Z-sey Custom Tuoyuan MKIII Katana (Custom Hamon)
Jun 8, 2023 11:04:05 GMT
Post by rednax on Jun 8, 2023 11:04:05 GMT
Z-sey Tuoyuan MKIII with custom hamon and choice of fittings.
Background and Additional Information
I placed an order earlier this year around mid-February. I received pictures of the sword around mid-May and it arrived later on the same month. It is a Tuoyuan MKIII but with a few changes to the fittings and a custom hamon. The Tuoyuan comes with emperor's node for its samegawa panels. I chose to downgrade to those without, but at the same time requesting for higher quality panels. The result was larger nodes as compared to my other katana. I do not know if this was the result of my request or maybe this product just comes with higher quality panels. I also requested for a signature and date. I asked for the blade to be sharp but not very sharp. Perhaps it is entirely my fault for asking this as I seem to have trouble cutting regular A4 paper. The sword (saya off) is slightly tip heavy.
One thing to note is that the Tuoyuan is NOT made of folded steel. Those specks are not lamination marks or jigane. At least according to Z-sey themselves. Also, on their website, both crucible steel and smelted steel refer to the same thing.
For measuring center of balance, I balanced the sword on top of my finger. As such, a deviation of about 1cm should be considered for the measurements below. I would also like to apologise for any potential errors in measurements due to my lack of experience.
General
Tsuka type: Haichi
Tsukamaki type: Hinerimaki
Hamon type: Custom (Sanbonsugi/gunome?)
Kissaki type: Chu kissaki
Mune type: Iori mune
Niku: None
Sori type: Torii sori, leaning towards Koshi sori
Samegawa: Panel, no emperor's node
Saya type: Handmade saya, black lacquer
Boshi type: O maru?
Yasurimei: Sujikai
Full Koshirae
Weight with koshirae: 1252.7g / 44.19oz
Length with koshirae: 101.5cm / 39.96"
CoB with koshirae (from bottom of kashira): 44.5cm / 17.52"
Without Saya
Weight without saya: 1008.9g / 35.59oz
Length without saya: 99cm / 38.98"
CoB without saya (from bottom of habaki): 15-15.5cm / 5.91-6.10"
Bare Blade
Weight of blade: 786.9g / 27.76oz
Full length of blade: 94.6cm / 37.24"
CoB from munemachi: 20.0cm / 7.87"
Nagasa: 70.5cm / 27.76"
Motohaba: 31.0mm / 1.22"
Motokasane: 8.0mm / 0.31"
Sakihaba: 22.4mm / 0.88"
Sakikasane: 5.2mm / 0.20"
Sori: 19.7mm / 0.78"
Koshirae
Weight of tsuka: 128.6g / 4.54oz
Length of tsuka: 25.4cm / 10"
Weight of tsuba: 49.2g / 1.74oz
Top to bottom (tsuba): 74.3mm / 2.93"
Side to side (tsuba): 74.3mm / 2.93"
Sageo length: 216cm / 85.04"
Plus Points
- The fuchi, kashira, and tsuba do not bite into my hands.
- There is no bunching up on the tsuka.
- The transition from maki to fuchi is very smooth and doesn't bite.
- The tsukamaki is tight. Barely moves even when using quite a bit of force, except for one or two of the diamonds which move a bit more when that much force is applied.
- The fuchi and koiguchi have just about the same exact width, down to about a millimeter.
- The polish and hamon looks great. Reminds me of a nihonto (although I've only ever held a few).
- The blade geometry is very crisp. The blade is straight, the mune is straight from the munemachi all the way down to the tip of the kissaki, shinogi doesn't wander.
- Munemachi and hamachi start at the same point.
- There is no rippling or any bumps on the blade.
- Geometric kissaki
- Higher quality samegawa panels despite having no emperor's node.
- Nakago ana has no burrs.
- The tsukaito and sageo feels great. They are definitely not the cheap, low quality kind.
- The shitodome is still attached to the kurigata, even after I untied and retied the sageo on more than one occasion.
Could be better (also what I dislike personally, not necessarily a bad thing)
- The yokote is also not exactly equal on both sides but the difference is about 1mm at most, so this is not really an issue.
- It is not very sharp. But as I mentioned, I might be at fault for this.
- The hamon has a bit of a spiky appearance to it. Or rather the polishing makes it look that way, which obscures the actual hamon. This can be seen in the "Images" section below.
- A small amount of fraying on the tsukamaki, nothing major.
- There is a small amount of side to side rattling but no real edge to spine rattle in the saya.
- Koiguchi was tight at first but it has loosened up. The sword will fall out if held by the saya and tsuka pointed to the ground. I understand that this is mainly due to the climate difference as the fit was just about perfect when I received it. I guess I am just slightly disappointed that the handmade saya (extra cost of $260) did not solve this issue.
- Diamonds on the tsuka are mostly consistent although a few are slightly off. But still better than some actual Japanese ones I've seen.
- The tsukamaki at the diamonds near the kashira are looser than the rest but still quite tight.
