Dojo Pro Katana Model #11

Seems sturdy, very sharp. As Long as it handles my back yard samauri skills I'll be buying another from ronin.

Seems sturdy, very sharp. As Long as it handles my back yard samauri skills I'll be buying another from ronin.

The bo-hi makes it feel a little more lively than the solid bodied blades, and the whooshing noises are satisfying. As expected all the fittings and the ito wrap are tight and the blade came sharp with no defects that would effect function. Habaki fits tight in the koiguchi. My only grip is that the mune has a slight waviness on the last 1/3 towards the kissaki.

As other reviewers have noted, all the fittings and little details are exceptionally good quality. Genuine same (ray skin) panels. Genuine silk ito with a very clean, tight wrap. Very handsome brass menuki—none of that cheap looking, fake-gold here! Mekugi pins (both bamboo) look clean and strong. Higo-style fuchi kashira and a very nice, hammered iron tsuba with understated yet handsome sakura theme round out the fittings. I have always preferred Higo style furniture on my swords because it is not too flashy but also not too plain. One of my favorite things about this sword—in fact, what sold me on it—is the outstanding shape of the tsuka. So many katana these days have clunky, baseball-bat style tsuka with no personality and terrible ergonomics. By contrast, the Ronin katana has a tsuka that is comparable to genuine nihonto. It looks great and feels great in the hands. I use mine almost exclusively for iaido and, although it took me a couple of days to de-program my hands from years of handling more rounded, clunky tsuka, once my hands "got it" this sword started to feel great during kata practice. Regarding the blade, make no mistake—this is a cutting sword, through and through. Great geometry, clean lines, beyond razor-sharp. As a live blade for iaido, it demands respect from your fingers and requires a solid understanding of proper technique, particularly during noto, when slightly mis-aligned fingers are most apt to lose a few layers of epidermis! I only have two real criticisms. First, the sageo—the one bit of furniture that is merely entry-level quality. The sword comes with a synthetic silk sageo with the thicker shigeuchi weave. Aside from the stiffness of synthetic silk, I find shigeuchi to be quite annoying for regular practice, as it starts to fray (badly) after just a few sessions. Consequently, one of the first things I did when my sword arrived was to replace the sageo with a nice, genuine silk cord with a more fine, kakucho weave. Major improvement. My second complaint concerns the packing wax that lines the saya. I imagine that this is an effective way to prevent rust, while swords are stored in a warehouses but it is a major annoyance for actual practice. After two full weeks of daily practice, my sword is still covered in wax at the end of every session. Since the wax not only looks funky but also makes the blade rather sticky, I have had to clean it rather aggressively after each use. The wax issue would have lowered my ranking of the sword to four stars but I am so pleased with every other aspect of it, I will give them a pass on this one issue. However, I do think Ronin should figure out a better way to pack the swords, such that the packing substance goes away after a few days of regular use.

Great sword of the month deal... Couldn't pass up the $75 savings. I placed my order Friday night and it was at my door the following Thursday. Tsuka, fittings and ito wrap are nice and tight... Says isn't as tight of a fit as I would like but nothing worth complaining about. Fantastic blade!!! Straight, sharp, no machining marks, and a nice overall polish job... Lucky enough to receive one with the ghost hamon and in the right light it's freakin sweet! The bo hi is a nice touch, shaving off those few ounces of weight really makes it well balanced and light in the hand. Have yet to put it through its paces on the killing floor but I'm quite confident it will perform admirably. I will be a Ronin Katana repeat customer....

Beautiful, classical, simple lines and style of a pure Katana- exactly what I want.