SBG Project X Katana Review
Mar 8, 2020 17:07:05 GMT
Post by metal on Mar 8, 2020 17:07:05 GMT
-Introduction
I’ve been drawn to traditionally made katana since I was a youngin’ and I have always wanted to add a “custom and traditional” sword to my collection, however, having just graduated from college, I knew that getting a Nihonto or a named smith custom sword would be a poor choice at the moment due to trying to make some tangible money before blowing it all on my hobbies. That’s what brought me to the SBG Project X model 2: Ryoushi. I’ve been very interested in them for a while and wanted to treat myself, so when I saw the next pre-order open, I hopped on it, and FAST. I’m fairly sure I was actually the first one in this batch due to getting woken up to the email at 1:30 in the morning and buying the sword about 5 minutes later before I went back to bed. Even better, I was able to snag it for 10% off ($900 total).
-Historical overview
Even though it is a semi-custom, brand-new sword, I did actually really enjoy the write-up on the model page for the idea for the design of the sword, and I think that’s what made this model appeal to me more than the others. It’s a Kamakura period themed sword, that would be carried by a private retainer samurai of a Daimyo class landowner. I liked the idea of a sword that would be very nice looking on display but would be no nonsense and on the “intimidating/danger vibe” when it was out of the saya. Which is why I ordered the more ornate tiger claw saya, but with an all-black handle with relatively plain fittings.
Additional: I’m not super knowledgeable on antique Nihonto, however from reading the project X blog pages, Paul says that all of the tsuba choices are based on antiques, and although I’ve never seen this specific one from my own research looking at antique swords, I have seen a couple of the other design choices of tsuba for the model 2 on actual Nihonto, so I have no reason to believe that this one isn’t based on an antique design.
Full Disclosure
I’ve had a large interest in Japanese swords and culture essentially my whole life, however, my sword collection consists of only a few swords and I really do not claim to know all that much, I’m just a hobbyist and backyard cutter with a love for swords and knowledge.
My plan for this review is to at least get some detailed information on this line of swords out there. I went into this purchase fairly blind on what exactly to expect, as the only reviews on the Project X katanas are few and far between, and because of the price tag, not many people own them. I’m just hoping to give everyone some good pictures of what they can expect and talk about my thoughts on it.
P.S. - Other than the title picture, I’m including all of the pictures below my written review, because there are a lot of them, and I want to try to keep the review somewhat organized.
-Initial Impressions
So, I received this sword about a month sooner than I expected. Which introduced a few problems actually, because I ordered it to my girlfriend’s house while I was out of state finishing my degree. I didn’t want to have it sent to the frozen tundra in the middle of nowhere where I was staying at the time. It just seemed like a bad idea due to some items that I’ve gotten shipped there being badly damaged from transit, so I didn’t get a chance to inspect it when it first arrived. I had my girlfriend unbox it for me and give me as many details as she could and she also cleaned/oiled it for me, (she’s a keeper lol).
The sword came in the standard long rectangle cardboard shipping box. Inside the box was a black sword case. It isn’t anything special and is very cheap feeling and looking, but I was appreciative that I got the case, because the more stuff to help keep my sword protected during shipping, the better. Also, it gives me another space to store a different sword due to my current lack of multiple stands/mounts. The sword inside the box was wrapped in a pretty nice sword bag, which conveniently also matches my black with gold accents theme for the sword. Included in the sword box was a 3-piece sword stand as well! I was pleasantly surprised with that part. One of the screws wasn’t long enough to properly hold one of the side pieces to the base, but I put some electrical tape around the screw head to hold it in snug until I go to the hardware store and get a different one.
After opening the case/unwrapping the bag, we finally get to the sword. First impressions that I saw through the phone… awesome, it looked strikingly beautiful from the kashira to the kissaki, and I could even see some of the lamination lines through the video chat. However, there was one immediate issue that I saw regarding the saya. That it wasn’t the one that I picked. I ordered the “tiger claw mark” and I was given a plain gloss black. Overall though this saya looked great, with the brown buffalo horn pieces matching well. I talked to Paul about this issue and he is handling it for me, as expected from the SBG store (more on that in the saya section). There was no paperwork/documentation included, other than a small “made in China” tag attached to the tsuba.