The Bad
- Looking at the mune where the kissaki is, it can be seen that the omote and ura sides do not have an equal taper. This is shown in the "Images" below.
Images
This is the custom hamon I drew and sent to Z-sey (apologies for the bad drawing).
In response they asked if I was ok with a hamon like the one in this picture. Perhaps they were not confident in replicating the one I sent them? Regardless, the final product was closer to the one I drew, except for the boshi.
Some images that they sent me. The mei is $5 per character. The omote side is signed "章氏钱峰作".
Koiguchi and fuchi have just about the same width, within the mm.
The uneven tapering at the kissaki.
Zoomed in image of the shinogi. Has a high amount of "pitting"? I am not sure how to describe it. To clarify I do not mean rust pitting. I am describing the small specks in the images.
The border between the hiraji and ha. The hiraji has more of those "pittings". The ha has very little.
There is a rougher appearance closer to the hasaki.
Hamon on ura side.
As mentioned earlier, the polishing makes the hamon look "spikier" than it actually is. It is in fact quite of challenging to see the actual hamon as a result.
Final thoughts (of the sword)
I am satisfied with what I got for the most part. The shape and proportions of everything are great (except the one thing I mentioned earlier). I especially like how well the ito transitions to the fuchi. This was really well done even when comparing to nihonto koshirae.
I'm not sure why they added the "spiky" appearance to the hamon when polishing it. Perhaps this is just their style of polishing? Or maybe they were taught to do it this way? Not sure if they are able to exclude this feature if I had requested but I think it takes away from the style of hamon I asked for.
Hopefully the blade is sharper than I think and my paper cutting skills are just non existent. I probably forgot to add in something that's probably important so I might be adding updates in the future.
Additional/Final Thoughts on Z-sey
First thing to note is that they were fast to reply and had a friendly attitude. We were able to send several messages back and forth within the span of a day. They also responded to any question that I had, and I did have quite a few. Their English was not perfect so this may have caused a bit of mistranslation both ways but this did not cause any huge issues.
Overall I would recommend Z-sey for a semi custom sword. Meaning custom hamon and fittings. I want to point out that their website does not list all of their products, one example being custom tsuba (can be seen on their YouTube channel). Please email them to request what you are looking for as they may have it but not on their site.
On the other hand, I am still hesitant to order a fully custom sword from Z-sey. As in custom blade specs and all. This is mainly due to the additional cost of 30% for a custom length. Along with that, a change in other specs such as mihaba would also require a custom habaki, tsuka, saya, etc. Maybe in the future if the price for a full custom is reduced I might go for it.
Last updated : 25/06/2023 DD/MM/YY
Update 09/06/2023: Plus, minus, final thoughts on Z-sey, more explanation.
Update 25/06/2023: More elaboration.
Background and Additional Information
I placed an order earlier this year around mid-February. I received pictures of the sword around mid-May and it arrived later on the same month. It is a Tuoyuan MKIII but with a few changes to the fittings and a custom hamon. The Tuoyuan comes with emperor's node for its samegawa panels. I chose to downgrade to those without, but at the same time requesting for higher quality panels. The result was larger nodes as compared to my other katana. I do not know if this was the result of my request or maybe this product just comes with higher quality panels. I also requested for a signature and date. I asked for the blade to be sharp but not very sharp. Perhaps it is entirely my fault for asking this as I seem to have trouble cutting regular A4 paper. The sword (saya off) is slightly tip heavy.
One thing to note is that the Tuoyuan is NOT made of folded steel. Those specks are not lamination marks or jigane. At least according to Z-sey themselves. Also, on their website, both crucible steel and smelted steel refer to the same thing.
For measuring center of balance, I balanced the sword on top of my finger. As such, a deviation of about 1cm should be considered for the measurements below. I would also like to apologise for any potential errors in measurements due to my lack of experience.
General
Tsuka type: Haichi
Tsukamaki type: Hinerimaki
Hamon type: Custom (Sanbonsugi/gunome?)
Kissaki type: Chu kissaki
Mune type: Iori mune
Niku: None
Sori type: Torii sori, leaning towards Koshi sori
Samegawa: Panel, no emperor's node
Saya type: Handmade saya, black lacquer
Boshi type: O maru?
Yasurimei: Sujikai
Full Koshirae
Weight with koshirae: 1252.7g / 44.19oz
Length with koshirae: 101.5cm / 39.96"
CoB with koshirae (from bottom of kashira): 44.5cm / 17.52"
Without Saya
Weight without saya: 1008.9g / 35.59oz
Length without saya: 99cm / 38.98"
CoB without saya (from bottom of habaki): 15-15.5cm / 5.91-6.10"
Bare Blade
Weight of blade: 786.9g / 27.76oz
Full length of blade: 94.6cm / 37.24"
CoB from munemachi: 20.0cm / 7.87"
Nagasa: 70.5cm / 27.76"
Motohaba: 31.0mm / 1.22"
Motokasane: 8.0mm / 0.31"
Sakihaba: 22.4mm / 0.88"
Sakikasane: 5.2mm / 0.20"
Sori: 19.7mm / 0.78"
Koshirae
Weight of tsuka: 128.6g / 4.54oz
Length of tsuka: 25.4cm / 10"
Weight of tsuba: 49.2g / 1.74oz
Top to bottom (tsuba): 74.3mm / 2.93"
Side to side (tsuba): 74.3mm / 2.93"
Sageo length: 216cm / 85.04"
Plus Points
- The fuchi, kashira, and tsuba do not bite into my hands.
