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Post by jackytheblade on Jan 26, 2020 15:19:42 GMT
Yeah the tsuka on mine was okay, functional and not like an axe but nothing to write home about.
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Post by Roscoe57 on Jan 27, 2020 3:29:17 GMT
At this point the only Chinese eBay seller I would buy from would be Huawei-sword. The rest of them in my own opinion are a bunch of crooks. Prime example is sheng-sword / ST Nihonto pure out right crook. Other brands I trust are: Musashi, Hanwei and the best to date is Motohara.
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admin
Site Admin
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Post by admin on Jan 27, 2020 4:54:49 GMT
Of course theres the occasional saya rattle or cracked tsuka, but unlike what the article posted yesterday on SBG says, in the last 3 or 4 years I've not heard of one person getting a 1045 blade(its very easy to tell if its 1045 because it takes a set easily and can be bent back easily), zinc alloy fittings(they are all cheap solid iron cutouts or higher quality iron), or a broken tang. Every sword labelled 9260 I've bought from them and many more I've seen others buy, they can be bent to almost 90 degrees and be returned true and straight, not possible with 1045 blades. I've also only seen one person not receive their sword but they were refunded their money. Also sending any sword back to China no matter what brand it is always results in chinese customs taking your sword, yet the article seems to indicate this only happens to ebay swords. I did however see a post on the SBG Facebook forum the other day receive a forge direct sword that had the blade forged crooked and out of line with the tang. He also paid 700 bucks for it... Not sure what's happening with that yet.
I also was interested in offering some 9260 blades and we checked every major forge in Longquan - no-one could do it. Only Cheness, Hanwei and MAS seem to legitimately offer it. So how can small players find it when we have direct access to all the same forges they use and some extra ones? And the pricing is also a give away, but the only way to tell for certain is to have some of these swords scientifically tested..
I do understand how the promise of 'anything you want' is attractive, but if these companies track records is anything to go by, its more like 'whatever is close enough they can find'..
As to sending swords back, we CAN and do do this.. And I am aware of a case of a really bad crooked Duan Dao that we are taking up with the forge as soon as they finish up their holidays. We will replace it or refund in full as we do every time there is an issue. The eBay guys CANNOT do this as they don't have a US based warehouse. And even if they did, I would be surprised if they would take customer service to the same genuine level we do..
But I think that the thing that really saddens me the most is that everyone here KNOWS that these companies are damaging the industry and if left to their own devices, would happily see every other established sword company disappear along with these very forums and the site that is now a pain in their side. So if you have no loyalty to the industry or the hobby, then all I can say is grab what you can while you can - these companies are killing the forges and all honest competitors and will continue doing so until there is nothing left to sell. How long it will take for the sword industry to bounce back, if it WILL bounce back, really is anyone's guess if worst comes to worst..
Finally, I agree that in many ways standard offerings are getting more boring as established companies avoid anything they perceive as risky. It has been this way for almost a decade now - anything unproven is a huge risk in this day and age, and usually requires significant upfront capital while these guys print money on demand, so of course they can claim to be able to make you 'anything'..
This double whammy will accelerate the decline of established sellers and further bolster support for the eBayers until they are unable to find suppliers, and then they will move on to another local product as they could not care less about swords or the sword industry (unlike most established sellers who started in the sword industry because they love swords)..
I will do all I can to prevent this from happening, but just know that every-time you buy from them you are making things much worse for the industry as a whole and hurting many honest sellers who simply cannot compete with a dishonest seller..
- Paul |
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Post by shepherd214 on Jan 27, 2020 7:08:03 GMT
Of course theres the occasional saya rattle or cracked tsuka, but unlike what the article posted yesterday on SBG says, in the last 3 or 4 years I've not heard of one person getting a 1045 blade(its very easy to tell if its 1045 because it takes a set easily and can be bent back easily), zinc alloy fittings(they are all cheap solid iron cutouts or higher quality iron), or a broken tang. Every sword labelled 9260 I've bought from them and many more I've seen others buy, they can be bent to almost 90 degrees and be returned true and straight, not possible with 1045 blades. I've also only seen one person not receive their sword but they were refunded their money. Also sending any sword back to China no matter what brand it is always results in chinese customs taking your sword, yet the article seems to indicate this only happens to ebay swords. I did however see a post on the SBG Facebook forum the other day receive a forge direct sword that had the blade forged crooked and out of line with the tang. He also paid 700 bucks for it... Not sure what's happening with that yet.
