Hi just inquiring if any Australians who have bough from HBF have had any troubles with getting it through the country.

I would like to know if you know of any katana sold on Amazon to practice tameshigiri safely, without the risk of the blade breaking! 😬

Is 440c steel good for training, not cutting just training

I understand I have no details on or about this Katana but roughly how mix would something or this nature be worth? Not that I plan on selling it.

I was told I could get a few thousand for it.

Hey, yo Sword-brothers and sistas!

I plan to hang on the wall two swords:

- My Cossack Shashka in a beefy steel reinforced "cavalry-type" scabbard over my bed. (Hanwei 5160 TH'ed "Civilian Shashka" -- love the design and the absence of Tsarist and Bolshevik symbols, as I kind of don't like either. Bolsheviks killed my great grandpa, and Nicholas II made the whole Russia starve to death, or at least didn't do much about it. I got some distant Cossack roots as well, so it's about time I have a Shashka.)

- And on the opposite wall -- my custom "Musashi" O-Katana (with mid-weight saya). Potentially, plan to attach two hooks for the Sword without saya (well-oiled, of course), and two hooks underneath for the saya itself.

I have plaster walls (early 20th Century design, whatever they used back then, not brick or hardwood anyhow), and it's covered by somewhat mid-thickness wooden panels from floor to the ceiling, large panels.

I already have few nails in the wall I use for pictures/art, but they are not good for hanging the sword by a sling or sageo. Too small. And I would like to keep that art there anyhow.

I was thinking to get those self-adhesive hooks, they advertise them for over 50lbs BUT:

I don't want my precious Shashka to fall on me, or on my cats, while we sleep.

I don't want my somewhat expensive "Musashi" replica fall onto the floor or the wooden drawer. Especially if I hang the live sword without saya to show off the hamon.

Am I safe with these hooks? Have you tried using them? Or should I just make proper holes in the wall for such purposes?

Thank you, Kindly!

Your humble Swordfriend,

Zvir

I recently ordered a katana from Hanbon Forged. After countless nights researching I came to the conclusion they were the most suggested for new/entry level sword consumers. Now here’s my dilemma… I placed an order with them on 10/21 I received the email stating they received my “request” and my order will be processed once payment is. Well payment has been out of my account since the 21st. I’ve sent 2 emails just wanting to confirm my order is being processed. I’ve not heard a word or received any reply or even a standard order processing email. It’s been 10 days. Has anyone else ever experienced this with them before? I’m not in a certain rush to get the sword but I sure am to be given peace of mind I didn’t just get ripped off or duped and now I’m out hundreds. Any suggestions? Or similar situations? Thanks friends.

Recently sword friend MessengerOfDarkness posted some nice pictures of the nakago and engraving on his z-sey sword...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Katanas/s/Yg4RlRMPdd

So I thought I would pass along how you could get something similar on your HBF sword if you wanted it. First a little history.

Unless they've changed recently (maybe somebody with a recent order can tell me), generally speaking the tangs of HBF swords are not fine finished. With my earlier swords I had to take some sandpaper and WD-40 to clean them up.

Now don't anybody freak out. They're recently made production swords so they really should not have any rust on them to begin with. And as such you're not doing anything to value by cleaning them up.

As with all budget production companies, if you're not ordering something like a special length sword, the common generalized blanks of the various steel types sit around in the warehouse/shop waiting to be processed in their final form for somebody's order. During that time, as they sit on a rack or in a barrel, the tangs are most exposed to the elements and they develop some topical rust. The blades may as well but it's usually a lot less and is taken care of in the finishing process for the order. The degree to which attention is paid to the tangs and how they look can vary widely. Anyway...

About 2 years ago, with sword #7, I started asking HBF to clean up the tang and put their name and date on it in Chinese/Mandarin and this is what I got...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Katanas/s/G5xFrqzwyw

Not too bad, but through three independent sources I learned that the translation came out a little more clumsy than I would have liked.

So then I swapped to English. At first I just had them put their initials with the certificate serial number and the date (Mo./Yr.) it was made. Picture #3 here...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Katanas/s/dmqxwL7Okb

but then, starting with sword 12, I had them add the type of steel it was. Pictures 9 and 10 here...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Katanas/s/d0X968VCBa

Here, if you pause the video, you can also catch it at the tail end on swords 14 and 15...

https://youtu.be/WV-5S0Z7J9E?si=3CbdrcSDUwjdwayJ

As I say, I went with the English because I really couldn't count on the Chinese translation to be a "smooth" as I wanted. Also I thought; Well, I'm having a Japanese style sword made by the Chinese for an American, so why not?

I didn't go with the/a smith's signature because I was kind of wondering what the point would be. I mean, not only do production swords pass through various hands, but even if it was one guy finishing it off, who the heck is he? Any one of 6 or 7 (or who knows how many exactly) possible finishing smiths that no one has ever heard of or probably ever will? I mean no intended insult for hard-working, skilled laborers, but I didn't see that there would be any added value to it.

So, if you want a tang similar to mine from HBF, you have to be sure to ask them to clean it up, and maybe send a still picture of mine from the start of the video below in an email along with your order. It also doesn't hurt to print and sketch out what you want and how you want it on the Tang. You don't have to be Leonardo da Vinci, but a picture is often worth a thousand words. Just draw a rudimentary looking tang and write on it what you would like.

Depending on how large your order is overall and what, if any, other engravings you want there may or may not be some small charge for that.

Oh, and to be clear, the "engraving" is going to be LASER ETCHING . Although, if you do want a signature, maybe guy will chisle it. But I'm kind of thinking not. Even if you don't want any engraving and you would just like the tang cleaned up be sure to ask for that.

Cheers y'all ✌️

Of all the packages that have went through God knows what, through SF Express or EMS across the world, I’ve never had anything like this and its journey was from Amazon in CA to UPS to me in AZ. That’s some forklift action right there…