a good katana

Yeah, I know. But my friends' Aisan. So I'm supposing that he only forges the traditional Japanese style swords.^^ But I still gotta' double-check!hehehehe....

 

well a traditional Japanese Katana is very hard to make. its over a 10 year apprenticeship with a Japanese swordsmith. generally its about a 12-15 year apprenticeship if i remember correctly.

 

remember, if you get a bokken, shinai, iaito, or shinken. you have to care for it. buying a blade is a great responsiblity.

Care for a Bokken
a bokken is simply a piece of wood that has the shape and form of a real katana and is weighted similarly. now, a good bokken, such as one made of ironwood. is very tough and will probably not need too much care other than an occasional light sanding to get small dings out.

bokken made of cherry wood and other types of softer wood will need slightly more care. some bokken require that the bokken be gently sanded to remove any varnish or coating. then it should be put in a tub or tube that can be filled with oil. this is to keep the wood from drying out completely so it wont shatter.

Care for a Shinai
a shinai is a piece of bamboo that is split in fourths and then tied together at the tip and in the middle of the blade and then has a leather handle cover. when you first buy a shinai you need to take the top tie off and the pull the second tie off and gently sand all the pieces down so that they're smooth. some oil maybe needed to keep the bamboo somewhat saturated to keep from splitting.

thus Bamboo Shinai are somewhat hard to take care of hence, they do make carbon shinai which can stand up to much more sparring and dont need to have matinance done to them unless they break, but said shinai are very expensive.

Care for and iaito
an iaito is a metal alloy blade with all the traditional fittings. I.E. handle, handgaurd, friction point scabbard, but has a non-sharp, alloy blade. this blade is strong enough to practice iaido with, hence the name "iaito" but cannot withstand the shock of sparring so, this blade is not to be used in any form of hitting, sparring, cutting etc. however, being alloy it will never rust hence it makes for a very attractive display sword. but one must still remember, firstly to keep dirt away from the scabbard. it can easily get in a deteriorate the scabbard as well as scratch up the blade upon resheathing. secondly as i said before. its not a strong blade. its made mostly of zinc and aluminium and isnt that strong. take it from one who knows, they will break under sparring or cutting excercises.

they do make steel iaito, but those will be covered in the next heading.

Care for Shinken or Steel iaito
first off, you are now dealing with a steel blade hence IT WILL RUST! Shinken or live blades are not to be taken lightly. Shinken READ live blades are sharp and will cut you if your not careful. these blades are capable of cutting through bodies without stopping.a single swing from a capable swordsmen will render you dead! now, care for such blades is much more complicated.

heres a link to a guide written up by the NBTHK. its much more through then my instructions will be, but it applies more to antique blades, but the cleaning process is the same which you will need to know. the rest of it you can ignore unless you own old blades.

http://www.geocities.com/alchemyst/care/handling.htm

as for when to care for a Shinken, my adivice is anytime youve used it. so, after any and every practice session any session when it may have gotten wet or damp. keep the scabbard away from dirt as this can get in the scabbard and create rust pockets where the blade is. which will destroy your blade.

Steel iaito, are simply Shinken that are edgeless and should be kept and cleaned in the same manner as Shinken. Shinken are hand forged and tempered from high carbon steel and have the strength of a Shinken.

 

i'm planning to get a katana too. i went to this website (forgot what it was) and they had lots of cheap katanas. you can check it up on ask.com or somethings like that.

(o^-^o) yaka.

 

always beware of "Cheap" swords. i garuntee, firstly, that they're more than likely to be inaccurate, secondly, they're going to be made of Stainless Steel which is going to be sharpened and will be dangerous to handle.

also, almost all "Cheap" swords have acid etched hamon and usually have incorrecly mounted bades making them a hazard to use at all.

