[Jonathon Hanson]

Hello everyone, I am a 4 year student in kenjutsu who wants to buy a katana for light cutting and kata work. At first, I was impressed with the CAS Hanwei swords but I am wondering if there are any companies out there who sell an affordable katana that is made in the USA or Japan as opposed to China or India. Does anybody have a suggestion?

[J Anstey]

Hi Jonathon,

There are many option but we would need a budget to make any worthwhile recommendations. Expect to pay $7000 + from Japan and $4000 + from a good USA smith.

Cheers

Jason

[Bill Grandy]

Hi Jonathon,
I know this sounds like a cop-out answer, but its the best one: Ask your sensei. Not only will your sensei have excellent advice, but there may be requirements that your school has, and it'd be a shame to drop a couple thousand on a sword only to find out that you are not allowed to use it in your class.

[J Anstey]

[Jonathon Hanson]

Thanks for the replies. My sensei is mainly a collector of antique katanas and most of his stuff is out of my price range. I think I will just start out with a cheap sword and look at something nicer in a few years, when I get my black belt.

[P. Cha]

Well...the US or Japanese made with the caveat of needing it to be good won't be cheap. Is a grand or more okay? If not, you may wanna stick with the chinese smiths. And some of them do make some pretty nice swords for the price. Just make sure that the fitting are NOT zinc alloy as they are not safe for cutting...even just light cutting (I can break most zinc alloy tsuba you see in low end swords with my bare hands).

[Etienne Hamel]

ok here is your best bet woulod be either hanwei, dynasty forge or kris cuttlery you may want to take a look at wiwingty sword supply to buy they have prices just unbelievable.

other than that you can have a custom made katana on ebay by huawei (only heard great thing about them) they are clay tempered, you can have a nice geometric yokote as oposed to the annoying counter polished one.

for a custom bare blade you can have to your specs (to the lenght and style of blade to the hamon you want) for approximately 150$usd or a little more (i asked for a daisho set in shirasaya and the price was 250$usd approximately)
for a complete sword with all the fittings i think the range would be approximately 250-300$usd

if you want some info about these there are many people who bought them and was very pleased with it though it is made in china you even have the choice of the blade metal to use (t-10, 5160) never they refused a challenge for now so you might give them a try.

i hope this helps

Edit: i forgot to add that huawei-sword is an ebay seller (very fast on the making but no flaws registered)
here'S the link of their ebay store: http://stores.ebay.com.au/huaweiswords

[Lin Robinson]

Let me make a suggestion. Go to www.lastlegend.com and look at what they have to offer. There is, however, a statement on home page that they are no longer making swords! I have difficulty believing this as the site is still up and full of swords, although they go on to say that they have produced a maximum number of certain models and will not be making more when the stock is depleted. There is also no contact information.

Any way, a friend of mine bought one several years ago. He is a martial artist and uses his sword for cutting as well as katas. I had a chance to examine his sword when he got it and it is superb. I am not big on Japanese swords but this one was outstanding. It was well-balanced; clearly well-made in the best of Japanese sword making tradition. If they have truly stopped making swords then my recommendation is moot. You might look for a used one or try a vendor who has them in stock. The prices are/were very reasonable for the quality.