Yu Wei Ping, National ranked smith at Jkoo/Sinosword?

One of my friends is in contact with a really renown JSA and Kung fu practitioner and was inquiring about the origins of one of his custom swords and that practitioner told him that the blade was made by wei ping yu from sinosword and has an actual certificate of authenticity.

So now I’m kinda lost ..... was the practitioner lying to him or does wei ping yu actually exist at all?

How could that happened? That particular practitioner has many titles ,years of training under his belt, and a well versed repertoire of custom swords . I think he was on this forum maybe a year or so back .

All very interesting.
What was the date of the Jkoo visit and the date of those Jkoo pics?
Thanks!
RinC
p.s. The wild and beautiful hamon on that SBG folded katana blade is amazing!
To look at it is to want it.

We have a ST sword here with a modified grip by Cottontail Customs, with an adorable blade. You should hold one yourself and make some experiences before you jump on the hate-train... especially with the number of Hanwei lemons that are around for sale; at least here in Germany.

You don't need to be stupid or ignorant to get duped. Thinking that is exactly how scam artists get you.

LMAO that many in the forum still have managed to avoid learning those universal truths of the ages;

- In an efficient market, you get what you pay for...
- There is no free lunch
- If it's too good to be true, it usually isn't ..
- If a chinese vendor can lie and cheat you, most will..

Reading this thread about some shithole "Swordmaker" in China has been enlightening. That any of you are surprised or disappointed at being lied to, cheated and stolen from by Chinese vendors in China is shocking. Chinese vendors of all kinds of goods are experts at  "bait and switch" ; a regular and accepted business practice in china. Happily most of you are not sending big money over there. 

 The real sad thing is that everybody trying to get a deal by sending money to the crooks advertising the too good to be true swords only makes it harder for the legitimate vendors in China who do provide a fair product at a fair price to stay in business .

I'm not saying there aren't good vendors and manufacturers of swords in China. There clearly are but China is like the wild west when it comes to business and far too many vendors/manufacturers  in china  are loose with the facts and loose with their quality control knowing that they are on the far side of the world.

There are some very good swords and deals to be had going the direct from China route. this includes ebay sellers, independent seller sites and even those selling on facebook. most, if not all, will be resellers and not an actual forge or established company. they take your order and sift through the sea of blades they have access to to find the closest one to your specs or in some cases, possibly have your blade made from scratch by a forge. then your blade is sent to be mounted by another source or even done in house at the sellers location. picture a bunch of tsuka cores(some wrapped, some bare), ito, samegawa, fittings and someone wrapping and assembling these to your blade. I don't think I need to go too into the quality of materials and workmanship for most of the cases as it's unfortunately pretty obvious in a disappointing way. to many of these sellers, close enough is good enough and they won't exactly go out of their way to make sure every detail is spot on and often even miss some of the more important ones. either they forget what you wanted (if doing the work themselves) or know it's not right but hope you won't notice or care enough to say anything. even if you do notice and care, they're probably happy enough offering another sword or a discount rather than spend the time, effort and money getting every order right the first time. in a lot of cases, they are generally making enough off their products to send the occasional replacement. buying seconds or random pieces in lots probably help cut down some costs for them.

yes, many will tell you exactly what they think you want to hear. many will send out incorrect or even damaged orders because they don't know enough to catch them or don't care enough or both. many are looking for the one time sale and don't know or care enough about good business. there are some cases where they do recognize that they have a customer who loves everything they buy, good or bad, and they do go out of their way to make them feel appreciated as a customer and will offer extras or better cs. I can't speak for every one of these sellers and their outlook on good business practices but I've see enough examples of good and bad business to assume not everyone feels the same across the board.

there are some sellers who go way out of their way to lie, cheat and rip people off. they have been known to lie repeatedly about the steel they use and about lamination methods, polishing techniques and a bunch of other things. basically, anything to get that one sale. most have heard about at least one of these company names and I don't think I need to go into that now either. what many don't know however, is how many of these different "brand names" are actually tied back to the same seller. probably many more than you would think. when people catch on to one name being a crook, they just pop up with another name and another store.