I also was interested in offering some 9260 blades and we checked every major forge in Longquan - no-one could do it. Only Cheness, Hanwei and MAS seem to legitimately offer it. So how can small players find it when we have direct access to all the same forges they use and some extra ones? And the pricing is also a give away, but the only way to tell for certain is to have some of these swords scientifically tested..
I do understand how the promise of 'anything you want' is attractive, but if these companies track records is anything to go by, its more like 'whatever is close enough they can find'..
As to sending swords back, we CAN and do do this.. And I am aware of a case of a really bad crooked Duan Dao that we are taking up with the forge as soon as they finish up their holidays. We will replace it or refund in full as we do every time there is an issue. The eBay guys CANNOT do this as they don't have a US based warehouse. And even if they did, I would be surprised if they would take customer service to the same genuine level we do..
But I think that the thing that really saddens me the most is that everyone here KNOWS that these companies are damaging the industry and if left to their own devices, would happily see every other established sword company disappear along with these very forums and the site that is now a pain in their side. So if you have no loyalty to the industry or the hobby, then all I can say is grab what you can while you can - these companies are killing the forges and all honest competitors and will continue doing so until there is nothing left to sell. How long it will take for the sword industry to bounce back, if it WILL bounce back, really is anyone's guess if worst comes to worst..
Finally, I agree that in many ways standard offerings are getting more boring as established companies avoid anything they perceive as risky. It has been this way for almost a decade now - anything unproven is a huge risk in this day and age, and usually requires significant upfront capital while these guys print money on demand, so of course they can claim to be able to make you 'anything'..
This double whammy will accelerate the decline of established sellers and further bolster support for the eBayers until they are unable to find suppliers, and then they will move on to another local product as they could not care less about swords or the sword industry (unlike most established sellers who started in the sword industry because they love swords)..
I will do all I can to prevent this from happening, but just know that every-time you buy from them you are making things much worse for the industry as a whole and hurting many honest sellers who simply cannot compete with a dishonest seller..
- Paul 1045 can be tempered well but I've seen quite a few people talk about their 1045 blades and how they can bend them over their knee. Even Ronin, which you promote, has videos of those 130 dollar 1045 blades being torture tested and the guy in the video bent one between 2x4s and it stayed bent. It did hold up nicely to the tests for a cheap sword though. Also of note is 1045 does not have a high hardness no matter what, which we can also test when our blades arrive. So I'm not saying you're wrong about them not being able to get 9260, but I have not seen Huawei give people 1045 but maybe 1060 since the hardness and testing of peoples blades seem to be above what 1045 can offer, including mine. I test the hardness of all blades I get and I've had 4 or 5 "9260" blades from them, and all have hardnesses are too high for 1045. So I'm just a little surprised at that claim. It may be hard to tell the difference between 1060/9260 but theres a clear performance difference in 1045 and 1060/9260. Another thing to note is that most of the reviews you took the time to link for Huawei are very old. There are a couple from 2016-17 that I saw but the vast majority are from 2010-14 which I would say are horribly outdated as the market has evolved a ton since then and most recent Huawei reviews that I mentioned previously arent even on your site, they are on facebook. A quick facebook search in groups yields dozens of Huawei reviews or highly positive comments/conversations from 2017-19. So yes maybe like 10 years ago someone got a 1045 blade by mistake but I havent seen anything like that in the last few years. A better way to see what the current market looks like is to ask practitioners and craftsman like Cottontail Customs or Randy Black, who have seen hundreds of swords that they have to disassemble and can tell you exactly what's under hood of various brands. I seem to remember them saying that Huawei has its share of issues like any production brand but they are consistently better than