circumstances
Member
All the same we take our chances.. laughed at by time..tricked by circumstances
Posts: 94
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Post by circumstances on Jun 18, 2022 23:33:56 GMT
I recently became a proud owner of a Shikoto Touchstone katana. I purchased it on a wild hair want attack and I'll be honest.. as much as in into swords this is the most I ever spent on one. 300 bucks is no Twinky expense for me these days.
I've certainly learned my lesson as to the mega cheap blades and stainless wall hangers so I made the leap to what in sure is considered a mid grade sword.
I've been quite favorably impressed with it. I've seen reviews on the kin to this blade ( Hidden Samurai namely) and the only difference I can see is in color and fittings. Gold/tan rather than Black and a bronzed iron instead of black tsuka.
It came what I would consider rather dull though it would still have cut. But I'm OCD when it comes to sharp and have been since I got my first pocket knife and my Dad showed me how to use stones. Needless to say this blade is now truly sharp.
The steel worked beautifully and I stayed on the factory edge line from an 800 to a 2000 grit fine Arkansas. It's a well built piece. Solid and simple. I like that. The only odd thing that grabbed me is the mekugi are put through on an angle. You gotta be looking close to catch it.
I sorta figured this may have been on purpose in order to get a blade banged out with a nice tight tsuka without taking to much time in fitting. Makes it a bit trickier and requires a non marring mallet and hardwood punch to get apart and reassembled.
It works just fine and at this price point I knew I'd find a corner or two cut. That's all I've found so I reckon I'm happy. I haven't been able to do any...brisk.. cutting exercises with it yet as I'm recovering from an amputation.
Below the knee I'm about six weeks out on my first prosthesis. As soon as in standing unaided I'll do some better swings than I've been able to do against Dollar Tree pool noodles stuffed with wet paper from a lawn chair.
The latter it goes through like swinging through the air. This thing could hurt a guy who gets careless in practice. Not bad for 300 bucks. 350 with tax and shipping. If it matters I got it from TrueSwords. Ye Bud K. But they are in SBGs recommend sellers list. I dont seem to have gone wrong.
However after browsing around on SBG I'll be doing most future purchases through them. Anyway that's my .02 on the Shikoto Touchstone katana. Theres a matching wakazashi that can be had for it as well.
In no stickler for perfectly matched sets though. So I bought a wak through SBG that is on it's way. I wouldn't cringe about buying the match though. It's big brother was worth every penny of 300 plus a bit to my door.
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Post by randomnobody on Jun 19, 2022 0:13:05 GMT
Sounds like you did okay. Not familiar with the brand, I'll have to look into it. Post some pictures if/when you can.
Sorry to hear about the amputation. Had a scare, myself, a few years back when I crashed my motorcycle and it tried to take my foot with it while the rest of me went another way. Since then I've learned I'm diabetic and a work-buddy likes to remind me, "If you don't behave yourself, they'll take your foot."
Best of luck with the recovery.
Oh, and I'm pretty sure the mekugi is supposed to be at an angle. Otherwise you couldn't get it out; it would be stuck behind the ito.
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circumstances
Member
All the same we take our chances.. laughed at by time..tricked by circumstances
Posts: 94
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Post by circumstances on Jun 19, 2022 1:54:31 GMT
Sounds like you did okay. Not familiar with the brand, I'll have to look into it. Post some pictures if/when you can. Sorry to hear about the amputation. Had a scare, myself, a few years back when I crashed my motorcycle and it tried to take my foot with it while the rest of me went another way. Since then I've learned I'm diabetic and a work-buddy likes to remind me, "If you don't behave yourself, they'll take your foot." Best of luck with the recovery. Oh, and I'm pretty sure the mekugi is supposed to be at an angle. Otherwise you couldn't get it out; it would be stuck behind the ito. Ah. Good point about the mekugi. I thought perhaps they angled them in to be sort of a jam wedge to push the tsuka up tighter into the tsuba. Which I do and did not find unacceptable if it truly was the case. I'm trying to figure out how to put up some pics. I'm not a super savvy computer guy. I'll get it figgered. It really is a nice sword. Thanks for the well wishes. Cant wait for the first prosthesis. It will be a temp the fabricator gal tells me. The permanent one is going to be a Terminator part I guess. Pressure sensing hydraulic ankle. My accident happened 40 years ago. I've had a fused ankle all that time. The prosthetic will be more functional than my real foot and ankle was. Shes building me a new one that will up my sword slinging game. Cant wait to get busy. I've kinda went sword crazy this month. Three new blades. The Touchstone an APOC cutlass and a Ryujgin wakazashi that just shipped. Should be here Monday. I blame SBG. To much cool stuff in one place. Working on the pictures.
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Post by randomnobody on Jun 19, 2022 6:37:05 GMT
Ah. Good point about the mekugi. I thought perhaps they angled them in to be sort of a jam wedge to push the tsuka up tighter into the tsuba. Which I do and did not find unacceptable if it truly was the case. Traditional mekugi are cone-shaped, and the further you push one in the tighter it holds. A lot of modern mekugi are either not, or not very conical, so if you push one in too far it just kinda comes out the other side. I've had one or two katana with mekugi like this, but my one antique wakizashi has a nice, cone-shaped mekugi and I can tell when it's not in far enough because everything will be loose and rattle. There are detailed guides here on how to post photos, but the simple answer is to upload them to a third-party hosting service like imgur and copy/paste the link between img tags. If your photos are under 1MB you can upload them directly to the forum using the "add attachment" button in the desktop reply box. It won't show on mobile, if you're using your phone/tablet, so you'll have to select "desktop version" at the bottom of the page or within your browser. I have maybe 30-40% of the original use of my ankle, and it still hurts every day. If I could get my money straight, I'd see another doctor about making it suck less. I've bought several things lately I couldn't actually afford, but wanted anyway.
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circumstances
Member
All the same we take our chances.. laughed at by time..tricked by circumstances
Posts: 94
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Post by circumstances on Jul 15, 2022 2:17:09 GMT
Ah. Good point about the mekugi. I thought perhaps they angled them in to be sort of a jam wedge to push the tsuka up tighter into the tsuba. Which I do and did not find unacceptable if it truly was the case. Traditional mekugi are cone-shaped, and the further you push one in the tighter it holds. A lot of modern mekugi are either not, or not very conical, so if you push one in too far it just kinda comes out the other side. I've had one or two katana with mekugi like this,have to select "desktop version" at the bottom of the page or within your browser. I have maybe 30-40% of the original use of my ankle, and it still hurts every day. If I could get my money straight, I'd see another doctor about making it suck less. I've bought several things lately I couldn't actually afford, but wanted anyway. Here a pic of my collection.
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Post by randomnobody on Jul 15, 2022 6:58:14 GMT
Here a pic of my collection. Off to a good start.
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