Honshu Boshin Grosse Messer Video Review

I have two honshu swords, and of course have seen plenty of reviews and comments. 

One thing that comes up in the comments is that honshu swords break easily, and I have seen some reviews where this happens. I wonder if there's been any engineering done since those blades?? I have a "double edged sword" , which is one of the ones you cite as a lighter two-handed sword, and I have been enjoying it a lot recently after initially struggling to make good cuts. It's not a cutting blade, which was my plan,,, I wanted to practice cutting with a blade that sacrifices cutting. I am always a little worried about its durability, because of the reviews where it broke, but on the other hand it FEELS fine. It does rattle around a bit by now, but it doesn't affect my experience. I also have the "warsword", which is the fat chinese dao shape. I don't ever play with that one, it's really heavy, I have complete confidence in it cutting the bottles I cut with it, and it's not part of my present focus, I just bought it because I wanted the shape eventually. I also worry that one will break, but I will take it easy and see what happens. 

One thing I think about the honshu durability,,,, How well will better swords actually hold up to the abuse? Matthew Jensen breaks a lot of swords in his videos, some of them are a lot pricier, and he uses a pretty consistent formula in the videos to break them. Whack them on one side a number of times, and hit them on the other side after that, and they break. The exception is when swords will easily bend, they basically never break. So, woodsmen take a honshu, and spent a few weeks or months pounding away with it to split timber and clear underbrush, and it gives out while jammed in a log and they are hammering at the handle,,,, but if I don't do that stuff,,, will it ever break?? 

In the woods, in a survival situation, there is no reason to split chainsawed logs. I will be able to break sticks with my hands to make a fire. A blade will be useful, but there will never be a time I need to baton. A sword will be very handy when facing animals,,, but in this case,, the last place I want my sword is stuck inside of a log. There may be some chainsawed logs around, , people have been chainsawing trees all over the place,, but if it is not possible to find a stick instead to burn a fire,, I can probably walk home. If I'm not specifically trying to make use of a sword, and I plan to find myself in the woods, I will probably equip myself with an axe anyway, as they are designed for it. With these considerations in mind:: swords have a design purpose, and premium quality expensive swords all recommend use against soft targets only. ,,, Will a honshu ever break if used the way expensive swords are used?? I'm starting to feel pretty good about my double edged sword. after all,,, it's a fun toy, it cuts bottles (it's a challenge because the blade is not for that), it feels strong, and in two hands, it's actually a quick sword to move around. Doing the hang test where you wag the sword to see where the points of rotation are,, the two hand holds are on two desirable rotations. holding just below the guard, the point of rotation is just behind the tip,,, and holding just above the pommel the point of rotation is just a few inches in front of the guard. If i didn't know any better, I would say that's pretty good, and it feels really good also. The "good" swords I saw demonstrated with this test behaved the same. 


I am not going to buy the messer at present, because I want something else, but it is an interesting sword for me, I am interested to see what sort of videos it produces, because I wonder if it will break a lot, and how people break it, how hard it is for them to do it, etc. I have some other budk blades like the bk906 "secret agent sword", and although people call those cheap things wallhangers that will break if you cough, I have a different experience. mine are powerful cutters, sharp swords that are well engineered to have flex in the right places to preserve the edge and allow for a proper cutting transfer of energy. (the blade needs time to enter the material,,, it needs to contact the material, transfer energy into it, , you want some flex in order to let the blade do the work,, you also want some flex to keep the edge from dulling on first contact, and also some flex to keep cracks from developing). I do like my more expensive swords,,, but the 20$ range of budk swords ALL performed like real deal weapons for me. SOME of them are BETTER than my real swords when it comes to what I should consider a bedroom weapon, because they are so light, fast, and small while still having the range a sword has. I feel the honshu swords are a similar bit of engineering. They are bigger, but the reality is, they are not "cheap", they are affordable, and engineered for a modern application. ((by the way, some quick searching and you will find that people do occasionally kill someone with one of those "dangerous wall hangers", and the way the articles read, is that they are plenty effective))

I also considered that they may be changing the specs or tightening up on the specs over time,,,, my double edged sword was in a batch that came AFTER they ran out last year. So,, for a few months they were out of stock, then they got more, and I ordered from that batch. The war sword is older stock, I think. 

Then again some things could just come down to consistency. There will always be a few blades that get botched, maybe someone didn't let a machine warm up properly or something, maybe they ran the sander too long instead of changing the belt. All products work that way,, where if you make 100, 10% won't be right, and of those, some percent are bound to be wrong in the breaky kind of way. 

This is an excellent review. Very well done. We do send a free sword but never in return for a good review. We appreciate the honest opinion of our products.

The hard corners on the tang are disappointing, as you stated they aren't in the design.

tsmspace: As far the Honshu durability. The carbon steels are going to be more durable than the stainless, but we've selling thousands of the stainless models, and we rarely see a malfunction. If you have a problem with a Honshu product, send me a PM and I'll resolve it.

This is an awesome looking and very thorough review man. Gonna have to sub.

Quick update: I patched the cut-apart grip by using plastic bond epoxy to secure the guard (for rattle prevention) and fill in the cut section of the grip after I had bolted it back on. I shaved down the excess and wrapped the grip in friction tape. I then coated the entire hilt with rubberized auto underbody spray. It took a long time to dry but I was satisfied with the appearance and feel. You can turn your stainless Honshu furniture black with underbody spray easily if the shiny look doesn't appeal. I didn't dislike the shiny but just wanted to try something new.

Currently considering chopping off the side ring with a grinder to see how that changes handling. I would like to make a kydex scabbard according to Vorpal's excellent guide ( sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/62865/diy-kydex-sword-sheaths ), just need to get a griddle setup for heating a large sheet like he does. I've made a few smaller kydex sheaths and have an eyelet die setting set ready to go. 

Yeah, no, I didn't remove the pommel at all. I cut the grip lengthwise to expose the tang. It's supposed to be welded to the tang extension. Sounds like yours was defective. You should ask United Cutlery customer service. They'll probably want pictures but I bet they'll replace it for you. Dhall here on the forum works for them and could help.

I didn't go easy on the messer and the pommel did fine, so if yours popped on on the first cut, it was defective.

Im not looking for a replacement or anything. as while I like the Steel.I think this sword actually performs better without the pommel it has. as on the smaller sword type it gets Lead around by the pommel as if your swinging a hammer backwards. is this a nonissue for the messer though? as Its the sword I feel I should have gotten.

Interesting. Mine held up to a few dozen mordhau on a big tree stump. Solid, but somewhat impact absorbent. What kind of target did you hit?

Regardless, it's a design flaw. I'm guessing they do the weld to keep the pommel from rotating to be crooked, since it has a bird's head instead of being something symmetrical like a scent stopper. 

What I'd rather they did is key the pommel to fit on the end of the tang without rotating, then use one of the flathead cap nuts to screw onto the tang inside a recessed hole in the end of the pommel. Just like their Honshu Historic that I just reviewed. That would also have the benefit of allowing grip removal without breaking anything. 

the sword I feel would greatly gain from having a handle at least a couple inches longer. a longer handle would give more leverage to make its weight more usable. as I personally prefer having my hands 2 inches apart on my swords. to me this alone was enough after buying the katana, and my experiences , not even wish to get the messer as it is. as Id be pulling off the tactical grip handle making one with wood to get those extra inches I wanted. but I hate the idea of spending 250$ for a project piece. so my seach for a sword will be a long one. though I wonder how strong the strikes are if say one was to hit with the little spike sweet spot on the backside of the blade. since to me why murder stroke when you could just rotate the piece in your hand and hit the target blunt sided.