The absolute best Katana makers?

Posted by: Shouji

The absolute best Katana makers? - 09/09/06 10:02 PM

I decided to start a savings for myself to buy a real, hand made Katana. What is the best maker of Katanas? I mean ones that are made by real Japanese smiths, and made carefully and properly.

THanks in advance.
Posted by: laf7773

Re: The absolute best Katana makers? - 09/10/06 12:05 AM

http://www.geocities.com/alchemyst/gendai.htm

There are various sites on the net that get their swords from Japanese smiths. Since you are saving up for a "real" katana i can assure you that you have plenty of time to do some research into various smiths.
Posted by: Benjamin1986

Re: The absolute best Katana makers? - 09/10/06 02:52 PM

That's a rather vague question

What do you mean by "properly"?

If you mean traditionally, I'd say Yoshindo Yoshihara would be the best alive, but good luck getting your hands on one of his pieces, ¥3,000,000 easily.

If you mean the metalurgically soundest blades, you'd probably be looking at Angelsword. However, their methods and fittings are as non-traditional as you can get.

For a good balance, I would suggest Howard Clark. Good metalurgy, but traditional fittings.

The thing is, the traditional way of forging katana massively drives up the price, but actually decreases the performance of the blade. Folding steel purifies it, but also removes good impurities like vandium. Then, tamahagne is one of the worst sources of steel imagninable; using L-6 (like Clark) or S-7 (like Angelsword) gets better performance out of the steel for a much lower price.

If you just want Japanese steel, I would suggest SwordStore. They have good blades available with the Japanese governent's quality regulations.
Posted by: Kendo_Noob

Re: The absolute best Katana makers? - 09/10/06 04:05 PM

If you want a nihonto, why don't you just contact a sword smith in Japan?

http://www.nihonto.com those are all real

Go to a token kai, theres one in Illinois every year.
Posted by: paradoxbox

Re: The absolute best Katana makers? - 09/11/06 04:06 AM

Forget about the 'best' katana smith in Japan. You'll never own a sword made by one of them unless you happen to save several hundred thousand dollars for it, and he probably won't allow it to be sold to you if you're not Japanese.

For something a little more real and reasonable consider an apprentice smith's blade or a blade by Howard Clark.
Posted by: jurre

Re: The absolute best Katana makers? - 01/05/08 07:00 AM

i am just new in katana, so becuise i am trying to buy a sword from swordstore but when i wass looking and raeding about the sword.
i saw somthing what i did not understand, what is the difrence of a katana Blade Type Hi (Groove): No Hi for Batto or a Hi for Iai.
can some one tell me plz
Posted by: cxt

Re: The absolute best Katana makers? - 01/05/08 03:23 PM

jurre

They are just variations of blades----I suggest that you ask the folks your wanting to buy from to explain the pros/cons if any of the various designs.

See what they say then comapre the answers to other sources.

I hear good things about swordstore......if we are talking about the same place, but I have never bought from them so I have no hands on info.

Question---why are you looking at high/higher end blades?

If your new to swords arts such things are rarely needed---by the time your ready to need to spend thousands or dollers on a blade you usually have a pretty good idea of what the various terms indicate---and why.

If I were you I'd ask my teacher what kind of blade I needed and what they would suggest.

Maybe you already have?????

Most new people to swords find relatively inexpensive iaito (either unsharpend steel or zinc-alloy that can't be sharpened) to be quite serviceable for their needs---talking maybe $200-$500 range instead of thousands here.

Work just fine for most people and most practice.

Again, what does your teacher suggest and why???
Posted by: Charles Mahan

Re: The absolute best Katana makers? - 01/05/08 11:38 PM

Go look up Richard Stein's Japanese Sword Index on Google. There's a lot of great information about Japanese swords there.

And please, please, please, don't resurrect threads that have been dead for more than 6 months.
Posted by: JAMJTX

Re: The absolute best Katana makers? - 01/06/08 03:19 AM

Take a look at David Goldberg's blades
www.goldmountainforge.com

He does excellent work
Posted by: jurre

Re: The absolute best Katana makers? - 01/13/08 02:07 AM

Quote:

jurre

They are just variations of blades----I suggest that you ask the folks your wanting to buy from to explain the pros/cons if any of the various designs.

See what they say then comapre the answers to other sources.

I hear good things about swordstore......if we are talking about the same place, but I have never bought from them so I have no hands on info.

Question---why are you looking at high/higher end blades?

If your new to swords arts such things are rarely needed---by the time your ready to need to spend thousands or dollers on a blade you usually have a pretty good idea of what the various terms indicate---and why.

If I were you I'd ask my teacher what kind of blade I needed and what they would suggest.

Maybe you already have?????

Most new people to swords find relatively inexpensive iaito (either unsharpend steel or zinc-alloy that can't be sharpened) to be quite serviceable for their needs---talking maybe $200-$500 range instead of thousands here.

Work just fine for most people and most practice.

Again, what does your teacher suggest and why???




in that u are right, and my teacher suggest to wait untill i have learn to handel a wooden first.
when i have done that he is going me to learn the difrend kinds of katana's.
but some time i am a litel inpaitaince so i wanted to buy 1 to know how a real 1 feels like.

Quote:

Go look up Richard Stein's Japanese Sword Index on Google. There's a lot of great information about Japanese swords there.

And please, please, please, don't resurrect threads that have been dead for more than 6 months.




and why not,i had somthing like the same quastion, why make a new 1 when there is alredy 1 about it.

thanks for your helps guys.
Posted by: Charles Mahan

Re: The absolute best Katana makers? - 01/13/08 09:40 PM

Basically, because it's bad forum manners. The topic was exauhsted. Now people have to re-read the entire thread in order to figure out what the topic was even about. Some folks might even post replys to posts higher up in the thread not realizing how old those original posts were. It's a waste of time and rather annoying to find that you've accidentally written a 30 line response to a poster who hasn't been active on the forum for a year.