most other swords in the same price range and theyve also seen horror stories from almost every brand out there, including ones that are promoted on this site. It just doesnt seem fair to hold all ebay swords accountable when good and bad can be found on any website where you can buy swords. If you know what you're buying you can make good decisions on ebay same as anywhere. You can make good decisions on amazon or aliexpress even. What can and does happen on ebay is that you are protected. I've only had a couple bad experiences on ebay but every time its happened I have gotten a full refund from the seller. And sometimes its accompanied with "please give good feedback for me" to get the refund but they dont even need you to send the sword back. And in certain cases like Sinosword I've seen many instances lately where they also dont require you to send the sword back if something is wrong or one goes missing, they just make you another. So sending the sword back to China isnt even a big deal because A.)ebay will protect you if the seller wont and B.) Most instances I've seen recently with Sinosword and in my case St Nihonto you get full or partial refunds for flawed items and you dont even have to bother sending the sword back at all. And trying not to beat a dead horse but I've never had to message Huawei about any issues in all my purchases from them because I've noticed attention to detail on their swords that just doesnt happen on other Longquan swords I've bought and I'm not the only one who has noticed this as well. As a side thing about the candy store, it seems to me one possibility is that Jacky from Huawei could know someone at that candy store and uses that as a mailing address, and just has connections to a good forge in Longquan, because the blades coming from there have great geometry, polish and heat treat and have consistent characteristics. Especially the T10 ones. |
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Post by jackytheblade on Jan 27, 2020 8:36:05 GMT
I also was interested in offering some 9260 blades and we checked every major forge in Longquan - no-one could do it. Only Cheness, Hanwei and MAS seem to legitimately offer it. So how can small players find it when we have direct access to all the same forges they use and some extra ones? And the pricing is also a give away, but the only way to tell for certain is to have some of these swords scientifically tested..
I do understand how the promise of 'anything you want' is attractive, but if these companies track records is anything to go by, its more like 'whatever is close enough they can find'..
As to sending swords back, we CAN and do do this.. And I am aware of a case of a really bad crooked Duan Dao that we are taking up with the forge as soon as they finish up their holidays. We will replace it or refund in full as we do every time there is an issue. The eBay guys CANNOT do this as they don't have a US based warehouse. And even if they did, I would be surprised if they would take customer service to the same genuine level we do..
But I think that the thing that really saddens me the most is that everyone here KNOWS that these companies are damaging the industry and if left to their own devices, would happily see every other established sword company disappear along with these very forums and the site that is now a pain in their side. So if you have no loyalty to the industry or the hobby, then all I can say is grab what you can while you can - these companies are killing the forges and all honest competitors and will continue doing so until there is nothing left to sell. How long it will take for the sword industry to bounce back, if it WILL bounce back, really is anyone's guess if worst comes to worst..
Finally, I agree that in many ways standard offerings are getting more boring as established companies avoid anything they perceive as risky. It has been this way for almost a decade now - anything unproven is a huge risk in this day and age, and usually requires significant upfront capital while these guys print money on demand, so of course they can claim to be able to make you 'anything'..
This double whammy will accelerate the decline of established sellers and further bolster support for the eBayers until they are unable to find suppliers, and then they will move on to another local product as they could not care less about swords or the sword industry (unlike most established sellers who started in the sword industry because they love swords)..
I will do all I can to prevent this from happening, but just know that every-time you buy from them you are making things much worse for the industry as a whole and hurting many honest sellers who simply cannot compete with a dishonest seller..
