tried taking a picture of this, but this is difficult to do with a smartphone).
The steel
The seller bought it himself, and subsequently sold it to me as tamahagane. This I never believed for a second. Real Japanese tamahagane would be far too expensive for a sword that would have cost between $600-$800 new. It also makes no sense to, once one has committed tousing it, to not opt for a geometric yokote (the yokote on the blade is cosmetic). Also, I can not really distinguish any (sanmai) lamination. The hada doesn’t look remotely like what I’ve seen in nihonto either. It could be that they used Chinese iron-sand, but more likely they simply forged the blade following the method of stacking pieces of conventional metal of various hardness like a jigsaw, covering them with clay and tatami, and them hammering them into a billet; what one could call traditional forging, with conventional ore. I don’t think of this like a ‘trick’ though. It seems like the smith had the right intentions, and tried to get as close to the real deal as he could, hence the blade is also signed, and came with a hadori polish.
fig.3: the hada
The koshirae
Yeah,.. on this, I agree with what has allready been said by others apparently. Even with after-market carbon fibre modifications aside, the original fittings were/are still garbage. Don’t get me wrong, they are proportionate, they look good, the ito is tight enough, they have the right geometery, and stylistically they have been picked with taste, but quality wise they just fail. The tsuka is build with real same, but no hishigami. The seppa are good quality, made out of red copper, but rather too thick (unusual). Fuchi, kashira, and tsuba are made out of McDonald’s happy meal alloys. The tsuka does friction-fit, but in fact it does so to the extend that the sword can not be ‘field-stripped’ without using a significant amount of force. As a result, the McDo tsuba has somewhat warped. At some point I will replace the tsuba, and I am thinking of shaving the inside of the tsuka somewhat. Regular maintenance currently is a real hassle, and I fear that the fittings will deteriorate further because of the amount of force required for even the most basic dissassembly.
fig.4: the koshirae, the leather koiguchi-kun was made by yours truly for transport
The blade
At this point some of you might wonder why I decided to pay more for this sword, than I had initially agreed upon with the seller. Now I’ll explain why. First of all, the steel, while not authentic tamahagane, is more than decent, and the differential hardening seems to have been done the right way too. The not-tamahagane grain looks very nice, so does the hamon, and it’s just a pleasure to have a blade like this made out of this steel. The blade itself, in it’s shape and balance, is superbly interesting. Though relatively narrow (as opposed to wide), the blade is really thick, but comes with strong dorsal and a fair amount of distal taper. While I don’t think it actually has fumbari, the sori is very reminiscent of that of a tachi. What’s even thicker is the nakago, which is also long, shaped at the right angle, and chisel-signed in Chinese without nonsense. It is held in place by a single mekugi, even though it could easily accomodate two. This is positive: historically a single mekugi was the norm, and modern production blades coming with ‘two for safety’ tells you more about those blades, than about safety. I haven’t weighed the sword, but it’s heavy, heavier than some of the koto katana we train with. With the shape of the blade as it is, you’d expect good balance, but to be honest the balance is a bit dissapointing. It feels quite tip-heavy for a strongly tapered, heavy-tanged blade like this. This is probably due partially, or in full, to the quality of the koshirae. It might actually benefit from a heavier tsuka and tsuba. That said, there’s no amending that it’s, well,.. heavy. A beefy 1,65 shaku one-handed blade is never going to handle like a chopstick. At the dojo, this sword is known as the kodachi, as everyone agrees it is not something for everyday carry in your standard daisho. It’s a small sword to stand by itself, for someone dedicated to the small sword, perhaps only bringing a daito with a bamboo blade in the saya, to deceive his opponent into thinking he carries a pair.
fig.5: the nagasa has a length of 49,9 (cm)
fig.6: the nakago, with omote mei, has a length of 20,4 (cm)
fig.7: beefy!
Conclusion and advice
The last paragraph should have given it away: I like this sword a lot! Wakizashi shinken are uncommon and overpriced. When you do manage to find one, it tends to be either more of an o-tanto or, on the other end of the spectrum, a naoshi. The simple hi-less, tapered and curved armour punchers are a rarity. Even though it is not everything it might have been said to be, Simon Lee seems to know what he is doing. Prices for his products seem to have dropped somewhat in recent years, so you should be able to obtain a sword like this for around $400 excluding shipping and possible import taxes. They say he doesn’t do bare blades or shirasaya, but that’s probably because that’s basically what you’re getting anyway. The koshirae it comes with should be considered only a placeholder and/or something simply workable. I doubt Simon Lee cares about koshirae himself. He could of course have offered better fittings, but that would be reflected in the price too. My advice would be, that Simon Lee swords are worth considering if you’re interested in the steel. Then, when you order, forgo a hadori or whitening polish, and choose the most basic koshirae he offers. You’ll end up with a nice sword at a fair price.