|
Post by dhall on May 13, 2021 17:30:58 GMT
The Honshu Sub Hilt Katana is getting closer to shipping. We should have them within a few months at UC warehouse. Here's a good look at the final sample we received. It will be 1060 carbon steel, the same blade makers as the previous Honshu katana. Let me hear your thoughts. Attachments:
|
|
|
Post by AndiTheBarvarian on May 13, 2021 18:23:15 GMT
Looks cool!
|
|
|
Post by L Driggers (fallen) on May 13, 2021 21:11:59 GMT
Looks nothing like a katana, just call it a sabre.
|
|
|
Post by paulmuaddib on May 13, 2021 21:12:22 GMT
What Andi said. Show us the hilt construction on that and the other Honshu kats and waks.
Edit: driggers posted at the same time as me and have to agree with him too. Looks more like a Sabre than a katana but I still like it. And I don’t like Sabres much.
|
|
|
Post by randomnobody on May 13, 2021 23:09:28 GMT
I'd like to see it with a tighter hilt if it's only got room for one hand, anyway, but as a short saber/falchion it's a cool design. Not much of a katana, though.
|
|
|
Post by shepherd214 on May 15, 2021 5:01:50 GMT
The pommel construction on these is weak. It's a rod welded onto the tang, and the pommel is glued onto that welded rod. Overall the foundation is good. It's a typical katana full tang you see on cheaper models, with a hard rubber tsuka core that fits around the tang. The Chicago bolts holds the construction together. The blade is good, I abuse tested it and it holds together fine. But the pommel for me bent and fell off the second day I had it. If you just make the wakizashi and katana a full tang with scales, and pin bolster scales onto the pommel, it wouldn't cost you any extra money and the design would be 10x more solid. In my last picture, I fixed mine by filling the entire tsuka core with epoxy and smothering the bolts with epoxy as well. Now the steel pommel is gone and my existing pommel is extremely durable solid epoxy. The balance for the wakizashi is way better now, the old solid steel pommel adds way too much counter balance weight and now the overall balance is much better without it. You have really good potential here, just fix the pommel issue
|
|
|
Post by paulmuaddib on May 15, 2021 10:59:58 GMT
The pommel construction on these is weak. It's a rod welded onto the tang, and the pommel is glued onto that welded rod. Overall the foundation is good. It's a typical katana full tang you see on cheaper models, with a hard rubber tsuka core that fits around the tang. The Chicago bolts holds the construction together. The blade is good, I abuse tested it and it holds together fine. But the pommel for me bent and fell off the second day I had it. If you just make the wakizashi and katana a full tang with scales, and pin bolster scales onto the pommel, it wouldn't cost you any extra money and the design would be 10x more solid. In my last picture, I fixed mine by filling the entire tsuka core with epoxy and smothering the bolts with epoxy as well. Now the steel pommel is gone and my existing pommel is extremely durable solid epoxy. The balance for the wakizashi is way better now, the old solid steel pommel adds way too much counter balance weight and now the overall balance is much better without it. You have really good potential here, just fix the pommel issue Shepherd, thank you so much. The Honshu Boshin wakizashi was the first sword I bought. It looked/looks so cool to me and I like the way it feels in hand. But I wondered how the hilt was constructed. Others claimed to have seen pictures but when I asked for them all I got was crickets. I thought the pommel might have been screwed on a welded on rod but also considered glue. I’ve never done any hard cutting with mine, just water bottles. There is a sword construction/spec thread here somewhere, I haven’t looked recently. You might want to post some info over there. Again, thank you SO MUCH.
|
|
|
Post by randomnobody on May 15, 2021 16:25:18 GMT
Shame about the pommel; that's really poor construction. I'd hoped manufacturers knew better by now...
|
|
|
Post by Adventurer'sBlade on May 15, 2021 16:49:32 GMT
The proportions on this look more like the Honshu Wakizashi, I suspect that's what Drew meant to say instead of Katana.
I'd agree the pommels are the weakest part of these designs. From my breakdown of the Grosse Messer, same construction style, I found the tang was perfectly adequate and the rubber grip was bolted on to the tang in a way that made death-helicopter impossible without a blade break, but the pommel has minimal structural support and the way it is attached, it even prevents removal of the rubber grip for tang inspection (despite the bolts being capable of unscrewing).
The pommel config isn't something that would prevent me from buying or using one, since it's not a safety issue, but it's a negative point for me. I'd like something more solid that I could do pommel strikes with. The pommel could even be a two-piece slab design where two pieces of pommel sandwich the tang and are secured by a bolt through the middle, it's not much of an engineering problem.
Thanks for sharing pics of the Wak tang, Shep.
