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Post by blairbob on Mar 20, 2024 8:42:13 GMT
I've seen him before in reviews, maybe for some YnZ stuff.
He may use the right terminology and likely is trying (it says he's been doing Iai for 2yrs but more like 3+ now since Covid) in his videos but he cuts straight out of Highlander meets baseball which is why he likely bends this semprini out of his blades. He does seem to have gotten his hands on a lot of different swords.
Crazyjohns beat me in saying it. Besides Vidar.
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Post by blairbob on Mar 20, 2024 8:45:57 GMT
Komonjo is only a handful of hours from me. My buddy was thinking he might want one inexpensive nihonto until some recent life stuff has taken priority. He doesn't really care to cut but just wants one after being in JSA so long (and he has some money to spend but not like new shinsakuto money).
But if I could visit him and see the wares in person, I might be far more willing to purchase one. Maybe they aren't nihonto or they are just tired mumei/gimei. They do look nice.
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Post by larason2 on Mar 20, 2024 13:39:53 GMT
I've bought a fair amount of Komonjo swords by now. The gendaito are all Chinese, but they are pretty good. Laminated, layered carbon steel differentially hardened with a decent acid wash polish. The nakagos are always rough and sharp, and obviously it doesn't matter what the Mei says, it's gimei! The antiques are all nihonto, at least all the ones I've gotten (I only get really rusty ones though!). There's one tanto I have where the mei might be authentic, but I'm not submitting it to shinsa, and I'm not getting my hopes up! Most of the other ones I have are either mumei or obviously gimei. There's probably no point actually going to where Komonjo is, you can pretty much see what will be seen from the pictures on the websites. All of the Nihonto I've bought were either rusted to oblivion or burnished to oblivion, so there's no way you will be able to tell they are authentic in person better than the pictures. I suppose though that if they're not rusted or burnished you would be able to tell better in person though. When I carefully deburnised and polished traditionally though, I saw the tell tale signs they are nihonto (the tiny gaps between the horizontally welded layers). The habaki are usually also genuine, though never high quality ones. So I feel Komonjo is fairly trustworthy, at least when it comes to the antique items. The gendaito are also quite nice, even if they are Chinese. I avoid the ones with the really small ji (especially if you plan to cut with them!).
Differentially hardened Chinese carbon steel swords aren't as durable as the tool steel/through hardened ones, but I feel they are closer to Nihonto, even for cutting, and I like that I can straighten them and polish them as if they were Nihonto. In Japan they always considered foreign good quality carbon steel as very good, and they even used foreign carbon steel on some swords (some of which may have been Chinese). The ideal for Japanese knives for many years was carbon steel, and I've sharpened and polished up some rusty antique carbon steel Japanese knives and they cut amazingly. I think it's like manual transmissions once were, the cheap option is not always bad! Chinese carbon steel is pretty good, and I think it can make a reliable sword, even differentially hardened. It's a plus that the aesthetics are also pretty good!
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voidec
Member
Back in the game after like 8 years
Posts: 144
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Post by voidec on Mar 20, 2024 20:28:47 GMT
Are Motohara blades through hardened or differentially hardened? Are they folded? Kobuse or Sanmai etc.?
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Post by vidar on Mar 20, 2024 20:40:58 GMT
I believe they’re all differentially hardened, monosteel (non-folded)
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Post by blairbob on Mar 21, 2024 8:08:15 GMT
it's a short day trip from me though traffic might be semprini on the way back (good excuse to stop somewhere for eats to kill time). it wouldn't be worth for any sword less than a few hundred, but half a G or more...sure.
also, why ship a blade when you can take it home?
besides could get a feel or vibe from the seller.
tbh, I seriously doubt I could tell the difference between a well done Chinese blade and Nihonto unless I could see the Nakago. I'm just not versed enough in them, which is a good enough reason to go to SF one day and check out the sword club or during Nisei week. And get really good Japanese food (there is ok Japanese food in town, better about 100miles away). It's too bad the lady who taught Naginata passed away in East Bay.
Manual transmission or a helluva lot better than automatic. And more fun. Seems like race cars use sequential transmission though.
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Post by maro on Apr 17, 2024 6:20:20 GMT
Everything from the old crowbar blades to Ryansword, etc One thing to note is a lot of people buy blades with bohi for cutting which they really shouldn't use at that stage in their experience. I'm not a big fan of Bohi myself, but I use it in training to get better audio feedback with tachikaze, practicing when not cutting, also due to the length and weight of my sword the bohi helps bring the point of balance closer to the tsuba. But my next japanese sword I'll do without it. Believe it or not, tachikaze is not super reliabe for good cuts.
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Post by maro on Apr 17, 2024 6:22:31 GMT
Modern mode differently hardened Chinese steel katanas are always something I would avoid anyways. Quality control is a lot less consistent on them. Anyways I appreciate and am learning quite a bit from Maros responses. Something else worthy of notation is the quality of modern made Tamahagene style steel. The purity in which it is in modern time is much higher quality than medieval japan. So even using the same old methods of sword making for Nihonto in Japan. The iron sand and etc they have access to and use is also containing a lot less impurities, than the quality of steel which was accessible in previous centuries for these methods in Japan. I have mostly TH Blades in general, but one would think more modern steel from some of the better Japanese smiths would be a relatively "good deal", especially 2nd hand ( I have seen a nice Katana from a Master Smith made in '77 go for 2000 U.S.D. on Japanese sites). Plenty of older swords as well, just not "Samurai Era" for a good blade at that price.
This site claims Japanese swords made after 1954 might have issues with importation into the USA:
If true, that kind of puts a dent in the post War Japanese market...at least in terms of the U.S.A.
Definitely not true - they don't even check swords if you bring them in in person
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