Cheness 30" Nagasa Katana, another one.
Aug 10, 2008 6:23:12 GMT
Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2008 6:23:12 GMT
Cheness 30" Nagasa Katana.
Kenny H., Oregon, United states.
Well this is my first review, I spent several days contemplating just which Katana I should get, Musashi "wind"? no no, the Cheness O' Katana? No no, ah yes the Nagasa katana! Just the perfect length for my height, at 6' tall I was thrown between the 33" O'katana or the Nagasa. I gotta say, I'm glad I got the Nagasa and not the O' katana, yeesh.
According to the website these are the specs.
overall length in saya 43.25 "
Blade length: 30"
Weight: 3 lbs
The fuchi, Kashira and Tsuba are blackened steel
The Ito is a flat colored Blue Cotton.
The Tsuka is 12"
And Contrary to the site the Mekugi is 1 brass and 1 wood, it has ray skin wrap as well.
I bought it directly from Chenessinc.com, it took about 3 days to be processed and two to arrive at my door step, I live about 4 hours away from their warehouse though. It came in a perfectly fitting cardboard box that snugly fit what was inside.
The box was sort of pretty, it's covered in that cheesy looking chinese synthetic material with a dragon and blossom design, sort of attractive but no big deal.
Now what I was peeing myself over was finally getting my first functional katana in my hands, I opened the box just to find them teasing me by covering it in a cotton sword bag, it's black, nothing fancy.
and finally I got it out of the bag and unsheathed my new Katana.
The first thing I looked at was the Tsuka, being extremely anal I immediately noticed faults.
First right below the Fuchi you can see the wood of the tsuka because of the way they cut the ray skin at the ends, I was also disappointed that the Seppa are copper but the blade collar(forget name) was nice looking brass. The Koshira and the Fuchi both were very rough cut and had grind marks where they tried to cover up the seams from casting.
(sorry for quality)
the small white you see is grind marks.
Another thing I noticed was that the copper seppa had tarnished already, so there was a big green bit of stuff.
Then from the Saya there were two marks on each side of the blade collar from protrusions in the saya.
Setting on a block of wood I saw that the sori was very nice and the blade was perfectly straight.
I also noticed some smoother out grind marks close to the tsuba on the back side of the blade, but there's hardly noticable.
So being just slightly disappointed with some of the fitting I decided to try some cutting with it, my form of course wasn't too great because I was trained in Kenjutsu to yellow belt by an ape. But regardless I was able to get a perfect cut my first try.
So clearly the edge was very sharp and great for cutting, but when swinging the finish on the Kashira was digging into my palm so I had to sand that down to be more comfy. However everything was well set and solid built so I can't complain much.
The finish of the blade was pretty nice, it was smooth, I disliked the crossways grind on the kissaki but I smoothed that out myself with some 1000 and 1500 grit sandpaper
Onto the saya, it was one of those things that disappoints me but I'm used to anyways, it's just that the saya is a bit too thick and weird for me, it's only a centimeter or so bigger than the tsuka but it just urks me.
The Saya is actually pretty durable though, I accidently smacked it against the blade's edge and I couldn't find the damage
At the mouth of the Saya is a plastic piece that they perfectly blended into the rest of the lacquered wood by adding a groove so it would sit flush with the surface of the saya. It surprised me when I realized that that wasn't part of the wood. The Sageo is weird, it's definitely not the same material as on the Tsuka but it's almost like Nylon but a better quality that you see on wall hangers and such. There wasn't much of a rattle when the blade is inside the saya, if you shake just right you can get a clank or two though.
The Nakago, I tried really hard to sneak a peek at the Tang but that dammed tsuka was so tightly fit I just couldn't manage to whack it off with my mallet so I gave up The Menuki are antiqued copper japanese dragons while the Tsuba is in the "dancing crane" style :\ a bit odd to me, that combination.
As you can hopefully see in this photo(again) there is a slight taper and curve to the Tsuka but it doesn't quite flow with the blade if ya know what I mean
Historical accuracy 2/5, it's a katana like thing made out of different steel with sort of historical fitting...right.
Fit and finish 3/5, some tarnish and past grind marks made it difficult for me to love them.
Handling 4/5, it's certainly not for little people, I weigh some 300 lbs so it's a tank built for a tank
Structural integrity 5/5, I nicked the edge of the kissaki on a metal wire and it rolled the egde a tiny bit, 1500 grit sandpaper took it right out.
Value for money 5/5, the fitting could be way better but with the awesome material they use for the blade and the completely solid build, this is a great Katana, even after the excitement has worn off.