- Paul 1045 can be tempered well but I've seen quite a few people talk about their 1045 blades and how they can bend them over their knee. Even Ronin, which you promote, has videos of those 130 dollar 1045 blades being torture tested and the guy in the video bent one between 2x4s and it stayed bent. It did hold up nicely to the tests for a cheap sword though. Also of note is 1045 does not have a high hardness no matter what, which we can also test when our blades arrive. So I'm not saying you're wrong about them not being able to get 9260, but I have not seen Huawei give people 1045 but maybe 1060 since the hardness and testing of peoples blades seem to be above what 1045 can offer, including mine. I test the hardness of all blades I get and I've had 4 or 5 "9260" blades from them, and all have hardnesses are too high for 1045. So I'm just a little surprised at that claim. It may be hard to tell the difference between 1060/9260 but theres a clear performance difference in 1045 and 1060/9260. Another thing to note is that most of the reviews you took the time to link for Huawei are very old. There are a couple from 2016-17 that I saw but the vast majority are from 2010-14 which I would say are horribly outdated as the market has evolved a ton since then and most recent Huawei reviews that I mentioned previously arent even on your site, they are on facebook. A quick facebook search in groups yields dozens of Huawei reviews or highly positive comments/conversations from 2017-19. So yes maybe like 10 years ago someone got a 1045 blade by mistake but I havent seen anything like that in the last few years. A better way to see what the current market looks like is to ask practitioners and craftsman like Cottontail Customs or Randy Black, who have seen hundreds of swords that they have to disassemble and can tell you exactly what's under hood of various brands. I seem to remember them saying that Huawei has its share of issues like any production brand but they are consistently better than most other swords in the same price range and theyve also seen horror stories from almost every brand out there, including ones that are promoted on this site. It just doesnt seem fair to hold all ebay swords accountable when good and bad can be found on any website where you can buy swords. If you know what you're buying you can make good decisions on ebay same as anywhere. You can make good decisions on amazon or aliexpress even. What can and does happen on ebay is that you are protected. I've only had a couple bad experiences on ebay but every time its happened I have gotten a full refund from the seller. And sometimes its accompanied with "please give good feedback for me" to get the refund but they dont even need you to send the sword back. And in certain cases like Sinosword I've seen many instances lately where they also dont require you to send the sword back if something is wrong or one goes missing, they just make you another. So sending the sword back to China isnt even a big deal because A.)ebay will protect you if the seller wont and B.) Most instances I've seen recently with Sinosword and in my case St Nihonto you get full or partial refunds for flawed items and you dont even have to bother sending the sword back at all. And trying not to beat a dead horse but I've never had to message Huawei about any issues in all my purchases from them because I've noticed attention to detail on their swords that just doesnt happen on other Longquan swords I've bought and I'm not the only one who has noticed this as well. As a side thing about the candy store, it seems to me one possibility is that Jacky from Huawei could know someone at that candy store and uses that as a mailing address, and just has connections to a good forge in Longquan, because the blades coming from there have great geometry, polish and heat treat and have consistent characteristics. Especially the T10 ones. Both sides have valid points. Honestly, I do not think that any of us here wants to see the sword industry go the way of the dodo, rather the opposite. We want to see competition where these companies (and SBG) are flourishing. Personally I love SBG and what they stand for. I have low key followed SBG for more years than I can count. That said it is only fair that at least our concerns are aired, especially a rookie like myself who for a long time only had pics and research to go on. That said I find it absolutely shocking that in 2020 something like spring steel is so rare in China. This also concerns me because I like spring steel (recently T10 also) for their durability. Yet at the same time, all these great smiths happen to work with partner forges we have. I don't claim to know anything about metal work or smithing but honestly my mind is boggled. I literally feel as though I would just the Hell of it, save a few bucks and get some of these '9260' steel swords and see if a metallurgist is willing to inspect. On that note...I think the sugar is talking I need to stop before I ramble crazy ideas. |
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Post by maewyn on Jan 27, 2020 14:57:59 GMT
At this point the only Chinese eBay seller I would buy from would be Huawei-sword. The rest of them in my own opinion are a bunch of crooks. Prime example is sheng-sword / ST Nihonto pure out right crook. Other brands I trust are: Musashi, Hanwei and the best to date is Motohara. Huawei is the only ebayer I would buy from. Randy was mentioned,according to him nobody in China makes a better blade than Huawei.I believe him and the other more experienced people in other groups. |
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Post by shepherd214 on Jan 27, 2020 20:25:55 GMT
At this point the only Chinese eBay seller I would buy from would be Huawei-sword. The rest of them in my own opinion are a bunch of crooks. Prime example is sheng-sword / ST Nihonto pure out right crook. Other brands I trust are: Musashi, Hanwei and the best to date is Motohara. Motorhara is great it's just that you pay 5x as much for one as you do for a Huawei. Probably worth it but not in everyone's budget. |
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Post by maewyn on Jan 27, 2020 20:50:42 GMT
At this point the only Chinese eBay seller I would buy from would be Huawei-sword. The rest of them in my own opinion are a bunch of crooks. Prime example is sheng-sword / ST Nihonto pure out right crook. Other brands I trust are: Musashi, Hanwei and the best to date is Motohara. Motorhara is great it's just that you pay 5x as much for one as you do for a Huawei. Probably worth it but not in everyone's budget. Motohara are on another level that nobody can touch right now,for a practitioner they are worth it.They also arent made in China. |
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stormmaster
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I like viking/migration era swords
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Post by stormmaster on Jan 27, 2020 20:53:21 GMT
made in korea i think?