can you or should you trust any of these sellers? probably not but that doesn't mean all of the swords they sell or services they offer are not worth your money. if you are just someone looking for a good sword for a good price and don't want to get caught up in the morals issues, there's plenty out there. some are diamonds in the rough, some are hidden gems, some are as adequate as you needed at the time.

if you are someone who wants a good sword, it's not necessarily as easy as going to a seller who has sold good swords before or going on someone's recommendation. as I said before, many source blades/swords from all over the place and there isn't always any consistency in the quality. the only way to cut your chances of getting ripped off or getting a lemon is to know what you're dealing with. even if there are people who's reviews and opinions you trust, knowing more about what to look for yourself is incredibly important and making that effort can really pay off. I can personally sift through nearly any seller's offerings and pick out the good from the bad, or at least those with a higher chance of satisfying me with those that probably won't. I know what I'm looking at, what to look for and what to avoid. I see all kinds of red flags sticking out like laser lights. I also know the signs of bs info and stats and shady/misleading terminology. it took years for me to figure it all out but there is a LOT more good information out there now than there used to be, you just have to find it and learn it and like anything else you want to be better at, practice it.

I don't think banning an entire source of swords is the best way to deal with these issues. if the goal is to help people find the best products for them, cutting this very large chunk of possibilities out altogether doesn't seem to make the most sense. I would suggest helping people learn to spot the good deals from the bad or shady, helping them to protect themselves. having so many customer reviews available is a good way to get a closer look and the products but because many reviewing the products don't know all that much themselves, it may also wind up being misleading, especially when the word perfect is thrown around for 90% of the review, when clearly it is anything but. imo, these reviews still have their place in the sword community but shouldn't necessarily be the only place people go to learn. unbiased reviews by those that know more about the subject can be extremely helpful. these reviewers should know as much as possible about the swords, inside and out and either have some level of training or get their information on the actual use of the swords by someone qualified in that area. not a terribly difficult thing to do.

I don't really care what brand of sword I customize for a client as much as I care about the quality of it. I care because the better the base sword is, the easier it is for me to make my client happy in the end. I don't care if it's a Hanwei, Skyjiro, Forge Direct, or Hanbon but the results of years worth of customizing katana, working on dozens of brands and models is that some of these brands do consistently have more issues than others. one brand I won't name has caused such grief on my end as well as my customer's end that I refuse to work on them anymore. I should be able to mention it here but I know it will not go over well and I'll just once more be accused of having an agenda instead of giving my honest opinion. but anyway. I also do sell a brand of ready to go katana on my site but I NEVER push it on my clients unless asked or unless I truly feel it's the best choice for the project and it in no way makes me biased against other brands I don't sell. I also only decided to sell it in the first place because I truly think it's higher quality than most and I like them personally. again... but anyway.

as for Huawei...
there is only one reason I still buy Huawei and that it's one of the very few I constantly recommend for commissioned projects and one of the only ones I buy for my own projects, they make a good quality sword for a very reasonable price. anyone that knows enough about what to look for in a production sword can clearly see they aren't selling the same random riffraff as all the others. whether they forge them themselves or not, these blades come from the same source, consistently. they always have and hopefully they always will. they have definitely grown in quality over the years, I have purchased or worked on Huawei swords nearly every year they have been around and I have seen the changes, inside and out as they happen. the sword market in some cases is much like electronics, you have to judge them by the newest available and can't rely on outdated information and results. I've seen pretty drastic changes happen in less than a year. I found the information gathered in the above graphs and charts to be almost completely useless due to the dates of the reviews and or the knowledge of the reviewers and in many cases, the summary given completely missing the point if the review. take mine for example, the summary would have one believe that it was just a satisfactory sword but if you read the entire review (unfortunately no more pics), it comes across as pretty glowing imo. many are like this so I would strongly suggest going back and 1. reading the entire review, 2. take into account who is reviewing it and their knowledge of the subject and 3. taking into account the date of review and how much the product may have changed since then.

