Looking for a nice Chinese Repro sword max. 400 EUR

[vajo]

No sorry my chinese experience is now satisfied. All these replicas are crab! 

You can cut something yes, but dont try to love them.  These are industrial made, low cost pieces. Only to blend over the low quality materials.

[vajo]

A wall hanger at best. If your looking for a cheap functional piece to cut with, I would recommend a Hanwei. Practical XL posted below for $250

 

http://www.kultofathena.com/product.asp?item=SH6000XPF&name=Hanwei+Practical+XL+Katana

 

Mike, dissamble it and show us pictures of the quality inside. I bet there is plastic and cheap materials...

 

I cant belive that the most users of these swords take a deeper look on it. 

[Oshy]

I no longer own but Hanwei Paul Chen great and we'll respected brand for practitioners. Lots of reviews out there to read and YouTube if you want. Best bang for your buck for functionality in my opinion.

[vajo]

I no longer own but Hanwei Paul Chen great and we'll respected brand for practitioners. Lots of reviews out there to read and YouTube if you want. Best bang for your buck for functionality in my opinion.

 

Mike i bet it is glued together. 

[Oshy]

No sir it is definitely not. Il try to find some reviews

[vajo]

Mike that is crap. Look at the ito, the plastic and did he disassambling it - NO! 

 

Every last stage NCO Katana from the last day of War is better than this chinese works..

[Oshy]

You seem to have made your decision then

[Oshy]

Il leave you with this Hanwei video, review of the nakago 17 minutes in. Good luck with your search.

 

[vajo]

Yes Mike, i bought a "mid" class chinese sword. I thought i must have one to really judge the quality of these modern swords that so many people found good.

 

Look at that nakago! That looks like really near to mine that i have bought from katanamart. The area around the mune looks really worse. And this blade costs? 800 or 900 Dollar?

Look at the tsuka. Cheap parts and losy binding. No, thanks.

 

 

I think all these swords came from the same forging industrie in Longquan. They make the swords bling bling and that parts what you normaly not see is cheap made...

[Oshy]

Im sorry you had a bad experience with your first piece. This video was just to show the quality of the nakago, it's the same that you can expect on the $250 practical XL. I've seen many modern blades in hand from different companies and for what it's worth, I can say Hanwei Paul Chen are a notch above the rest but you cannot expect the same quality and results that your used to with traditional nihontos, especially at the much lower prices. I'm just trying to help but you seem to have made up your mind generalizing all non nihonto as garbage.

[vajo]

Mike the garbage is in the making the finish. I wrote the blade is well forged if you notice it. 

 

In my opinion it were easy to improve the quality of the swords without higher costs.

[Oshy]

Hanwei fittings and castings are typically quite good for the money compared to other modern reproductions.

[Greg F]

Chris when it comes to chinese repro for practice spending a little extra worth getting a Simon lee sword. He does T10 or his own version of tamahagane and even kobuse lamination if required. Im really happy with my 2 katana from him.

 

Greg

[vajo]

Mike you sound like a Hanwei Dealer 

 

Its not about a special company, its about the way making swords.

 

The world is flooded with these cutters and the companies only make difference in assambling different low quality stuff. Some looks better, some more worse. But all of the stuff is the same. 

 

Why the nakago of all these swords looks so crude? Why the didn't follow the shape of the blade?

[vajo]

Hi Greg could you show pictures from the bare blade with the nakago? How the fittings looks? What wood is used? Are there glued parts? 

[Oshy]

Just speaking from my personal experience and what the practitioner world generally agrees on. Not a Hanwei dealer but I would say I am biased with them due to each piece, at thier respective budget, seems to be a great bang for the buck for the modern day practitioner. Il let you continue with your research, stay safe.

[Greg F]

Hi Chris I do that for you today or tomorrow when I can mate.

 

Greg

[Shamsy]

Hanwei are fine for the money. Decent blade that will chop up watermelons without an issue. The main issue I have is that the leather wrap of the handles is not genuine leather. It's that crappy composite that will flake apart after a few years.

