paul chen prctical katana

does anyone know where i can get the best price on one?

That is a very dangerous thing to ask about a sword because the best price can be quite misleading. The biggest complaint about Paul Chen swords is the fact that the quality control is very spotty in the entire Hanwei line. This means that some are decently made and a good bargain for the price, while others of the same model are poorly made and dangerous for use. Your best bet would be to buy from someone that knows how to properly inspect each sword to ensure that it is safe for use. Many of the least expensive internet sellers don't even get the sword in hand, they simply order it to be shipped directly to you.

All of that being said, I personally recommend Nihonzashi ... http://www.nihonzashi.com/

Just use google.. for paul chen the site the above poster gave has way high prices, their customer service may be good but still.

check out sword forum international (google it..) and find a retailer that posts there, look at their website and buy from someone you know will inspect your blade before it's shipped.

Also, might I recommend looking at cheness swords rather than paul chen. They're cheaper and their spring steel ones are much more durable than paul chen's blades.

thanks but i cant see a hamon on the cheness swords is it even there?

nm i see the hamon now

not all of them have a hamon. If you're new to swords a through hardened swords is best, because it's more durable. Furthermore cheness has spring steel blades which are extremely durable (check out the flex demo video they have on their site) which means even if you screw up a cut badly your blade won't take a set. That kind of mistake would cost you your sword with a paul chen or last legend blade.

For an additional several thousand dollars you can get similar blade flex from howard smith... among other things :P

What about this sword( http://www.swordsdirect.com/bushido-swords.html ) because I'm looking at something under $200(US) and this comes with the stand and a maintenance kit. It says it can be disassembled for cleaning and it looks ok. But I can't tell if the tang is actually visible through the handle because then it would rust from sweat right? I just don't want to buy something so expensive and good that I won't know what to do with it. Can somebody post an ok katana for under 200. I just want something that can be disassembled and isn't a rat tail tang.

Any company who refers to a hi as a "blood groove" should be avoided like the black death.

You've got to remember, these things are dangerous weapons. They can be very dangerous to the user, even when not striking objects. You don't wanna take any unnecessary chances with potentially shady companies. At that price range, I would purchase a good bokuto. For a little more than that($250 or so), I would purchase an entry level iaito. I would not pay less than $700 or so for anything which is sharp. It's just too risky. Find something the JSA community has tested and found reasonable, be prepared to hang it on the wall, or risk serious injury or a terminably shoddy training tool. Those are pretty much your options.

masahiro swords are ok for the money. the descriptions are something done by the retailer, usually not the manufacturer, that's important to keep in mind. go by reputation you find on swordforum, not by description on some random sales website you found.

as far as not paying less than 700$ for something sharp, well that's definately your own opinion. The fact is if you shop with a good retailer that does his own QC, you can have reliable, functional blades for much less. I think it's not so great advice to tell beginners to buy +700$ cutting swords when in all likelyhood they're going to bend it the first time they try to cut with it. There's 700 wasted dollars. Even if they have been practicing with a dull iaito for years, they'll still probably flop the first cut and wreck an expensive sword in the process.

I'd venture to say some of the through hardened blades you can buy for 200$ are much stronger and better for a beginner than any 1000$ blade will be, both for the durability and for the cost factor.

High price is not an indicator of quality. High price is an indicator of how much a retailer is taking as markup. You can buy almost any of the very high end paul chen production swords for around 150$ in Taiwan or China, and that's still way more than it cost to make. The same things go for 1000+ here.

Things like balance and furniture quality don't make a big deal of difference to a novice who just wants to learn to cut. You don't need balance and gold tsuba to cut. You just a good, reliable blade, and those can be had for under 200$.

When you're ready to get serious about cutting, then you can invest in a sanmai or folded katana, with confidence that you won't destroy the blade when you cut with it.

Lastly, if you're not cutting with your katana, there's no reason to have a sharp one.

just my opinion though.

Paradox is right, if you had any idea just how little it costs to make a chen, and how cheap you can get them here, you would not be so keen on them. Mostly what your paying for is the very high shipping costs to the USA, as well as the huge mark up his name now garners. Chen is a master of mark up and hype, a lot like angel sword, only not as prolific. If any of you have heard of angel sword, who has been banned from most ren Faires in the USA, he made ludicrous claims about his swords. Chen is not so obvious, but there is a lot of PR spun nonsense about how good his swords really are. Look for up and coming chinese smiths who are new to the market, and likely sell better swords to get your business then Chen does, and for half the price. It's pays to shop around, and not just follow the rest of the crowd when the lunch bell rings.

Daniel, banned from Ren faires? First I've heard about it.

What claims are you talking about? The Chi/Ki claims from the energy arts side, or the metalurgical claims that have emperical backing from the UT engineering department? One is just that, claims of energy measured by whatever mumbo jumbo they believe in. If you believe in Chi, you will. If not, you won't. However, the claims about strength and hardness are based on scientific measurement that has not been disproven or declared false. Are they overpriced? Perhaps. However, that is a far cry from what you are claiming.

Then your not well informed are you, he hasn't been allowed at most of the major one's, including one of the biggest held in maryland, in about 13 years. His name is a byword for scams and fraud in the sword world, and I'd say you need to get out more and learn more about The Angel sword scammers. And yeah, they are overpriced, way overpriced.

This is the very first I have heard of any scam or scandal attached to the folks at Angelsword. Can you provide a link to any kind of information on the subject? Forum posts, blogs, news stories. Anything?

I'm not a fan of anything they sell. I'm sure they are nice for what they are, but they would not be useful in my training and they seem expensive.

He attends three Ren-Faires a year,

Scarborough Faire in Waxahachie,
TRF in Houston, used to be largest one in the country, though they shrunk tremendously last year. Definately a major faire.
New York RF in Tuxedo, NY

For a company based outside Austin, that seems reasonable (two in Texas, one out), as Mr. Watson is (to my knowledge) on site every day of those faires, and none of them have the equipment of forging space necessary to create blades, much less the unmovable machinery for their cryogenic heat treat (though assembly and fittings are often done during the faires, as well as any repairs that are brought).

They barely have enough staff to keep up with merchandise as it is, and Mr. Watson is rather picky about his forge staff, so expansion is slow. Not going to a huge number of Ren faires isn't evidence.

I've heard nothing of any of this aside from summary dismissal with no exposition or other explanation. A search for "Angelsword banned" on Google returns nothing. Almost all are forum responses where the two words were used in completely unrelated fields. You'd think that with all these Ren Faires banning them, there would be at least a web page on one that explains why. However, there isn't.

As for being a byword. I've heard the man called a jerk or arrogant more times than I can count. However, I consider myself not completely detached from the sword world, and I haven't heard anything nearly like what you are talking about with any evidence to back it up.

Present me with evidence and I may believe you. Tell me which faires (actual names, please) he is banned from and provide a link so I may call them myself and I will. Present me with vague claims such as that and I will laugh in your face.