-Statistics
Blade Geometry: Shinogi Zukuri/Dotanuki style with bo-hi
Blade Materials: Tri-steel Soshu Kitae Lamination (1045, 1060, & 1095 steel)
Nagasa/Blade Length: Ordered 29” blade, received: 28” (Nagasa)
Blade Width & Thickness: 1.3125 in wide, 0.3125 in thick (5/16”) (mune at base)
Handle/Tsuka Length: Ordered: 11” Received: 11.375 inches (end of kashira to tsuba)
Overall Length: 40.25 inches
Tsuba Thickness: 0.1875 inches, (3/16 in)
POB (Point of Balance): About 4.5 inches from the tsuba
Weight: 2 lbs 6 oz, 2lbs 15 oz (with saya)
-Components
The Blade/Nagasa:
I believe The blade geometry is in a Dotanuki style. It is thicker than my other katanas by a small amount which leads me to believe that, however I can’t ever seem to find good numbers or guidelines that actually tell the difference between the two geometries. There is not very much niku as well.
The blade is perfectly straight/not warped, with a fairly normal sori. The only imperfection I could find is a VERY small black spot, that I originally thought may have been rust, so I took some mothers mag and tried to polish it out, however I noticed that the darkness disappeared, but I can feel and see a tiny pocket-y scratch. I have determined from some forum investigating on an old thread about a ronin elite, that this is kitae-ware, or an open layer in the lamination where the steels are welded together. It’s pretty much just a visual issue and by no means a fatal flaw, and my solution to it is to apply oil there more generously to make sure rust and dust doesn’t collect in there. It is small enough that it isn’t that big of a problem, however, I do regret going in with the mother’s mag, as I made the finger stone polish not as consistent in that spot. I tried to get pictures of it the best I could, but it’s really small, almost too small to see. There really aren’t any other noticeable visible imperfections in the blade. The edge passed the paper test for the full blade except for about an inch above the tsuba, and I’m itching to cut some other stuff with it (waiting until I have nicer weather).
I’ve heard some people complain about the polish on these and the Ronin Elite blades, however I quite like it, and it just feels unique to me. The hamon is a gunome midare style and is gorgeous along with the way it’s polished. The lamination lines on either side ride along the tops of the waves in a wiggly straight line for the most part. In some spots of the blade they are very pronounced, and in others, relatively invisible.
The bo-hi terminates at the same spot on both sides of the blade just as it passes up into the kissaki and is very nicely done overall. The tachikaze on this sword is loud too. The yokote is pronounced and geometric, and the boshi is also nicely done.
Now here’s a bit of a concern. I ordered this blade to be 29 inches, and well, it isn’t. This isn’t a giant deal to me using the sword, the blade still fits me very well (and most of my blades lengths are 28” anyways). The real question is, is it okay to buy a sword for about $1000 and not get the proper requested blade length? Usually no, but in this case I’m okay with it.
Here’s why,
It’s mentioned various times on the SBG store page and the blog posts that sometimes it takes a few tries to get these Soshu Kitae blades correct. And when it comes down to it, if they broke a few blades just trying to get one that’s well forged but happens to be short, I’ll take it. This isn’t going to be my main cutter, and I wanted the fancy lamination which I’m happy with how it turned out so I’m giving this issue a pass in my book. If anything, I guess the small open layer and the length difference could be taken as evidence that this is probably real Soshu Kitae lamination.
The Handle/Tsuka:
The Tsuka itself feels excellent in my hands, but I’m going to break it down into a couple sections to try and not ramble, cause there’s a lot to talk about.
The silk ito is wrapped with hishigami with only one really miniscule spot of the paper being visible which wasn’t too hard to shift/tuck out of visibility. The wrap is VERY tight, I can’t move the wrap really at all with my fingers unless I wrench on it with all of my strength, and the menuki are locked in place as well which is awesome. Definitively the best stock wrap I’ve had on a sword. The diamonds are also pretty even, with only one or two being slightly different sized. The ito has a nice softness to the touch, and I performed the “pinhole burn test” on it and got a smell of burning hair, so I’m assuming it’s actual silk. The ito ledges between the fuchi/kashira are smooth and small, and on the upper part of the tsuka pretty much nonexistent. Overall, with the ito wrap I would consider as excellent and exceeding of my expectations.
I was very curious to see how the full wrap of samegawa would be implemented, and I’m quite happy with it. I like my tsukas to have a bit of “hourglass” taper to them, and this one still pulls it off slightly but elegantly. The handle is thicker/bigger than what I’m used to, but man it feels great in my hands. Now that I’ve had this full wrap/size, my other tsukas just don’t feel as good anymore. My hands are a bit on the bigger side though, and it may not be as comfortable for someone with small hands. The ray skin itself is lacquered black, and despite the SBG store pages assurance, there isn’t a visible emperor node. This doesn’t take too much away from the skin itself though, it’s lacquered nicely, and the piece of skin is of a higher quality than most. It’s not absolutely perfect, but I think it’s really good, especially for one of the few swords offered with a full wrap.
