The Samurai Sword Blog

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 …

Ronin has restocked the elite line with lots of new katana for sale. O-katana, kogarsu maru (little crow), and ko katana are among the 60+ new elites this year. Ronin has also added some Chinese jian and dao this year. Ronin Katana is the world's largest seller of complex laminated katana, including soshu kitae. Lamination lines are clearly visible on our katana. Don't be fooled by Chinese ebayer's looking to steal from you by selling folded steel as lamination. As always, the elites are one of …

Recently I was in Japan buying parts for the Ronin tamahagane katana line, which should be on sale next year. Between traveling from city to city collecting sword parts and books on katana, Paul Southren (Sword Buyer's Guide) and I stopped at a ninja shop to buy a few things and put on a shuriken throwing clinic for the Japanese. Lot's of ninja gear and samurai swords for sale, although none of the katana for sale were high end. …