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Post by denzetzu on May 11, 2020 6:18:39 GMT
I am interested in making a custom katana, I don't expect any a perfect sword or so, but I'd like for it to last a while you know? As my first non wall-hanger.
Currently just mostly deciding wheter it is worth to get either a sword from hanbon with damascus red steel (no idea what the quality of that metal is, is it as strong as 1095?) or a 1095 dyed red from SoN.
Hanbon seems like it would be about 100 dollar ish cheaper, but I've heard most good things about SoN, but also what I've understood from this forum is that they are just resellers of longquan/hammer town.
I'd probably not do heavy cutting , just plastic bottles.
Do any of you have any tips regarding this? Any good or negative experience with either seller?
Thanks in advance.
(Sorry if I respond slow, will be at an introduction to a new job)
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Post by Dandelion on May 11, 2020 6:56:47 GMT
You gonna wear any kind of those katana color coatings away with cutting; please be aware of that. We have decent swords from Hanbon here; but i would avoid Northshire. Theyre kind of a reseller for Ryan Swords, and while we also have good Ryan Swords here those are MUCH more expensive on that Nortshire site... easily 20 - 30%.
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Post by denzetzu on May 11, 2020 13:12:58 GMT
I don't mind it too much that the color would wear out after a while. I don't plan on using daily after all.
Do you have any experience with the damascus steel from hanbon? Or rather any information. I wouldn't like taking something that is waaaay weaker just because it was cheaper than SoN
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Post by Dandelion on May 11, 2020 13:45:47 GMT
I don't mind it too much that the color would wear out after a while. I don't plan on using daily after all. Do you have any experience with the damascus steel from hanbon? Or rather any information. I wouldn't like taking something that is waaaay weaker just because it was cheaper than SoN Other way around. Northshire is does sell the same stuff waaay more expensive than everybody else... And the folded steel you get from the chinese ebay sellers / vendor sites is pretty much the same everywhere. By the wy - the heat treat makes the quality, not the combinations of steels or the layers or the folds... |
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Post by RaylonTheDemented on May 11, 2020 14:50:48 GMT
I don't mind it too much that the color would wear out after a while. I don't plan on using daily after all. Do you have any experience with the damascus steel from hanbon? Or rather any information. I wouldn't like taking something that is waaaay weaker just because it was cheaper than SoN Keep in mind they are not forges, they are re-sellers. Swords from both likely come mostly from the same forges. So no, 'weaker' is luck of the draw when ordering direct from Chinese re-sellers.
With that in mind, and to repeat what Dandelion already said: SoN offer the same swords at inflated prices.
These are not 'damascus' swords, they are folded steel. Folded increase the risk to have a bad sword, but they do look nicer if you like that style. |
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Post by denzetzu on May 11, 2020 17:40:12 GMT
I see! Then maybe I should go with Hanbon. They seem a lot slower to answer mails though.. And saw someone on reddit saying he didn't get his sword..
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Post by Dandelion on May 11, 2020 20:16:21 GMT
I see! Then maybe I should go with Hanbon. They seem a lot slower to answer mails though.. And saw someone on reddit saying he didn't get his sword.. I can only tell my good experiences with the following ebay sellers: 1.) Ryan Sword, around 8 items 2.) Sinosword (not ebay), 5 items 3.) Huawei Swords (not ebay) 4 items 4.) Hanbon, 1 item 5.) ST Nihonto, 1 item all of the shelf, no custom. |
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Post by RaylonTheDemented on May 11, 2020 21:18:49 GMT
...And saw someone on reddit saying he didn't get his sword.. And that's why you use Paypal. |
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Post by jayotterstein on May 11, 2020 21:41:16 GMT
I see! Then maybe I should go with Hanbon. They seem a lot slower to answer mails though.. And saw someone on reddit saying he didn't get his sword.. I can only tell my good experiences with the following ebay sellers: 1.) Ryan Sword, around 8 items 2.) Sinosword (not ebay), 5 items 3.) Huawei Swords (not ebay) 4 items 4.) Hanbon, 1 item 5.) ST Nihonto, 1 item all of the shelf, no custom. ^^^ THIS ^^^^^ Nailed it - You are generally better off ordering one of their "off the shelf" offerings than trying to do a custom order. Better odds you get a sword where things actually fit. |
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Post by zabazagobo on May 12, 2020 5:13:32 GMT
"The wakizashi blade shares many of a katan’s main aspects with the size difference being the exception. While a standard katana is 60 cm (about 23 inches), the wakizashi is a relatively short blade that ranges between half to two thirds the length of a katana."
