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Post by kevinwiegand on May 21, 2022 7:17:58 GMT
(Apparently waiting for mods to manually approve my account, so posting anon in the interm) So I've had this Paul Chen sword for over a decade now, and am curious about some stuff: 1) My wife bought this for me off of eBay like 12 or so years ago, if not longer than that. I think I remember that it was listed as a Practical Pro Katana Gen1. I'm curious of the Gen1, and how do I identify exactly what model I have? I've seen pictures of the Practical Pro, and it seems to match what I have: www.japaneseswords4samurai.com/product/hanwei-paul-chen-practical-pro-katana-ships-free/. 2) The sword came with some visual flaws on the blade, like stains if you will. I have no idea how, or even if I can clean that up. Does anyone have any information on what could be done for that? Going to try to link an image of what the blade looks like: ibb.co/mJQB95Y. The stains are darker than they look.
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Post by kevinwiegand on May 21, 2022 7:29:12 GMT
(Apparently waiting for mods to manually approve my account, so posting anon in the interm) So I've had this Paul Chen sword for over a decade now, and am curious about some stuff: 1) My wife bought this for me off of eBay like 12 or so years ago, if not longer than that. I think I remember that it was listed as a Practical Pro Katana Gen1. I'm curious of the Gen1, and how do I identify exactly what model I have? I've seen pictures of the Practical Pro, and it seems to match what I have: www.japaneseswords4samurai.com/product/hanwei-paul-chen-practical-pro-katana-ships-free/. 2) The sword came with some visual flaws on the blade, like stains if you will. I have no idea how, or even if I can clean that up. Does anyone have any information on what could be done for that? Going to try to link an image of what the blade looks like: ibb.co/mJQB95Y. The stains are darker than they look. I guess I can't even edit my own post. Just wanted to mention that the sword was purchased prior to 2008, and prior I mean it had to have been a year or 2 or 3 prior.
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Post by pellius on May 21, 2022 12:26:52 GMT
Your account should be active now. Welcome to the forum.
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Post by kevinallenwiegand on Jun 5, 2022 7:45:59 GMT
Bump?
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pgandy
Moderator
Senior Forumite
Posts: 10,296
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Post by pgandy on Jun 5, 2022 13:46:22 GMT
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Post by randomnobody on Jun 5, 2022 14:43:22 GMT
Can't really see much in the linked photo, but it looks a lot like my old Practical Katana. Poor thing's about 20 years old now and I beat it to hell and back as a teenager...
Can't really help in distinguishing generations; I'm not even sure which gen mine is. Each one had some minor change, at one point they stopped gluing the tsuka on and those are the more desirable now. Mine is glued, so there's that.
Hanwei katana, at least back in the day, came with a rather odd finish. If you want to maintain the original appearance, there's really not a lot you can do for cleaning your stains. If you don't care about losing that finish, though, you could start with a basic metal polish like Flitz or Mother's, but you'll want to do the whole blade or the spots you do will stick out. If that doesn't get it all off, you'll have to go the sandpaper/stone route, and that's a bit tricky, as you'll be taking more metal off the blade and risking changing its shape.
More pictures would be more helpful.
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Post by kevinallenwiegand on Jun 8, 2022 2:04:11 GMT
Sorry for the delay, work has been kicking my arse lately trying to get stuff out the door. Also, taking pics is a pain in the behind because I have crap for lighting literally everywhere in my house. I appreciate the responses so far...and in light of those responses, here are some additional pictures. Here are a couple of images of the stains: This is what I was hoping to get it back to: And not sure if it helps in determining the generation, but here is this: How can I tell if the tsuka was glued or not? Please tell me I don't have to take it apart I'm more concerned about removing the stains...but to be honest, if I have to resort to sandpaper, or something crazy abrasive, I'll just leave it as is. I've already had to (years ago) spend weeks using C-Clamps to slowly unbend the blade when I decapitated a giant chocolate santa that resulted in a 30 degree bend in the blade about 12" from the tip...I don't want to harm it too much more. (Although, it's still dang sharp and usable to be honest.) And to be blunt, I'm not looking for the value of this sword, I'm merely looking for history on it. I never plan on getting rid of it (it's my home invasion backup piece to be fair).
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Post by durinnmcfurren on Jun 8, 2022 2:46:38 GMT
I decapitated a giant chocolate santa that resulted in a 30 degree bend in the blade about 12" from the tip. I'm sorry, what? We need more details, stat!
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Post by kevinallenwiegand on Jun 8, 2022 2:59:53 GMT
I decapitated a giant chocolate santa that resulted in a 30 degree bend in the blade about 12" from the tip. I'm sorry, what? We need more details, stat! This is embarrassing, but here you go (all video was done by myself):
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Post by durinnmcfurren on Jun 8, 2022 4:08:06 GMT
Haha that was great
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pgandy
Moderator
Senior Forumite
Posts: 10,296
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Post by pgandy on Jun 8, 2022 9:54:11 GMT
Interesting video. So far as I know the only way that I know to determine if the tsuka is glued on is to try to remove it unless you have specific information of the construction of that particular sword. I can’t tell how deep the stains are but would attempt to remove them with a metal polish as a starter. I can’t tell but it appears that the hamon is still present. The metal polish will remove that as any abrasive you use will. Acid will probably bring that back. If the metal polish fails then it’s sandpaper, which is another story all together. Whatever you use the entire blade will need to be done. For best results the sword will need to be disassembled completely, meaning the habaki should be removed also. . If you want those scratches out definitely sandpaper will be needed but don’t just grab a sheet and go to work. There is a technique. That should make an interesting project but my suggestion is to leave things as are. That will take many hours of work (amounting to days at least) even for someone knowing what they are doing. No insult intended. If you intend to tackle the job yourself be careful to keep the corners well defined. Best of luck.
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Post by kevinallenwiegand on Jun 8, 2022 19:44:24 GMT
Interesting video. So far as I know the only way that I know to determine if the tsuka is glued on is to try to remove it unless you have specific information of the construction of that particular sword. I can’t tell how deep the stains are but would attempt to remove them with a metal polish as a starter. I can’t tell but it appears that the hamon is still present. The metal polish will remove that as any abrasive you use will. Acid will probably bring that back. If the metal polish fails then it’s sandpaper, which is another story all together. Whatever you use the entire blade will need to be done. For best results the sword will need to be disassembled completely, meaning the habaki should be removed also. . If you want those scratches out definitely sandpaper will be needed but don’t just grab a sheet and go to work. There is a technique. That should make an interesting project but my suggestion is to leave things as are. That will take many hours of work (amounting to days at least) even for someone knowing what they are doing. No insult intended. If you intend to tackle the job yourself be careful to keep the corners well defined. Best of luck. Yeahhh, I guess it's just going to stay as-is, which is OK. No insult taken, I know I don't know what I'm doing.
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karl j
Manufacturer/Vendor
Posts: 178
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Post by karl j on Jun 10, 2022 16:55:21 GMT
Definitely looks like the practical pro. Tsuka should not be glued and should fully remove able.
However those scratches, are not going to come out via any polishing paste. The entire blade would need to be repolished
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Post by treeslicer on Jun 11, 2022 15:53:03 GMT
I'm sorry, what? We need more details, stat! This is embarrassing, but here you go (all video was done by myself): Welcome to the forum! I admire your courage in posting this, and laughed my ass off. Wonderful video. Thanks!
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Post by blairbob on Jun 15, 2022 6:42:55 GMT
I'd say definitely give a go with flitz, metal-glo, etc. I used to have them all in my storage though I have no idea what happened to them after I cleared it out (gave them to somebody at some point?)
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