Last May 2013, we asked our fans on Facebook if they would want a fully mounted, fully functional, hand forged katana for the price of PHP 6,500 only. Who wouldn’t want to own a real sword for that price? You may ask, why so cheap? What’s the catch?
Well, the blade will just be made of 1045 carbon steel. It’s like at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to sword steel types. A 1060 carbon forged steel sword can easily devour a 1045 carbon steel! But that doesn’t mean the sword cannot be used. We’re not saying that it is a bad steel being that it’s way better than stainless steel. 1045 can make quite an excellent usable sword provided it is tempered properly. Another thing that should be noted about 1045 is that it is the ‘minimum’ acceptable steel in creating a fully functional real sword. Sorry, stainless steel is not a real blade for swords. It may be softer than 1050, but it will harden and can take a good edge that you can use for cutting and it’s not brittle as stainless steel.
Since we received a lot of excellent feedback for it, we decided to offer you 2 designs. We present to you, the ‘Yokai Katana’ and ‘Raijin Katana’!
Both swords have the same specifications:
• Blade Material: 1045 carbon steel (mono-steel)
• Edge: Fully-sharpened
• Treatment: Hand Forged, Through Hardened, Heat Treated & Tempered, Water Quenched
• Blade Length: 28 inches
• Tsuka: 11 inches wood
• Saya: glossy black lacquered finish
• Tsuba / Fuchi / Kashira / Menuki /
• Habaki / Seppa: Brass
• Tsukaito / Sageo: Black cotton
• Mekugi: 2 bamboo pegs
• Samegawa: Real ray skin panels
• Nakago: Full tang
• Hamon: Wirebrushed notare (wave) pattern
• Specs may vary slightly from sword to sword
• Can be disassembled
• Includes cloth bag and carton box
Here are the preview photos.
Yokai Katana
The Yokai Katana is named after the design on its tsuba. ‘Yokai’ are a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese folklore. Click here to know more about the yokai. This tsuba depicts a yokai under a star magnolia tree with beautiful white flowers.
Raijin Katana
Just like the Yokai Katana, the Raijin Katana is named after the design on its tsuba. The tsuba depicts Raijin, the god of lightning, thunder, and storms in the Shinto religion and in Japanese mythology. His name is derived from the Japanese words ‘rai’ (meaning thunder) and ‘shin’ (god or kami). He is typically depicted as a demon-looking spirit beating drums to create thunder.
Even with a 1045 carbon steel blade, you can definitely use these swords for ‘tameshigiri’ or cutting practice, but only for light targets such as water bottles and water-soaked, rolled straw mats.
We are expecting these swords to arrive by October. If you want to be notified when these swords are already available, you can sign up to our mailing list (located at the bottom part of our website) so you will receive an email notification. Or you can follow us on our Facebook page and Twitter where we post our product updates.