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Post by maewyn on Jan 27, 2020 20:55:36 GMT
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Post by RaylonTheDemented on Jan 27, 2020 22:22:08 GMT
At this point the only Chinese eBay seller I would buy from would be Huawei-sword. The rest of them in my own opinion are a bunch of crooks. Prime example is sheng-sword / ST Nihonto pure out right crook. Other brands I trust are: Musashi, Hanwei and the best to date is Motohara. Motorhara is great it's just that you pay 5x as much for one as you do for a Huawei. Probably worth it but not in everyone's budget. While being a re-seller like all the others, as stated earlier, Jacky likely have access to a good forge, thus the consistency in blade quality over the years. Just look at their nakago, almost always nicely made, with no drilling burrs. Same with itomaki. Fittings are nothing special and there are issues like any production sword lines. Lets keep in mind that Huawei's swords are on the more expensive side of Ebay sellers, likely for these very reasons. IMHO.
That being said, I like these forums and the SBG store, where I got some swords over the last couple years and it would be a shame to see it fails. I definitely 'stepped up' my buying choices these last 6 months and dropping most Ebay buys, too much inconsistency in QC.
My two cents.
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Post by tancred on Jan 28, 2020 1:21:26 GMT
I think this thread has seen a lot of sway from the OP; hope its ok if I also go with the sway of the thread.
It seems the last few posts have held Huawei in high regard. I've never owned one, and have never bought a Chinese-made sword off Ebay that wasn't a used Hanwei. I do a lot of window shopping, though.
What about Simon Lee? I'm not sure if he'd be regarded as an Ebay seller or a mass-producer/mass-seller or not; he seems like more of an individual maker/seller. Some of his blades look pretty awesome from the pictures he's posted, and he definitely has a high opinion of his own work (not a bad thing necessarily). Anyone have experience with his swords? Any thoughts or opinions on him that anyone can share?
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Post by pvsampson on Jan 28, 2020 1:39:26 GMT
Motorhara is great it's just that you pay 5x as much for one as you do for a Huawei. Probably worth it but not in everyone's budget. Lets keep in mind that Huawei's swords are on the more expensive side of Ebay sellers, likely for these very reasons. IMHO.
Not really.They have less of a selection but plenty of the ebay sellers are pricing some pretty ordinary swords way more then Huawei. $268 USD for a DH with iron fittings and and a lovely blade finish is actually pretty good. I cannot get a Raptor for that price delivered here. Like I said not a huge selection though,which I see as good business practice. Limited models,but good quality control and start at entry level up to mid range. Others have lots of models,start from base junk up to a higher end (price wise anyway) junk and poor quality control in general. |
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admin
Site Admin
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Post by admin on Jan 28, 2020 3:52:46 GMT
I think this thread has seen a lot of sway from the OP; hope its ok if I also go with the sway of the thread. It is true, so to return the core issue - honesty - it's kind of crazy for Sinoswords to claim that they, as a maker of budget swords, has a national treasure smith tucked away in their office somewhere who literally charges hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars for his swords..