- There is no bunching up on the tsuka.
- The transition from maki to fuchi is very smooth and doesn't bite.
- The tsukamaki is tight. Barely moves even when using quite a bit of force, except for one or two of the diamonds which move a bit more when that much force is applied.
- The fuchi and koiguchi have just about the same exact width, down to about a millimeter.
- The polish and hamon looks great. Reminds me of a nihonto (although I've only ever held a few).
- The blade geometry is very crisp. The blade is straight, the mune is straight from the munemachi all the way down to the tip of the kissaki, shinogi doesn't wander.
- Munemachi and hamachi start at the same point.
- There is no rippling or any bumps on the blade.
- Geometric kissaki
- Higher quality samegawa panels despite having no emperor's node.
- Nakago ana has no burrs.
- The tsukaito and sageo feels great. They are definitely not the cheap, low quality kind.
- The shitodome is still attached to the kurigata, even after I untied and retied the sageo on more than one occasion.
Could be better (also what I dislike personally, not necessarily a bad thing)
- The yokote is also not exactly equal on both sides but the difference is about 1mm at most, so this is not really an issue.
- It is not very sharp. But as I mentioned, I might be at fault for this.
- The hamon has a bit of a spiky appearance to it. Or rather the polishing makes it look that way, which obscures the actual hamon. This can be seen in the "Images" section below.
- A small amount of fraying on the tsukamaki, nothing major.
- There is a small amount of side to side rattling but no real edge to spine rattle in the saya.
- Koiguchi was tight at first but it has loosened up. The sword will fall out if held by the saya and tsuka pointed to the ground. I understand that this is mainly due to the climate difference as the fit was just about perfect when I received it. I guess I am just slightly disappointed that the handmade saya (extra cost of $260) did not solve this issue.
- Diamonds on the tsuka are mostly consistent although a few are slightly off. But still better than some actual Japanese ones I've seen.
- The tsukamaki at the diamonds near the kashira are looser than the rest but still quite tight.
The Bad
- Looking at the mune where the kissaki is, it can be seen that the omote and ura sides do not have an equal taper. This is shown in the "Images" below.
Images
This is the custom hamon I drew and sent to Z-sey (apologies for the bad drawing).
In response they asked if I was ok with a hamon like the one in this picture. Perhaps they were not confident in replicating the one I sent them? Regardless, the final product was closer to the one I drew, except for the boshi.
Some images that they sent me. The mei is $5 per character. The omote side is signed "章氏钱峰作".
Koiguchi and fuchi have just about the same width, within the mm.
The uneven tapering at the kissaki.
Zoomed in image of the shinogi. Has a high amount of "pitting"? I am not sure how to describe it. To clarify I do not mean rust pitting. I am describing the small specks in the images.
The border between the hiraji and ha. The hiraji has more of those "pittings". The ha has very little.
There is a rougher appearance closer to the hasaki.
Hamon on ura side.
As mentioned earlier, the polishing makes the hamon look "spikier" than it actually is. It is in fact quite of challenging to see the actual hamon as a result.
Final thoughts (of the sword)
I am satisfied with what I got for the most part. The shape and proportions of everything are great (except the one thing I mentioned earlier). I especially like how well the ito transitions to the fuchi. This was really well done even when comparing to nihonto koshirae.
I'm not sure why they added the "spiky" appearance to the hamon when polishing it. Perhaps this is just their style of polishing? Or maybe they were taught to do it this way? Not sure if they are able to exclude this feature if I had requested but I think it takes away from the style of hamon I asked for.
Hopefully the blade is sharper than I think and my paper cutting skills are just non existent. I probably forgot to add in something that's probably important so I might be adding updates in the future.
Additional/Final Thoughts on Z-sey
First thing to note is that they were fast to reply and had a friendly attitude. We were able to send several messages back and forth within the span of a day. They also responded to any question that I had, and I did have quite a few. Their English was not perfect so this may have caused a bit of mistranslation both ways but this did not cause any huge issues.
Overall I would recommend Z-sey for a semi custom sword. Meaning custom hamon and fittings. I want to point out that their website does not list all of their products, one example being custom tsuba (can be seen on their YouTube channel). Please email them to request what you are looking for as they may have it but not on their site.
On the other hand, I am still hesitant to order a fully custom sword from Z-sey. As in custom blade specs and all. This is mainly due to the additional cost of 30% for a custom length. Along with that, a change in other specs such as mihaba would also require a custom habaki, tsuka, saya, etc. Maybe in the future if the price for a full custom is reduced I might go for it.
Last updated : 25/06/2023 DD/MM/YY
Update 09/06/2023: Plus, minus, final thoughts on Z-sey, more explanation.
Update 25/06/2023: More elaboration.