The Samurai Sword Blog

The Apocalypse has come and gone, and all that's left now are poppy fields and kung fu fighters! So far, that's the premise of AMC's In the Badlands, which airs on Sunday nights.  "The wars were so long ago nobody even remembers. Darkness and fear ruled until the time of the barons, seven men and women who forged order out of chaos. People flocked to them for protection. That protection became servitude. They banished guns and trained armies of lethal fighters they called Clippers. …

Ebay sword dealers offer a lot of customization, including custom hamon. As with the other parts of sword making, that too is outsourced to locals who specialize in it. There are several places, that range from very fast, to very detailed. The lower the price point on a sword sale, the lower the amount they are going to spend on a hamon. Consider a hamon no different than fittings, or a saya. It's just something else they need to add to the sword to make the sale.I've visited around 10 places th …

Ebay sword sellers often, okay always, claim they have a forge and make the swords they sell themselves. Actually, in 100% of the cases, this is untrue. Yep, they are all lying, and not one of them owns a forge. So where do the mass quantities of swords they sell come from? In some cases, they come from overflow from large factories. Ronin, for example, orders 500+ soshu kitae laminated katana every year. Because of the high failure rate, three blades are forged for every one that we order. The …

Every few years this topic comes up in a big way, and my email box goes crazy. While I've published a few factory videos and wrote a few articles for Sword Buyers Guide, I decided since I already pay for a blog, I may as well put my inside access to use on Roninkatana.com as well. So here it is. Ronin Katana has been around for 10 years now, and during that time I've spent many many months in China living and working. My wife is the niece of Chinese national treasure smith Weiping …

This post focuses on antique tsuba for sale in Japan. Japanese sword dealers offer fully mounted katana for sale, bare blades for sale, and tsuba, fuchi, and kashira sets. Silk and cotton are available as well, if you know where to look, but not at the antique sword dealers. Here's a look at some of the tsuba, fuchi,kashira, and menuki available. …