I would like to learn how to sharpen katanas, and thanks to some research I have conducted, I think I have a pretty good idea of how to do it. What I need now is practice. The problem comes from the fact that by "practicing" sharpening on a katana, I will most likely ruin a few, and that is quite costly. I came up with a solution to this problem though, but I was wondering if it was a good one or not. The following is my plan:

Buy a few 440 stainless katanas off of ebay and practice on them.

I'm sure I can land a few off of ebay for $10 or so, which solves the cost dilemma. My question is whether or not a 440 stainless katana would sharpen like the 1060 folded one I have, or if it would just be a giant waste of my time and money to practice on 440 stainless at all.

Thanks for reading,
Retro

I'd suggest heading over to the forums at http://www.swordforum.com There are several bladesmiths and a few polishers that hang out in various fora there.

Retro

The quick answer is that it would largely be a giant waste of time.

But as Charles mentioned, ask the guys/gals at Sword Forum

There has been a recent thread on this. The very shape of a Japanese weapon is that of a wide plane that actualy tapers to an edge that is hardened rather that a weapon that has a sharpened edge like a knife. A number of "very" expensive stones are used for this purpose. A good polish in Japan can cost anything up to ¥15000 an inch. Its not a matter of utting an edge on things. The whole thing has to be worked on with various stones according to the hardness and workability of the metal.

Well this is really something a trained polisher should be trying to answer, and you won't find them here, thus the referal to Swordforum. That said, I suspect your real problem will come in finding a 440 stainless blade that is the proper shape to begin with. Trying to take a blade with geometry which is entirely wrong and using it to practice polishing sounds counterproductive, or at the least not especially productive.

Indeed.