And yes, SoN is just a reseller of RyanSwords. Better to just buy directly if that's what you're looking for.
I had really bad luck with Hanbon and I don't recommend them.
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Post by denzetzu on May 12, 2020 22:02:49 GMT
"The wakizashi blade shares many of a katan’s main aspects with the size difference being the exception. While a standard katana is 60 cm (about 23 inches), the wakizashi is a relatively short blade that ranges between half to two thirds the length of a katana."
And yes, SoN is just a reseller of RyanSwords. Better to just buy directly if that's what you're looking for.
I had really bad luck with Hanbon and I don't recommend them.
That seems to be an issue with all custom sites. Mistakes here and there. I tried mailing hanbon but no response, SoN at least responds once a day. Will try to mail some others as well and see.  worst thing that happens is just a small monetary loss and disappointment I guess |
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Post by Mitch1 on Apr 12, 2021 3:49:10 GMT
I see! Then maybe I should go with Hanbon. They seem a lot slower to answer mails though.. And saw someone on reddit saying he didn't get his sword.. I believe Hanbon has a forge. |
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Post by MichaelRS on Apr 19, 2021 3:05:01 GMT
Well, I'm new to this whole game and went with Hanbon because the price was some 30% lowerthan Northshire fir what I wanted. So I hope that doesn't mean 30% less quality of the sword. It's supposed to be done in about five weeks for what I want.
And yeah, there's little enough information about HF on YouTube. I tried to send some feelers out to that Matthew Jensen guy (who seems very cool and knowledgeable and does a lot of the sword function testing) but I've heard nothing back.
And with those companies over there I don't know if their "customer service" is the computer/email equivalent of a "call center" or not.
I don't know if it's the same person or the same few people running both shows or not.
The HF abd SoN websites are extremely similar and the language they use when responding to emails is likewise very similar.
They might have 2 or 3 people working the keyboards and every one of them is "Bryce" or "Yao", depending on which the company's email they are responding to.
Funny thing is, I was going to order from Swords of Northshire first, because I too would heard many good things about them. But PayPal credit is my mad money for such things and when I saw they didn't take it I suggested that maybe they should start. Then this "Bryce" guy responded to me by saying the reason they don't take Paypal is because PayPal does not allowed sword sales on their platform.
Huh!? 😳
Well, if that's the case, a couple of dozen other major sword and knife sellers out there in cyber-land did not get the memo.
But that sounded fishy to me so that and the price was why I went with HF.
Anyway, i ordered a 9260 blade with some personalized etching on it and HF said that they would be sending me photographs of it all before they even shipped it to make sure it's all cool.
That sounds like good business practice to me, if that's a thing they really started doing.
I just hope I get the blade steel that I was promised and it's not really 1045. Because unless I actually tried do damage it, like Matthew Jensen does in some of his videos, how would I know?
It's not like I'm going to break off a piece of it and send it out for analysis.
Though I wish somebody would do that with some of these companies. Kind of a Consumer Reports type testing thing. It would be nice to know who you can really trust or not.
And if you found out somebody was selling crap... Well I guess it wouldn't make much difference, because they could stop using one name and just continue operations under a different name. How would we know?
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Post by pellius on Apr 19, 2021 5:44:04 GMT
I’ve bought a number of swords, including katana, from Hanbon, though it’s been a couple of years. They always delivered what was promised. No extras, though. If they didn’t specify some particular feature, it wasn’t on the sword. Fair enough in the tight-budget range, I suppose.
Several swords I got from them were “folded” or “Damascus” steel. The steel was fine, with no delaminations or other flaws that I could see. Temper was good. On a jian I got from them, I pinned the hilt for added safety. The robust tang drilled easily, but the blade had a nice spring temper. So on that one at least, they delivered a well heat-treated sword.
Fittings on all my Hanbon Swords were okay, though I think they made budget on the details. For example, the ito was always tight, but it wouldn’t necessarily be even in height to the fuchi and kashira.
Occasionally, the details would be different, too. I once got a katana with the wrong tsuba. Correct material, but wrong design. No big deal to me, but if you are looking to customize, it might really stick in your craw.
I never ordered from SoN.
As for PayPal, they have blocked a number of my attempted sword-related purchases. Even on antiques. Not all of them, though. Individual and anecdotal experiences with PayPal seem to vary widely and severely. Maybe you’ll be among the lucky who experience no problems. I would advise against any weapon related words in the memo, though.
