That is an amazing and priceless heirloom, Scotto. Sentimental value aside, I would speculate that it is probably worth a LOT. However, there is no price in the world that would come anywhere near matching its sentimental value to you. Not only to have an authentic Japanese Katana, but to have a real piece of history brought back by the hands of soldier who lived that history, is just amazing. Thanks for sharing that. Wow.

Thank you for sharing this Scotto, very nice Katana and the story just completes it.

bein in Okinawa currently I been huntin a traditional maker without much luck, also dunno about the exportation rules, gotta look those up soon too, but the "coffee table" swords are everywhere ya turn here

I have some friends who are professional, expert and master swordsmiths. Not a one of them will call Bugei swords the real deal, but many of them seam to think that Bugei are the best of the production swords out there. Bugei are basically the top of the line Paul Chen swords.



Hoooold your horses there friend. If we are talking about originality and materials Bugei ARE NOT the real deal. They are made out of a European metal that has reasonable hardness and toughness. They MIGHT be folded, but if so, it's only for a boost in hardness. Their metal is more like a higher end version of corbon Damascus (what sword smiths call: "Damascus in a can") then the real metal that real Japanese swords are made of. The Japanese metallurgy is also obsolete. It is only practiced to keep up the tradition and satisfy collectors. Wootz (True Damascus) and S-7 are considerably better metals for sword making, and S-7 is readily available, though hard to work with and requires high-tech heat treating. Wootz is also prettier when treated to expose it's pattern, but wootz Katanas cost thousands of dollars each.
A REAL sword has to be able to cut effectively AND take a beating. Most swords that are being sold as the real thing are made to not break when they experience shock and the rest is all cutting power, almost always at the expense of durability. The same is true with Bugei.

Also, be careful of the phrase: "Hand Made". Many swords sold as hand made are in fact run (by hand) through set processes and only a little better then normal quality control is the extent of the swords being custom.

That all said, I HAVE heard good things about Bugei from people in the know, particularly their Dragonfly Katana. Like I said, without getting in to too much detail, they are basically top of the line Paul Chen swords. About as good as you are going to get for "order on demand."



I might be able to help you. I myself am in the process of building an Uchigatana. For those of you who don't know what that is, the Katana is only one of a whole series of swords. The most common are the Katana (standard length) Uchigatana (shorter, faster, more maneuverable), Tachi (longer "reach out, touch me" sword) and the shirasaya (plain, guardless sword that looks like a long banana when sheethed)

These 3 swords ARE NOT the 3 swords that are usually found in Japanese sword display sets. Those 3 are USUALLY a Katana (largest), Wakazashi (medium) and Tanto (smallest)

Actually, it's fairly common to find Uchigatanas as the largest of the 3 swords in 3 sword sets of display swords, but most people wouldn't know the difference. The Uchigatana and Katana, to the untrained eyes, are pretty much the same (only different by 2-4 inches of blade length.

The Uchigatana was very popular among the Samurai because they could be drawn quickly, used single or double handed, and more mobile overall. You might say that the Uchigatana, in many ways, compared to the Katana the way the M-4 Carbine compares to the M-16.

In the media, the most well known example of Uchigatana usage I know of comes from the Playstation 3 video game: "Gengi: Days of the Blade", where the main character uses Uchigatanas (or Katanas the way Uchigatanas were used).

I went with an Uchigatana because, when I was in to martial arts a decade ago, my sword of choice was the Chinese Dao, but I still liked the Katana for it's defense-offense balance and techniques that revolved around actually making contact with your opponents sword with yours (most swords are not meant for that) and the Uchigatana seams to be the idea sword to achieve the best of both worlds. It's competitor was the German Messer sword. I originally started looking at just a simple Katana with a slightly shorter edge, and my friend eventually turned me on to the Uchigatana, which is consistent with the path I was already headed down.

I am using S-7 steel. The RC hardnes is slightly less then homoginous, but it's wear resistance and ability to take a beating far surpasses even genuine Samurai swords. As I said, it was a great idea for the time, but obsolete today. I already had it heat treated and am in the final stages of construction. It is like a rock with gummy-like resistance to grinding but it's flexibility reminds me of an ugly stick. There's allot of supposedly cool new and fancy stuff coming out all the time, but ask around and you'll find that the most esteemed sword smiths tent to stick to S-7 due to it's tried and tested durability.

While it's a very bad idea to try heat treating it yourself, http://www.metalscience.com will heat treat it for around $100, though you better know what you're doing before you send it in as it can crack and split if prepared improperly. Their therma cycle is everything they say it is from my experience. I have handled Japanese swords from various eras (from the 1400s to the 1940s) and a variety of different qualities, including a couple real Samurai Swords (you'll know THEM when you see them) and so far, I have yet to see a historical Japanese sword that I have anywhere near the confidence in that I already have in the S-7 sword I am building. I can also get you in contact with some serious and even living legend sword smiths if you are serious about this.

I'll start a separate topic if you guys want to know more about this.



I have handled family swords and WW II swords in my hands at the same time. You'll know family swords when you see them. They are ALLOT higher quality then the WW II swords, not to mention having distinctly different furniture.

Don't cut yourself short though. The WW II era swords may have been lower quality, but they were built to endure extreme combat conditions, kill men and make it in one piece, and they did. The sword you have is good enough that men were willing to trust their lives with it.

BTW.

Your WWII sword LOOKS like an Uchigatana.



Don't expect much luck with a traditional maker, and be ready to spend over $60,000 on the sword if you are lucky enough to find one. The Japanese government has limited how many swords traditional smiths can make in a year (for quality control purposes) and the size of the Traditional industry is about the same as the "Samurai only" smithing industry was back in the Samurai days, which is VERY SMALL considering the size of the market. In fact, it may be impossible to order a traditional sword from a living master smith. If you order one, you'll probably have to wait as much as 20-30 years and it be made by his apprentice who replaces him when he retires. It's much easier to get your hands on a real sword that was carried by real Samurai then it is to get one that hasn't been made yet. If you have $20,000 or more to burn, you can have a real Samurai sword in your hands in a month:

http://www.samuraisword.com

This post has been edited by brigadier: October 14th 2009 9:00 AM

Never really into swords, however they are pretty neat.

I wanna get a sword I guess it is.. something to clear brush on hikes in the mountains

Very interesting, Brigadier.

You know you only have to fold a piece of metal sixteen times to get over 65,000 layers in it.

From prices i have seen $25,00-$50,00-maybe as high as $120,000 depending on whom made the sword