But now he is making $400 Tamahagane blades from pig iron? Seems like a bit of a stretch at the best of times, and is clearly not true.
If we leave the quality or lack of quality out of the equation, I have to ask the question - why is the community so forgiving of sellers who are happy to make up unbelievably audacious lies like this? Such as trying to explain away why Huawei's Forge's address is a Candy shop, how Jacky/Jackie pretends to be a male and a master smith and says they have their own forge when they clearly, don't.. Why is this okay?
Personally I think it sucks as we spent many years trying to explain what really goes on in the industry, and now we are back guessing and chasing shadows again.. A big step backwards for the industry generally - but if that is what people want and no longer want to know the truth or dig deeper, we are in more trouble than I ever suspected..
/rant over - I have said all I want to say in this thread, you guys know my thoughts on this and so there is no need to beat a dead horse. SBG has a lot of new projects starting up this year, so onward and upwards..!
One final thing - don't discount the value of old reviews, especially if the product is still selling (and even more so if it is at the same price and defying inflation). If a product has stood the test of time and is still selling, it is a classic. We don't jump on every new trend in the industry or every new hot seller as they have not stood the test of time - and what happened before will likely happen again. So if, for example, Huawei have a history of lying to customers - can you really believe that they have now 'come good?'.
Okay, I have said enough. You all know how I feel about these sellers and I can assure you, they are not a force for good in the industry - have no allies here or even with the forges, and have muddied the waters to such a degree that all the hard work we put in trying to bring you the truth behind the industry has been obfuscated..
Oh well..
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Post by zabazagobo on Jan 28, 2020 5:24:50 GMT
I think this thread has seen a lot of sway from the OP; hope its ok if I also go with the sway of the thread. It is true, so to return the core issue - honesty - it's kind of crazy for Sinoswords to claim that they, as a maker of budget swords, has a national treasure smith tucked away in their office somewhere who literally charges hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars for his swords..
But now he is making $400 Tamahagane blades from pig iron? Seems like a bit of a stretch at the best of times, and is clearly not true.
If we leave the quality or lack of quality out of the equation, I have to ask the question - why is the community so forgiving of sellers who are happy to make up unbelievably audacious lies like this? Such as trying to explain away why Huawei's Forge's address is a Candy shop, how Jacky/Jackie pretends to be a male and a master smith and says they have their own forge when they clearly, don't.. Why is this okay?
Personally I think it sucks as we spent many years trying to explain what really goes on in the industry, and now we are back guessing and chasing shadows again.. A big step backwards for the industry generally - but if that is what people want and no longer want to know the truth or dig deeper, we are in more trouble than I ever suspected..
/rant over - I have said all I want to say in this thread, you guys know my thoughts on this and so there is no need to beat a dead horse. SBG has a lot of new projects starting up this year, so onward and upwards..!
One final thing - don't discount the value of old reviews, especially if the product is still selling (and even more so if it is at the same price and defying inflation). If a product has stood the test of time and is still selling, it is a classic. We don't jump on every new trend in the industry or every new hot seller as they have not stood the test of time - and what happened before will likely happen again. So if, for example, Huawei have a history of lying to customers - can you really believe that they have now 'come good?'.
Okay, I have said enough. You all know how I feel about these sellers and I can assure you, they are not a force for good in the industry - have no allies here or even with the forges, and have muddied the waters to such a degree that all the hard work we put in trying to bring you the truth behind the industry has been obfuscated..
Oh well..
In the case of "reviews"...small miracle anyone buys Hanwei or (drumroll for drama) Darksword Armory.
Who has Huawei lied to? Really? I take umbrage as the swords I have bought from them outperformed the best Hanwei has to offer.
In other words, when I slam a piece of steel into steel or slice through a tree branch cleanly...Huawei survives. K120c doesn't. Oh, and the tsuka on Hanwei slip up and come loose. Huawei's doesn't.