I definitely would not expect PayPal to provide consumer protection on a sword or other weapon. Also, it seems that returning a sword to China is impossible. So what you get may be all you’ll ever get, even if it’s nothing.
Personally, I always viewed sending payment to a Chinese vendor as akin to gambling in that there was no recourse if things went south. Dunno, maybe returns are possible to SoN.
Good hunting!
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Post by MichaelRS on Apr 19, 2021 9:03:42 GMT
I’ve bought a number of swords, including katana, from Hanbon, though it’s been a couple of years. They always delivered what was promised. No extras, though..... Good hunting! Thank you for taking the time to respond with such detail. I'm sure they're sick of hearing from me because I made it extremely plain and in repetitive detail, to avoid language misunderstandings, and they're like, "No problem, friend." I think though what I might do from now on is just get the blade and fixings from them have the laser engraving done somewhere local here where I can go over them with it in more detail. But your experiences as stated is encouraging. I know a number of people who have received their storage site unseen and we're not happy with them but if HF is now taking pictures before they ship it out that should solve a lot of problems in that regard. I think everybody should do that. I'd even pay $5 bucks for that service (decent money over there for the worker involved). With the PayPal thing I didn't send it to them through their site, they had me send it to an email something and it went to "swordsmith688" or something like that. But there was several back-and-forth emails after that like they were actually concerned about fulfilling the order and getting it to me so it didn't SEEM like it was any kind of scam. I just wish more people would talk about them on YouTube if they have them. Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to answer so completely. |
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Post by Gordon on Nov 14, 2021 15:07:28 GMT
Hanbon forge have been exceptional in every way am now waiting on a wakizashi to match a katana I bought 6 months ago,custom, they still have my information from the katana, they communicate with you on every step in the process with pictures and memos,and are very helpful, cordial, and honest, I can't say that about every company I have felt with, I won't ever consider any other company from now on
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Post by Gordon on Nov 14, 2021 15:09:58 GMT
Hanbon forge have been exceptional in every way am now waiting on a wakizashi to match a katana I bought 6 months ago,custom, they still have my information from the katana, they communicate with you on every step in the process with pictures and memos,and are very helpful, cordial, and honest, I can't say that about every company I have felt with, I won't ever consider any other company from now on
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Post by heretohelp on Nov 16, 2021 19:30:16 GMT
they will both provide about the same quality overall. both would likely be fine to cut with out of the box, both offer customization but both could also have a couple to several of the typical shortcomings know to this class of production sword. SON will charge you more since they buy from the same forges and then dropship to you while hanbon is more of a direct seller with less overhead. while hanbon will probably cost less for the same sword, SON's customer service might be better if something should go wrong(mainly if you're in the states). neither will provide top quality for the price within the current market, imho, but if that's not a priority, they should be fine. decent for a first custom or a beater.
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Post by elton45 on Dec 20, 2021 1:13:14 GMT
I can only tell my good experiences with the following ebay sellers: 1.) Ryan Sword, around 8 items 2.) Sinosword (not ebay), 5 items 3.) Huawei Swords (not ebay) 4 items 4.) Hanbon, 1 item 5.) ST Nihonto, 1 item all of the shelf, no custom. ^^^ THIS ^^^^^ Nailed it - You are generally better off ordering one of their "off the shelf" offerings than trying to do a custom order. Better odds you get a sword where things actually fit. |
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Post by elton45 on Dec 20, 2021 1:50:46 GMT
My limited experience with hanbon has been very good.
Their communication was timely and accurate. I really like the way they sent pictures of the item before shipping it although I don't know what they would have done if I said it was wrong.
When I received the first item I ordered, the wakizashi custom I was pleased it was actually better than I expected. When I compared it with a friends katana that had been ordered from another eBay seller HanBon's attention to detail and quality really stood out. The mirror like polish on the blade was really outstanding.
My recently ordered matching katana is finished and ready to ship
Since I'm coming in on this thread kind of late I don't know this is going to matter if you've already ordered your sword but several years ago I was making knives. 1095 and some of the more exotic tool and spring steels were all the rage. It seems the current thinking that 1095 is too brittle for the longer blades with 1060 or 1065 being a better balance.If you'll notice the spring steels are in that 60 65 carbon range.
As for folded steel or Damascus. It seems that in the past they were just a way of making up for poor quality Steel.
I'm sure HanBon could make a red 1060 custom for you
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worst thing that happens is just a small monetary loss and disappointment I guess
