Saturday, January 15, 2011

Really Real Samurai Swords

Hi everyone,

I always wanted to own a sword, I think I got the idea when I was 10 years old. There was some kind of gothic apparel / decorational shop just around the corner of our house, and everytime I went by that shop I fancied those wallhanger swords they displayed in their windows. Of course every try to convince my parents of the fact that I am unbelievbly reasonable for my 10 years and sure as heck wouldn't cut myself into pieces if they got me one of those only ended up in tears and frustration. So it stayed at window shopping for several years, until I eventually forgot about my deep desires of owning sharpened metal.

Now my financial situation is pretty alright at the moment, that plus the fact that I may have watched The Last Samurai one too many times lately, finally made me make my long forgotten childhood dream come true.

A couple of days ago I bought a samurai sword to hang on my wall and decorate the room.
And hell, it decorates the living shit out of my room.




Now it's a cheapo one, cost me around 50 bucks and is supposed to be a handmade carbon steel blade, but I guess by that they mean "put into the metal press by hand". Then again, from what I could figure it's made in China, and as we all know one man hour is way cheaper than one hour of machine run time over there, so that might actually be true. Who knows, and more importantly, who cares?

I for one do not, and I seem to be a little bit special in that regard. Pretty much everyone's first question when laying their eyes on this piece of metal was: "So... is it real...?"
And then there am I, standing in desperation trying to figure out what makes a sword which is supposed to color up your room real.

Thing is, in my oppinion every bladed something that is longer than my kitchen knifes and has a handle is a sword, and if it's even made out of some kind of steel, it's real. That's what defines a sword, right? And as for the second most popular question "Is it sharp?" I could only give the answer that it's probably not sharp enough to cut your arm off, but I wouldn't exactly call it blunt either.

Really real, really cool, really expensive
On the other hand some say that there are no "real" swords being made anymore, as, well, swords were real when they were practical in medieval times, and everything newly made therefore doesn't deserve the term "real". And that makes just as much sense to me. You can grab real real samurai swords all over the net from what I've seen, if you feel like spending from two grands upwards for some piece of metal that may be 300 years old and is as functional as a letter opener. A probably way cooler thing to have hanging on your wall though, and you can affirm the question about it's authenticity without feeling awkward about it.


I've also heard some other funky explanations about what makes a samurai sword real. One of it, it came from my stepfather, was that these things are only real when they've been folded like about a hundred times, because that's what makes them harder. Now while it may be true that originally swords (not just the asian ones) were folded, this process was only necessary to even out the carbon content in the steel, because the medieval iron ore was of pretty bad quality when put in comparison with modern industrial steel. Also, folding it does in no way make the metal harder, I have no idea where he grabbed that info. I could have told that even without the large chunks of metalworking I had to do for my electrical engeneering apprenticeship.
And then again, you can get cheap "folded" blades for around 100 euros, from what I've seen, which are made from damascus steel. Now if damascus steel counts as being folded you could just as well say that every industrial made steel is pre-folded thousands of times as they are pretty much homogeneous in their contents.


Damascus steel blades - In my oppinion this is as far off from being traditional as it gets




A buddy told me genuine samurai swords have to be from Japan. And that's it. Like, the japs are probably the only people in the entire world who know how to make them. And they vigorously refuse to tell anyone. Ha.

Look at this, it doesn't get much more real than that.
Other Kind of Informational fun fact: Japanese katana evolved from the Chinese tachi, which is basically the same thing only rebranded. So the design is actually Chinese. Now if the Chinamen feel like stealing their own design back by producing tons of replicas they should be free to do so, don't you think?

Yet another friend teached me some of the stuff he learned from watching his favourite anime. It had something to do with real swords having star-shaped hand guards, being unbreakable and being able to cut through metal without even using any effort. I forgot about the details, but it was painful to listen to and was loaded with more bollocks than I want you to read on a blog that's supposed to be at least kind of informational.












So have we learned today? Probably not much, to be honest I just needed an excuse to show you my new kick ass ninja accessory. So have another picture of it taken in a cheesy sideways angle here.



And I'm out.


Greets,
Wesh

58 comments:

  1. Hey everyone,

    as always, feel free to point out any mistakes I might have made in this post, I'm always happy to improve my english skills :)

    Greets,
    Wesh

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  2. Good lenghty read. Congrats on your new acquisition, it looks badass

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  3. Have you shown your weapon to any ladies yet?
    I'm curious how they'd react to it.

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  4. awesome stuff man, keep it up! following now.

    Follow me back at: http://linkisnotdead.blogspot.com/

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  5. Nice sword, I've got a mount myself, pretty sure its chinese lol.

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  6. Great stuff dude, I absolutely love all weapons so this is perfect.

    Don't forget to check and support often your local information hot-spot lifeformation.blogspot.com!

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  7. nice blog man, just added you to my follow list.

    Check mine out and make sure you follow as well!

    thewatchfanatic.blogspot.com

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  8. Im into kendo and I love katanas.
    Do they have those handmade swords with something like 500 layers of a very thin steel for the blade? I would defo get one like that.

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  9. man ive always wanted one of these, since i was a kid too lmao

    i think i know what im gonna get next.. xD


    anyways, here's my blog if anyone's interested, just random posts on things i find interesting:
    http://lifeofbaron.blogspot.com feedback's appreciated :)

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  10. Following you dude.
    How many samurai swords do you own?
    Yeah, the designs are Chinese....still look sick though.
    Check out my blog!

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  11. I've always wanted a claymore on my wall.

