cobra,I may not know much about the making of a real sword and
having one,but hope the basic info about them suffice me for
now.
i too have taken interest in swords,but in the art of
satsujin-ken,not for its beauty only. so i also did a bit of
research regarding how it was made and how much it would cost at
least.
and true enough,its very expensive.the cost i mentioned was
quoted by an american smith in their website.and yeah im interested
in katanas,not double edged or funny shaped european and chinese
swords.
anybody would know that they're going to be expensive if they
did some RESEARCH on the sword-making process and the different
parts that comes with it...$900 for high end that can cut trees?its
a joke man.
i dont intend to pursue in buying a live blade if i just want it
coz it could cut through this and that coz its not practical,its a
waste of time and money for the likes of me and fireng
the replicas are sufficient.and...did i mention if we attempt to
sharpen these replicas we might actually break em?haha
I find that PedoBear's definition of a 'real' sword is a very
good general statement.
However, do let me take it further a little. To most sword
appreciators (not all ar..), a real sword is at least a sharpened
forged high-carbon steel blade. The key words here are
'forged' and 'high-carbon steel'. Do take note that there are many
grades of steel and only some are suitable for making 'real'
swords. But I won't go into detail what they are cause a simple
search will yield some results.
The next higher level classification would be a fully forged and
differentially tempered blade. And of course, as mentioned before,
the highest classification level would be the folded blades.
Take note, though I have named these classifications there are
still many manufacturing processes (if you happen to study
metallurgy and manufacturing processes under Materials
Science next time, you'll get to learn some of them) that will
affect the toughness and quality of the blade. Thus, within each
classifcation, there will always be a low-end and high end series
of blades. Makes sense too!
*Smiles* Ah, I see you're familiar with SatsuJinKen. *Giggles
and points at LoudnessFZ* The force is strong in this one!
For those who are unfamiliar with the term, this is the
definition pulled off AikiWiki which is basically a site for
Aikido-related stuff:
' "The sword that kills." Although this would seem to indicate a
purely negative concept, there is, in fact, a positive connotation
to this term. Apart from the common assumption that killing may
sometimes be a "necessary evil" which may serve to prevent an even
greater evil, the concept of killing has a wide variety of
metaphorical applications. One may, for example, strive to "kill"
such harmful character traits as ignorance, selfishness, or
(excessive) competitiveness. '
Anyways, I do know what you're getting at LoudnessFZ. And I
would agree that a lot of martial arts hold that same view, though
in this time and age, it is necessary to refrain from killing.
XD
For me, my love for katanas brought about an interest in
Japanese swordplay as well. My main interests would be iaido and
battojutsu. Though, no such schools in Singapore exist (I'm not
sure if there is a ban against these 2 forms of swordplay in
Singapore, but I doubt there is).
Anyways, American blacksmiths quote signifcantly lower prices,
so do China ones. It isn't necessarily bad. But of course, you
can't beat the Japanese at their own art and dedication placed into
making a sword that is a symbol of their culture. So in essence,
Japan-made katanas are always thought to be of the highest quality,
especially those made by members of the ancient swordsmith families
which are still alive today.
Replicas have two categories, the display piece and the
functional replica of an ancient but famous sword, usually
belonging to some famous person. Either that or it is
referring to the sword geometry and design from a
particular era.
Needless to say, you're quite right about swords breaking during
sharpening. If it is the stainless steel replica (usually 440
stainless steel), then yes! These buggers aren't meant to take
impact. As for the 'forged' and 'forged and differentially
tempered' ones, they aren't meant for sharpening, but you can still
sharpen them and they won't break that easily, more like bend. XD
Last but not least, the shinkens can be sharpened.