Thanks for reading my over worded review sorry for the poor quality photos and I have no video camera at the moment, now go rest those eyes
Kenny H., Oregon, United states.
Well this is my first review, I spent several days contemplating just which Katana I should get, Musashi "wind"? no no, the Cheness O' Katana? No no, ah yes the Nagasa katana! Just the perfect length for my height, at 6' tall I was thrown between the 33" O'katana or the Nagasa. I gotta say, I'm glad I got the Nagasa and not the O' katana, yeesh.
According to the website these are the specs.
overall length in saya 43.25 "
Blade length: 30"
Weight: 3 lbs
The fuchi, Kashira and Tsuba are blackened steel
The Ito is a flat colored Blue Cotton.
The Tsuka is 12"
And Contrary to the site the Mekugi is 1 brass and 1 wood, it has ray skin wrap as well.
I bought it directly from Chenessinc.com, it took about 3 days to be processed and two to arrive at my door step, I live about 4 hours away from their warehouse though. It came in a perfectly fitting cardboard box that snugly fit what was inside.
The box was sort of pretty, it's covered in that cheesy looking chinese synthetic material with a dragon and blossom design, sort of attractive but no big deal.
Now what I was peeing myself over was finally getting my first functional katana in my hands, I opened the box just to find them teasing me by covering it in a cotton sword bag, it's black, nothing fancy.
and finally I got it out of the bag and unsheathed my new Katana.
The first thing I looked at was the Tsuka, being extremely anal I immediately noticed faults.
First right below the Fuchi you can see the wood of the tsuka because of the way they cut the ray skin at the ends, I was also disappointed that the Seppa are copper but the blade collar(forget name) was nice looking brass. The Koshira and the Fuchi both were very rough cut and had grind marks where they tried to cover up the seams from casting.
(sorry for quality)
the small white you see is grind marks.
Another thing I noticed was that the copper seppa had tarnished already, so there was a big green bit of stuff.
Then from the Saya there were two marks on each side of the blade collar from protrusions in the saya.
Setting on a block of wood I saw that the sori was very nice and the blade was perfectly straight.
I also noticed some smoother out grind marks close to the tsuba on the back side of the blade, but there's hardly noticable.
So being just slightly disappointed with some of the fitting I decided to try some cutting with it, my form of course wasn't too great because I was trained in Kenjutsu to yellow belt by an ape. But regardless I was able to get a perfect cut my first try.
So clearly the edge was very sharp and great for cutting, but when swinging the finish on the Kashira was digging into my palm so I had to sand that down to be more comfy. However everything was well set and solid built so I can't complain much.
The finish of the blade was pretty nice, it was smooth, I disliked the crossways grind on the kissaki but I smoothed that out myself with some 1000 and 1500 grit sandpaper
Onto the saya, it was one of those things that disappoints me but I'm used to anyways, it's just that the saya is a bit too thick and weird for me, it's only a centimeter or so bigger than the tsuka but it just urks me.
The Saya is actually pretty durable though, I accidently smacked it against the blade's edge and I couldn't find the damage
At the mouth of the Saya is a plastic piece that they perfectly blended into the rest of the lacquered wood by adding a groove so it would sit flush with the surface of the saya. It surprised me when I realized that that wasn't part of the wood. The Sageo is weird, it's definitely not the same material as on the Tsuka but it's almost like Nylon but a better quality that you see on wall hangers and such. There wasn't much of a rattle when the blade is inside the saya, if you shake just right you can get a clank or two though.
The Nakago, I tried really hard to sneak a peek at the Tang but that dammed tsuka was so tightly fit I just couldn't manage to whack it off with my mallet so I gave up The Menuki are antiqued copper japanese dragons while the Tsuba is in the "dancing crane" style :\ a bit odd to me, that combination.
As you can hopefully see in this photo(again) there is a slight taper and curve to the Tsuka but it doesn't quite flow with the blade if ya know what I mean
Historical accuracy 2/5, it's a katana like thing made out of different steel with sort of historical fitting...right.
Fit and finish 3/5, some tarnish and past grind marks made it difficult for me to love them.
Handling 4/5, it's certainly not for little people, I weigh some 300 lbs so it's a tank built for a tank
Structural integrity 5/5, I nicked the edge of the kissaki on a metal wire and it rolled the egde a tiny bit, 1500 grit sandpaper took it right out.
Value for money 5/5, the fitting could be way better but with the awesome material they use for the blade and the completely solid build, this is a great Katana, even after the excitement has worn off.
Thanks for reading my over worded review sorry for the poor quality photos and I have no video camera at the moment, now go rest those eyes