Again, this is irritating, to see a business which has done nothing but good to me smeared in such a fashion.
If "old" reviews are to be believed, SBG custom katana leave much to be desired, and are problematic.
Forge Direct as well. Recall roughly a year ago a forum member had a dysfunctional sword and when that went to return, there was all sorts of drama. And you banned my friend, John Pope, from this forum for speaking his mind.
Again, professionals understand and repeat that certain brands, such as Huawei, are good. Rather good for the price. Perfect? No, they are no nihonto. Sinosword? tamahagane? we can all laugh at that one. That's fair. No way in hell. Pig iron or not, no way they deliver that.
So stop dissing Huawei. They outperform your brands. My advice? If readily available stock distributors offered swords with the tsuka quality and blade quality Huawei delivers, you'd own the market. Want to improve the store? Talk to Jacky. Candy shop? I feel like a kid any time I handle one of their swords. Delightful. Simple and fun. Maybe take the dread away from those who purchase subpar products and give them "candy". Ryujin? Mediocre. Ronin? Let's not. Hanwei...pretty but chip too easy. And tsuka unravels itself in a year or so. Give it another go and have fun with it. Seriously, help out the newbies. They'll love you for it. As I once did.
Take it easy man!
Cheers!
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Post by jackytheblade on Jan 28, 2020 5:58:07 GMT
Personally I think the people want to see the legit companies stand up and start showing us what they can really do and not bore us to death with another shinogi zukuri / with or without bohi / read, black or green ito / random tsuba and call it custom then charge $800. That isn't fair to the market and to new buyers or old ones who want something even remotely different, like the Ryujin Akashiro unokubi zukuri. If we were seeing more stuff like that at good prices more customers and members here would be willing to support than go to St. Nihonto or Huawei or any of these other eBay peddlers. I am looking for a good nodachi and I would gladly part with good money (within reason) to buy one if I saw them on SBG (save the Cheness o-katana, with my body size it is like a regular katana to me, nothing 'O' about it LOL!). That said I can't wait to see what comes out this year (please unokubi / moroha zukuri blades / battlewrap options).
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Post by zabazagobo on Jan 28, 2020 6:09:41 GMT
Personally I think the people want to see the legit companies stand up and start showing us what they can really do and not bore us to death with another shinogi zukuri / with or without bohi / read, black or green ito / random tsuba and call it custom then charge $800. That isn't fair to the market and to new buyers or old ones who want something even remotely different, like the Ryujin Akashiro unokubi zukuri. If we were seeing more stuff like that at good prices more customers and members here would be willing to support than go to St. Nihonto or Huawei or any of these other eBay peddlers. I am looking for a good nodachi and I would gladly part with good money (within reason) to buy one if I saw them on SBG (save the Cheness o-katana, with my body size it is like a regular katana to me, nothing 'O' about it LOL!). That said I can't wait to see what comes out this year (please unokubi / moroha zukuri blades / battlewrap options). YES! Exactly!
Where are my kanmuri-otoshi zukuri blades?
Give me kanmuri-otoshi....2 shaku? 3 shaku? 4 SHAKU (okay, that may be a bit silly, but the point remains)
If the "established brands" gave customers QUALITY options that touch on the VARIETY that is provided with Japenese history...rather than another 'shinogi zukuri with or wihout bo-hi' bit... gods....or rather, kami.....the potential!
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Post by darkrob on Jan 28, 2020 6:43:15 GMT
I own a Huawei T10 DH Katana. Ive had it for about 4 years. Ive cut everything within reason that you would cut with it. Theres really nothing bad I could say about it. Its a great well balanced sword that cuts like a demon, and is still in great shape after 4 years. What more do you really want from a sword?
I don't really have any loyalty to any one particular brand. As long as I like it that's what matters to me. Who cares what anyone else has to say about something you're happy with.