 

almost all "cheap" swords are made up of stainless steel usually, J2 or 440 Stainless, both of which are non tempered, non forged steel usually stamped from a single piece of steel and then sharpened with an acid etched hamon (temperline). these swords are of no artistic merit nor are they historically accurate. while for someone who only wishes to have a display sword and cares not about the origin or accuracy they will serve this purpose, they are of no use to collectors or students of the Nihontou.

now, many of these blade will not have a peg that holds the nakago (tang) to the tsuka (handle) which means its been fastened by some other means. however, because you cannot tell what methods been used, the blade has the possiblity of slipping out of the handle altogether which makes it a huge hazard to use in any way, shape, or form.

if you really want a cheaper sword, consult me first, i can tell you what is and what isnt a good sword. i can reccomend different paths to take and the such/

 

Alright, I don'twant get long winded with my advice, just short and to the point. If you want a good fighting sword, I mean one that's pretty strong and balanced enough to be usable, then spend the 1k, its all worth it. The thing is, there are ( in my personal opinion) there are 3 types of swords. practicing swords, live swords of general quality (ranging in strenghth and quality) and custom, personalized swords. Now, with your predicimant do you want a practicing sword? then I sugjest, then, that you spend about 300-500(it depends on the quality) dollars and get a bokken or maybe even a dull katana ( wich would cost a bit more). If, on the onther hand, you want a real fighting sword, I would make no shortcuts and spend at least 1000. When you get into fighting swords, you can't really aford to have crap, but the right sword company is key. Now, I don't know what level ur at, but if ur by any chance a master and are concidering haveing Kenjustu as a career ( and have quite a wallet to spend) then you may concider to getting a comsom made sword. These ones you have to be very carfull with becasue therr are a lot of shrink sword makers who just rip you off. Actually, the only place I would get one from is a native Japaneese master sword smith. Thats how I bought mine. It will set you back about 2000to 3500 dollars, but let me tell you, its well worth it. The problem is, no matter what kind of sword you get, it has to fit you (its wielder) as much as possilbe. As I say, the sword and the master must become indiferent. This means that, nomatter what sword you get, it must be someting that can be a litteral extension of your mind and body. Now, I don't know how serious you are about kenjutsu, but the only way to become truely great at it is to live by your sword, no matter what kind you get, you need to have one thats not just a throwaway. No if you just want to go wave it around a bit, then thats fine, but otherwise invest the money, it pays back a ton.

 

in general, most practice swords that you see on the market today are going to be very cheap, usually in excessive of little more than 80 dollars. these blades are made in Japan and are made from a Zinc, Lead, Tin Alloy. they will have thin wooden saya, an ABS handle wrapped in cotton and have a stamped tsuba with an bronze habaki. however, they are extremely cheap in quality. the saya is very thin wood and will break very fast. the handle is made of plastic and wrapped in cotton, generally the cotton wrap will be off and not very tight either. the blade itself is etremely unbalanced and usually weighs about 3 and half pounds which is very heavy for a Nihontou, and because the blade is unbalanced to the arm it will feel much heavier. for display they are decent. however for martial arts they are worthless. the unbalanced blade will throw off your strikes and stances and the looseness of the blade provides danger in practice.

as for "fighting" blades, very few kenjutsu schools ever teach live sparring. i only know of one on the west coast. although ive dueled with live swords i highly reccomend never doing this. its extremely dangerous and a simple slip could result in death. as for going with a Japanese master, its extremely costly, especially when getting one direct from Japan. in general, a blade made by one of Japan's swords smiths, without koshirae will cost up to 30,000 pounds, thats 60,000 US dollars and a typical wait period is between 3-5 years. i do not reccomend getting a sword from Japan. i would reccomed above all else, a blade made by either Paul Chen or Last Legend Katanas. i have blades made by both places and will atest to amazing skill both forges have.

i too have a custom made blade but because it was made by Paul Chen its much cheaper running about 1500. generally i recommend to my students to simply buy an Iaito made by Paul Chen. Either the Nami or the Gorin Iaito. both are high quality, High Carbon steel forged blades.