The mekugi pins are solid and painted black, however on one side of one of them, the paint is a little lackluster and the natural finish is showing a bit. It probably came off while they were putting it into place. It doesn’t look bad though, but it is noticeable.
The Guard/Tsuba:
The tsuba came out better than I expected, being mainly that the edges of the cutouts on the tsuba don’t rub or scratch my hands. The surface and color is smooth and doesn’t have any noticeable imperfections, and it feels and looks like a good size for this blade.
Fuchi-Kashira, menuki, and habaki:
The fuchi and kashira are very simple plain black fittings, they’re advertised as iron and they’re magnetic, so yup, they’re cast iron. The paint looks good, and I quite like the “brand new” look rather than a patina of some sort. On the fuchi there is only a very minor trace of a casting line on an otherwise smooth piece.
The kashira has a couple irregularities, and on the bottom is not perfectly smooth with some minor casting imperfections. Having done a bit of iron casting myself, I would not have called this bad at all and I would’ve definitely sent it out to the handle assemblers had I been the one to cast it. One thing to note however, is the brass shitodome on the sides of the kashira. When I received the sword, one of them was not glued/fit in, and freely moved from the kashira on the end knot of the ito. Not a big deal, I put a tiny bit of glue in there and bam, problem solved. I assume it came loose due to vibrations during shipping because the one on the other side and the ones on the saya are all snug in place when I tried to move them.
The dragon menuki have a good amount of detail on them compared to most of the swords I’ve seen, and they’re pretty low profile so they don’t do anything to negatively affect your grip.
The habaki is brass and a nice design overall. The fit is excellent into the saya.
The Scabbard/Saya:
As I stated before, the saya I received with the sword was not the correct one, so at the time of writing, I’ll review the one that was included. For a bit of extra info, when I emailed Paul about it, he said that he is going to have the forge send me the correct saya, and also offered me instructions on how to properly fit it to my blade once it arrives.
The black gloss saya is well lacquered and even, with brown buffalo horn on the kurikata, koiguchi, kojirii. The buffalo pieces match each other well overall and look nice. There are some micro-scratches that can be noticed but only when held in direct light and when looking very closely. I’ve never had a gloss saya that didn’t have those though, and they’re so small that I don’t really consider them an imperfection.
The sageo is nice looking, long, and tied very tight like the ito. Compared with one of my synthetic chemical fiber ones, it feels different. I did the “pinhole burn test” on it as well and got a burning hair smell here too, so if I were to guess off of just that, I’d say it’s actual silk. The shitodome on the kurikata are tightly in place and match the ones on the kashira.
Lastly, the lines between the tsuka and saya are very clean, and there isn’t any ledge/size gap between the two. The habaki fit is very good and there isn’t any rattle on the sword components or in the saya.
-Handling Characteristics
The sword has a certain heft/blade presence to it, which at first felt weird to me, but after getting used to it, it feels great. I think the extra thickness/weight in the blade is balanced well with the extra material/weight in the tsuka, however it still handles very balanced and agile and I’m glad that I got the bo-hi for that little bit of reduced weight.
-Conclusions
Pros
- Beautiful looking polish/hamon/lamination lines/bo-hi
- The full wrap samegawa and super tight silk ito with hishigami are fantastic overall
- Everything fits together solidly and tightly (saya, kashira, fuchi, seppa, tsuba etc.)
Cons
- Blade is not made to specified length
- Very small opening in the lamination/active weld
- Shipped with wrong saya
- No emperor nodes on samegawa
- One of the Shitodome on the kashira arrived loose
-The Bottom Line
I love this sword. It’s a real looker, and you can feel that a lot of effort went into making it. Which was sort of my original purpose for wanting to buy it. It’s definitely the stand-out piece in my collection, and the first one that everyone wants to check out when I show them my swords.
I would recommend this line of sword to someone else, but only if they wanted the complex lamination and full wrap. Otherwise I think that there may be other options available. Although for $1000, I think you should get pretty much exactly what you want with as little flaws as possible, and this was good, but not perfect, which is to be somewhat expected of any Chinese production/semi-production sword.
The SBG customer service was excellent though and that is why I recommend them as a general seller of blades.
$1000 is kind of an awkward price range, because you’re above budget swords that are known to always have issues, but below the "esteemed" production swords (ie: Motohara, Citadel), but the fact that it’s a cheaper than those shows a bit, and the Soshu-Kitae could potentially introduce problems like blade imperfections and improper size. You do get the customization though which is where I feel that it makes its ground at that price point against its closer competitors like the 1k Hanweis.
Thanks for reading, I hope I didn’t ramble too much
-Metal
-Pictures