Huawei, and some others, aren't always so easy to deal with or score from. as with any seller like them, there are things I would suggest you do and those I would suggest not to do to ensure you get what you want. in my opinion, Huawei is best when buying their available inventory. these swords ship the fastest and with least issue most of the time. if you have to ask questions, keep them simple and to the point, avoid asking complex and long-winded questions or trying to establish some kind of personal relationship with them, it will just make things more complicated and run a higher risk of disappointment.

while they do offer custom services and while many do come out beautifully and wind up being something you literally can't find anywhere else for even close to the price, there will always be more risks involved. asking for the sword advertised wit only the ito color different might be considered a 2 out of 10 for complexity and might bump your risk factor up a notch, giving them a 10 page request with every dimension being specified, etc. will bump that risk factor way up. getting a good sword for a good price is one thing but trying to get blood from a rock is quite another. you will also risk a drop off of communication and not everything coming out exactly as requested in in some rare occasions, not receiving your sword or having Jacky drop your project and refunding your money, even after waiting 6 months. yes, there are risks but you basically decide yourself who high they will be. the truth is at this point, they make the best quality base katana for the price and feature the highest quality blades, hamon, construction and materials. the fittings are basic and to some, pretty boring but they are now mostly made of steel and the quality of these are getting better all the time. their 9260 line has jumped up in construction quality lately and I mean down to the nakago being clean, deburred and in the proper shape and thickness. I don't promote Huawei because I'm partnered with them or get any kickback at all, I recommend them for many projects and complete swords because of what I see and feel with my own eyes and hands and know many who regularly cut with them with nothing but good things to say. you take risks with so many of your products already, including food you eat, cars you drive, clothes you wear, etc., etc., etc., life is full of them so this alone shouldn't be a reason to not take a chance at all. calculated risk

is it more important that sellers will lie about this or that or if a blade is made of 9260 or 1060 or even 1045 or is it more important that the sword you wind up with is everything you wanted or as close as possible for the price you paid? it's not as if Huawei is lying about using 9260 to charge more since their 9260 line is only $200 shipped! how much less do you think you should pay for what has been proven time and time again to be everything advertised? I personally don't care much if they are made of 1045, they are friggan beasts that flex a crazy amount without taking a set and resist chipping and rolling as much as expected and are shaped well and have pleasing geometry and a bunch of other features you'd expect to pay more for. lies mean much less if you can spot them, avoid them and if the end result is you are satisfied with your product.

I think people are getting off course and too hung up about some of the above details and not focusing on the more important aspects. the fight has become more about he said she said and politics and cultural cleanliness and storefronts vs factories vs forges vs smiths and a bunch of other things that I don't think should be the point of the discussion. again, I don't really care who made the blade or what its made of or where it ships from if it looks and performs how it should and can be had for a fair price.

again, learn what to look for, what to expect, how to read between the lines and how to protect yourself and you can find a treasure for a great deal. I would believe the purpose of a buyer's guide forum would be to help one do just that but not by blacklisting everything not sold in one store or cutting out all sources that carry some degree of risk. if the goal is to help someone find the best sword for them, the key is knowledge, not banning. I get that protecting those less knowledgeable is important too but I think protecting by informing with the truth would be much more effective. I think by working together to set up a better system for reviews and product information will help get to this goal and that this information can also be applied to products sold by more trustworthy sources with better customer service. there is always room for improvement, whether talking about Huawei, SOTNS, Hanwei or Forge Direct and if people aren't buying these as much as one would hope, maybe it's time to reevaluate the situation and see how and where to make improvements.

I don't have the time to proof everything I just spewed now so I apologize for errors and rambling and incoherence in advance and will try to come back at some point to refine/repair where necessary.