Subhilt design looks good though, I like it.
|
|
|
Post by AndiTheBarvarian on May 15, 2021 17:05:55 GMT
It reminds me of hunting swords or hangers.
|
|
|
Post by El Chingon on May 15, 2021 17:11:27 GMT
Lose the subhilt(seems a poor choice on something meant to be a katana), swap the pommel for something more like a kashira so it can be comfortable and more practical to put both hands on and as someone said above eliminate the welded rod tang and go with a sandwich construction hilt.
|
|
|
Post by shepherd214 on May 16, 2021 5:31:44 GMT
The pommel construction on these is weak. It's a rod welded onto the tang, and the pommel is glued onto that welded rod. Overall the foundation is good. It's a typical katana full tang you see on cheaper models, with a hard rubber tsuka core that fits around the tang. The Chicago bolts holds the construction together. The blade is good, I abuse tested it and it holds together fine. But the pommel for me bent and fell off the second day I had it. If you just make the wakizashi and katana a full tang with scales, and pin bolster scales onto the pommel, it wouldn't cost you any extra money and the design would be 10x more solid. In my last picture, I fixed mine by filling the entire tsuka core with epoxy and smothering the bolts with epoxy as well. Now the steel pommel is gone and my existing pommel is extremely durable solid epoxy. The balance for the wakizashi is way better now, the old solid steel pommel adds way too much counter balance weight and now the overall balance is much better without it. You have really good potential here, just fix the pommel issue Shepherd, thank you so much. The Honshu Boshin wakizashi was the first sword I bought. It looked/looks so cool to me and I like the way it feels in hand. But I wondered how the hilt was constructed. Others claimed to have seen pictures but when I asked for them all I got was crickets. I thought the pommel might have been screwed on a welded on rod but also considered glue. I’ve never done any hard cutting with mine, just water bottles. There is a sword construction/spec thread here somewhere, I haven’t looked recently. You might want to post some info over there. Again, thank you SO MUCH. No problem man. I should clarify that mine is also the wakizashi not the katana. Since these blades have no distal taper and are the same thickness from guard to tip, the katana might need the massive heavy pommel for counter balance but on the waki the solid steel heavy pommel is overkill. With such a huge counterbalance, the blade doesnt have much authority or bite in my opinion. Not only does losing the pommel shave off some excessive overall weight but the blade has more oomf without being overly heavy. I did what I'd consider medium to heavy cutting. I cut small branches, then thicker 2 inch branches and even did some hard swings into huge, dense 4 or 5 inch branches and even smacked the flat and spine of thr blade against a tree several times. All good. No damage. These are solid beater blades, so I'd like to have more. I also posted these pictures on Drew Halls post on Facebook. Still no response, hopefully we get some kind of answer soon? Surely he's came back and read this. A simple switch to sandwich scale/full tang method fixes literally all this. But my epoxy method is working very well too lol. Shouldn't have to though.
|
|
|
Post by shepherd214 on May 16, 2021 6:13:38 GMT
The proportions on this look more like the Honshu Wakizashi, I suspect that's what Drew meant to say instead of Katana. I'd agree the pommels are the weakest part of these designs. From my breakdown of the Grosse Messer, same construction style, I found the tang was perfectly adequate and the rubber grip was bolted on to the tang in a way that made death-helicopter impossible without a blade break, but the pommel has minimal structural support and the way it is attached, it even prevents removal of the rubber grip for tang inspection (despite the bolts being capable of unscrewing). The pommel config isn't something that would prevent me from buying or using one, since it's not a safety issue, but it's a negative point for me. I'd like something more solid that I could do pommel strikes with. The pommel could even be a two-piece slab design where two pieces of pommel sandwich the tang and are secured by a bolt through the middle, it's not much of an engineering problem. Thanks for sharing pics of the Wak tang, Shep. Subhilt design looks good though, I like it. Well for me at least I don't think the rubber grip is enough without my epoxy method. When I swung the waki around without the pommel, I felt a slight amount of movement in the handle, due to the rubbery grip stretching a little against the Chicago bolts. You're right that it won't fly off and kill someone but long term there needs to be some type of stop on the pommel to prevent the rubber from wearing down and stretching more and more and possibly ripping. I used West Systems G Flex epoxy, strongest stuff out there and made to take some flex and shock by design when cured. I simply smothered the tang with it, slide the rubber handle on, made sure to also dip the bolts into the epoxy before fastening them, then kept the sword upside down as I filled the pommel full of the epoxy. It sinks into the handle slowly, engulfing the tang and I kept filling it up more until it was almost flush with the bottom of the rubber grip. The epoxy will also shim the guard reliably, since I had a small amount of rattle in the guard right out of the box. Wiping up any excess epoxy with paper towels and alcohol is crucial for about 30 minutes to an hour, since it will be runny until it starts drying harder. But you will have an indestructible handle, nearly. Also love your videos. The sound and video is high quality, I was shocked to see your subscriber count, I thought you'd have way more with your technical quality and intelligence with how you explain and construct your thoughts. Watching the durability in your grossmesser vid convinced me to try the waki and I'm glad I did. With the epoxy, this is a neat 100 dollar beater.
|
|