    One of those huge swords that just catch your eye immediately

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  12. yours look really nice in my opinion
    i always wanted to have my own sword as a child

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  13. omg i so want a sword now! Would hang it over my bed i think. Any more pics of your beaut?

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  14. Damn these swords are badass, i feel sorry for anyone trying to rob your house, they'l see it wasnt such a good idea when you roll out jet li style ;D

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  15. taught me something man, swords are pretty sweet, might have to grab one for my room someday

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  16. "You'll shoot your eye out, kid." In this case I guess you would poke you eye out.

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  17. Real samurai swords can split hairs, I swear.

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  18. Nice blog, followed you now

    Loving the sword, I've always wanted but have to ask to myself, why? I'm sure someday I will give in to temptation though!

    http://www.thefactsofvidya.co.uk/ for those who enjoy video games

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  19. Damn, gz on your Sword! Petty awesome.

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  20. that's pretty cool, I remember as a child seeing swords in stores and wishing more than anything in the world that my parents would get them for me... they never did, but now I don't want them anymore.

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  21. Awesome post! Some of my friends have stuff like this!

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  22. that is a beautiful sword! Nothing turns me on more than a silent but deadly ninja ;) Great blog, by the way. Some really good stuff. Check out my blog about random poetry if you have any time. Peace!

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  23. Haha! "it was painful to listen to and was loaded with more bollocks than I want you to read"... Friends like that are so hilarious.

    Very good. I always wondered if they made functional swords these days or not. Same thing with Harry Potter wands; I wonder how sturdy they are too.

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  24. i think i might buy one...

    great blog keep it up
    followed

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  25. I always just figured when people ask if a sword is real, that they were asking if it is sharp.

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  26. Would love a samurai sword, definately a Hanso ;)

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  27. You have a nice blog too, but my minecraft server is offline at this moment. Maybe in the future I'll try to set up a survival server.

    Followed.

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  28. I would love to get a katana one day! It would be so badass to have!

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  29. a catana is the coolest weapon ever

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  30. When anyone questions the authenticity, you just pick up the sword and hack away. If they die, and can tell them "yes, its authentic" if they don't, you'll have to pay for their hospital bill.

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  31. nice article and nice blog!

    give it a try and follow mine:
    http://all-around-toto.blogspot.com/

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  32. apparently the steal making of the blade of an actual katana can not yet be matched by western civilization.

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  33. I would've never put so much thought into a sword as to ask whether or not it were real... It's real to me if it looks cool enough! But great info!

    I'll be back; check me out if you like--

    layeroffrost.blogspot.com

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  34. Too many fake replicas. I want a real one.

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  35. Cool weapon. Fan myself. Follow.

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  36. Whoah you know a lot about swords. I've always wanted one to mess around with, like for playing fruit/sword baseball.

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  37. THOSE ARE AWSOME! I WANT ONE!

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  38. which is stronger: the highest quality manufactured swords or the highest quality handmade swords?

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  39. The problem with Samurai swords for decorative purposes is that, if you're like me, you'll want to take them off the wall and swing them about your head for 5 minutes thinking you're a ninja. This will happen no matter how old or mature you are.

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  40. My uncle actually collects these. He's quite proud of his collection too, and I'm surprised at how inexpensive they are.

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  41. cool swords man follow me back!
    http://dubstep-newdubstep.blogspot.com/

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  42. hey

    my brother has such sword too. it feels great in the hands

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  43. Hey everyone,

    thanks for all of your comments, I'm sorry I couldn't get around answering you guys and girls yet, but I've been terribly busy the last week. Just know that I read and appreciate every single comment you write!

    Some late replies, mainly for people who asked questions:

    @Tah_Lehy
    Yep, I've seen handmade damascus blades with around 8k layers, and they cost from 200 bucks upwards. I'd rather get a quality blade made from solid high carbon steel though, the folds are merely for the funky grain in the steel and add nothing to the functionality of the sword.

    @MISC BOMB
    This is my first sword... as of now. Already planning on expanding hehe.

    @J8888
    Yes, there are some additional pictures, but they are even more cheesy than the sideways angle one. I don't feel like showing them ;)

    @JayPower
    I'd probably cut off my own limbs before even getting close to an attacker when I tried to defend myself with a sword. :)

    @Metatron
    Harry Potter wands? If they happen to be "functional" I'd get me one of those too. Heh.

    @Al Frances
    Nah, I know nothing about these things. This is all just info I picked up in like 2 days of doing "research", aka searching Ebay for a sword that matches the color of my wall ;)
    You should see the people who actually collect those really real antique authentic real katanas. They can tell you about age, maker, owner and whatnot of a sword which is hundreds of years old, and that only by looking at the metal.

    @stm
    Pretty much every blade of high quality is handmade, don't think there are machines that drop you "highest quality" stuff. But as for the materials - I'd always go with a sword made from industrial steel over a sword made from steel which was created using the "traditional method", eg. taking sucky materials and try to refine them as good as possible with only the tools which were available in medieval times - from a purely practical point of view at least.
    If I had unlimited cash to spend and don't intend to go to war with my sword anytime soon I'd probably get the traditional version though. Newly made ones easily cost $10k upwards.

    Greets,
    Wesh

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  44. great swords and great blog
    follow me back http://GADAFINY.blogspot.com

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  45. Nice looking sword you got there. Followed.

    http://rhetoricrants.blogspot.com/

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  46. Bro that's one of the coolest things I've seen on the internet!

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    Replies
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