I debated this as GQ (the questions are at the end, and most of them have answers), IMHO, or CS, since swords are mostly artworks these days. I picked GQ, but I won’t pit a mod just for moving me.
I’ve several times encountered one of those mounted katanas on somebody’s desk, and I’d like to have one. I’m not entirely ignorant about medieval and feudal weapons; I could identify many of them at a glance, for example. However, I don’t know a lot about sword construction beyond the obvious “when done, one end should be dangerous–the other not so much.”
Google produced an enormous range of prices and vendors, ranging from about $20 to $1200 or so, and I don’t know how to evaluate “am I getting a bargain, or just poor quality?”
I don’t need an antique; I’m perfectly content with a modern blade. However, I would like it to be functional, not just a showpiece. In my line of work (software engineering) swordfights arise less than twice a week, but the idea of a weapon that can’t be used as one just seems a bit odd to me.
I’m in the middle of nowhere, so I’m going to have to buy off the Internet. What do I look for? Are there places or even models y’all would recommend? Anything in particular I should beware of? What’s a good price? And most important of all: What questions should I be asking that I don’t know I should be asking?
Just buy whatever looks coolest for the price you want.
My BF has a $500 functional rapier, and a $30 worthless katana. But the katana gets twice the attention because it looks nifty. Any useful sword is going to cost a rediculous amount of money (especially for something that will never be used) and chances are it won’t really be what it was advertised as anyway.
I know little about modern Katana replicas, European weapons are more my style, but I would strongly suggest giving sword forum international (www.swordforum.com) a try. They’ll help you there.
Aslo, for a more interesting conversation piece, there are archaeoligical auction houses out there where you can get a real old sword (but one thast is common and of little museum value) for a surprisingly reasonable price. Way cool.
I wouldn’t sya this is necessarily true. You can find a functional and attractive modern european replica for under $500. For more than that you can get anythign from a very historically accurate, functional replica, to a custom made sword.
For Katana I’d say stay away from traditionally made Katana, they ARE very expensive and you’ll be paying for the aesthetics only.
For example, this page has some pretty crazy stuff- it’s not Japanese (Japanese swords have a large collectory community, so they will always go for a preimum), but it’s way cool (I have no idea how trustworthy they are though- getting antiques appraised is always a smart idea).
If you are looking for a blade that has the potential to be useful, avoid stainless steel at all costs. This includes the hundreds of swords on ebay advertised as surgical steel. These blades have an alarming tendency to shatter violently on mild blows (the bloke in cmyk’s post was lucky not to be seriously injured, but this is an example of what can happen). They do polish up nicely though, so if you just want a wall hanger these are fine.
There is a large number of very cheap antique swords available on ebay from China, many of which have high quality, usable blades. unfortunately the fittings are often slightly broken and the blades are usually in need of a polish, which is not something to be done by an amateur. Nonetheless, I would recommend having a look at these swords, as, for the price they are well worth it.
A real modern Katana is pretty expensive. However, a real modern Katana is not that much fun. Yes it’s gorgeous, well-designed and razor-sharp, but can only responsibly be used for three things: decoration, practice and slicing flesh. Any other use significantly increases the risk of ruining the blade. Here is a place where you can get a real Katana made for as little as $8000: http://www.jidai.jp
There’s a lot of vendors on the internet that sell carbon-steel modern katanas (make sure the steel type is less brittle than regular stainless). You can probably get a decent one for about $200 if you look around. You should be able to sharpen that one, polish it so it looks good and not be afraid to chop up a melon or some tree branches, because hey, worst case you ding the blade here and there. It might even be useful against somebody armed with a lesser blade(i.e. a swiss army knife or something) Just remember to treat anything sharp and metal with the respect it deserves: hit anything not meant to be hit with it and you’re liable to break the blade and have it sticking out of your head.
Just remember to treat anything sharp and metal with the respect it deserves: hit anything not meant to be hit with it and you’re liable to break the blade and have it sticking out of your head.