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For those not in the know, Chen Chao-Po is Paul Chen's real name.

That said I disagree with the previous poster. Not everything turned out by the Hanwei forge is "great". They make a lot of really super cheap mass produced stuff with very poor quality control. They also turn out some really nice stuff, particularly the stuff that is custom made for Bugei Trading Company and passes their QC procedures.

Swords do not take 7 years to make. A couple of weeks or so is all that is required to make even the top notch art swords in Japan. There are plenty of reasonably affordable swords on the market that are better than than the cheap low end stuff that Hanwei turns out. Check the reviews at Swordforum. It's all there.

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of course you should NEVER buy the cheapest stuff, never ever hehe, no matter if it is a god or a man that made it

was talking about those 7 years samurai swords or what ever, or that was just a rumor they took seven years to complete

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For those not in the know, Chen Chao-Po is Paul Chen's real name.
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Then it's a good thing he goes by "Paul" instead of "Charlie"

Going back on topic, my cheapist Paul Chen blade - the Zatoichi - is being shipped to me now. I ran out of funds bidding on the Last Legend Zwihander and missed the time-frame (got funded, but too late) for a custom made hand-me-down Gim/Jian (no wushu flexibality for me) and again missed out on a sale price for a Dark Sentinal ...

My Wife: You have thirteen swords already - what do you need any more for?
Me: Well, they're all wallhangers except the one and it's not sharp.
My Wife: What'd you buy them for in the first place?
Me: (crying) I didn't know any better.

I hope I've not been too off topic. There has been a lot of advice here and on swordforum about the Chen/Hanwei/Iberia blades and the verdict seems to be that at the low end the Practical Plus (not Practical nor Practical Pro) is barely acceptible (most of the time due to the Quality problem) until one can take the next step up ($500+) or to the top tiers of $2,000 and up and up and up. But I'm no expert and this is based on no experience whatsoever.

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Hey hey!
Have you looked at any of the Last Legend blades? They look really nice, and are the ones I'm looking at once I get the money to buy myself a Japanese sword. check them out at www.lastlegend.com, and enjoy!

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