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Post by treeslicer on Jan 28, 2020 8:37:27 GMT
Personally I think the people want to see the legit companies stand up and start showing us what they can really do and not bore us to death with another shinogi zukuri / with or without bohi / read, black or green ito / random tsuba and call it custom then charge $800. That isn't fair to the market and to new buyers or old ones who want something even remotely different, like the Ryujin Akashiro unokubi zukuri. If we were seeing more stuff like that at good prices more customers and members here would be willing to support than go to St. Nihonto or Huawei or any of these other eBay peddlers. I am looking for a good nodachi and I would gladly part with good money (within reason) to buy one if I saw them on SBG (save the Cheness o-katana, with my body size it is like a regular katana to me, nothing 'O' about it LOL!). That said I can't wait to see what comes out this year (please unokubi / moroha zukuri blades / battlewrap options). YES! Exactly!
Where are my kanmuri-otoshi zukuri blades?
Give me kanmuri-otoshi....2 shaku? 3 shaku? 4 SHAKU (okay, that may be a bit silly, but the point remains)
If the "established brands" gave customers QUALITY options that touch on the VARIETY that is provided with Japenese history...rather than another 'shinogi zukuri with or wihout bo-hi' bit... gods....or rather, kami.....the potential!
First, let's set the dimensions of the playing field. In this thread, we're talking Japanese style through-tang cutters. Not stainless, not rattail, no wallhangers, no "tactical", no "fantasy", and no HEMA. Furthermore, let's limit our sourcing to Longquan.
Once the picture is framed like that, examining the production swords available will make it obvious that, aside from large scale distributors outside China (who import, then "cherry pick" for quality, and divert the damaged goods to "scratch-and-dent" sales) who add some real value to the product, all the other brands that everyone argues about here are ficticious. Outside the advertising copy of eBay resellers who order swords from a website and have them drop-shipped from Longquan (never having any contact with the swords at all), they don't exist. There are no independent "brands" to choose from. If you go to eBay and really, exhaustively read the offerings, you will see the same styles of swords in the same stock photos being offered by different resellers at illogically different prices. If you look at the resellers' eBay information, you'll find that some are scattered all over China, but the swords always ship from Longquan. No value is added by the resellers. There are no real brands here, just the output of one big factory being sold under dozens of different names by dishonest little swindlers who are getting rich off your gullibility, and laughing at you. Also, there's apparently a wholesale layer interposed between the factory and the resellers, which acts as their shipping agent, and possibly recruits them as salesmen. Some of how it all works is difficult to explore from this side of the ocean, but from analysis of online material combined with data harvested from CN22 shipping documents, it doesn't look very attractive from a consumer's point of view.
Now, lets talk about the swords. There aren't really that many types of stock production swords available, and most of the differences are in fittings. The manufacturers are producing only a limited number of blade types, usually offered in four to seven different steel types, and a limited selection of temper/quench alternatives. BTW, examining enough "folded" steel swords will suggest that the folding is being done in some sort of a batch process without benefit of hammers and anvils, and the real laminations offered (sanmai being the most common) also smack of some continuous blank-producing process. The impression I get from examining swords, ads, and recent Chinese swordmaking and steelmaking patents available through Google Patents, is that they have all this down to a science (which wasn't true 10 years ago, my older "Damascus" samples are skanky). This last is good news, BTW. There's no reason to believe that a Chinese-made katana produced through the miracles of modern engineering would be anything but good.
OTOH, getting new types made probably is going to be difficult. IMHO, this production sector is already becoming mature, and therefore increasingly risk-averse. For instance, I'm seeing more evidence of oil and less of water quenching, more mono and less folded, etc, which means more predictable outcomes, but fewer pretty structures to look at. If you want to see more interesting designs and types available, you'll need to get behind major operators like Paul and his peers. It's a lead-pipe cinch that no improvements will come through the weasels on eBay.
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Post by Robert in California on Jan 29, 2020 2:41:32 GMT
True, Huawei used to offer mono steel and folded and even had a nice "our own tamahagane".
Now? Mono and no folded (like my Huawei DH folded T10/1085's).
Huawei is limited to T19 and spring steel now.
RinC
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Nov 1, 2024 0:13:58 GMT
Nov 1, 2024 0:13:58 GMT