 

I mean, I'm with Mike here. You want a cheap Chinese copy, but then you seem unsatisfied because it's cheap! Ultimately, you usually get what you pay for. Personally, I'd buy a 2-3k western made katana. Be happy it's well made, still a piece of handmade craft but also you're not trashing a piece of history.

[vajo]

No Steve i didnt say it is crab! I say the quality of the parts are crap and the care in the polish and endfinish ist crab. It seems i speak chinese or whatever  . Nobody wants to understand. The quality of the katanamart sword is much better than this from Hanwei, Paul Chen or others. They youses crap parts too and glue the nakago of the sword into the tsuka. What you see in the example of Hanweis Parctical Katana. I'm not an idiot.

[vajo]

I'm out now. There is no willing for difference in that theme. Read carefully what i said. And cutting a watermelone can done by a sharp piece of wood. What does it say? Nothing.

[16k]

Hanwei are fine for the money. Decent blade that will chop up watermelons without an issue. The main issue I have is that the leather wrap of the handles is not genuine leather. It's that crappy composite that will flake apart after a few years.

 

I mean, I'm with Mike here. You want a cheap Chinese copy, but then you seem unsatisfied because it's cheap! Ultimately, you usually get what you pay for. Personally, I'd buy a 2-3k western made katana. Be happy it's well made, still a piece of handmade craft but also you're not trashing a piece of history.

 

The latest elite PPK has replaced the pleather ito. They’ve also modified the geometry for better cutting. If it weren’t for that too regular, acid enhanced Hamon, this would be a perfect sword.

[Blazeaglory]

I had a "Great Wave" from Paul Chen and it was pretty awesome.

 

The Nakago was signed with yasurime and in the image of a typical Nihonto. The blade was actually quite sharp as well. The Tsuka and saya were real wood and all the other fittings were really nice and made from quality metal as well.

 

Overall it was a really made sword. It wasn't forged with a real hamon tho but it would cut anything no problem.

[Greg F]

Hi Chris sorry for the delay.

Pics are from my phone so sorry for lack of quality.

Fittings are cheap but tsuka and saya are pretty well made and the wrap is good and tight. No glue to be seen too.

I have two katana made by Simon, the other blade has no bohi and ive cut tatami, bamboo, pool noodles and a water melon too.

Both are nice in hand and pretty well balanced. Definitely good value imho.

 

Regards

Greg

[raynor]

Get a sub one million rated shinshinto

smith's katana in decent polish, let that be your watermelon katana.

 

You wont get great Chinese repro katana for under $800-1000 and even then there will usually be glued tsuka, fake silk ito (not safe!) and $5 zink menuki. Blade will be good if you pick a good smith.

 

For a good Chinese cutter dont buy Japanese swords from them, buy Chinese swords but go through a middleman to avoid the astronomical prices they charge in mainland China now since Chinese collectors are starting to also have money.

 

http://www.lqzwdj.com/247.html

[16k]

Hi Chris sorry for the delay.

Pics are from my phone so sorry for lack of quality.

Fittings are cheap but tsuka and saya are pretty well made and the wrap is good and tight. No glue to be seen too.

I have two katana made by Simon, the other blade has no bohi and ive cut tatami, bamboo, pool noodles and a water melon too.

Both are nice in hand and pretty well balanced. Definitely good value imho.

 

Regards

Greg

it’s a nice sword Greg. I have one quite similar. I bought the blade bare and chose the koshirae with the different options they had. I chose an overall lobster theme with lobster Tsuba, Fuchi and kashira. The tsuka is black same with brown leather ito and the saya is black and segmented to recall the segmentation of a lobster's body. Nice Hada (tighter than yours) and good looking Hamon too. Somehow, even though it’s not a nihonto, I like it because it is MY conception from start to finish.

[DTM72]

[ROKUJURO]

Tim,

welcome to the NMB!

If you want to sell something (preferably) Japanese, you should open a new thread (in the "for sale" section, not here) of your own and show us good, sharp photos, exact measurements of the items, and of course, your prices! Sales ads without prices are not allowed here.