Price on Katanas

$10,000.00 for one sword... You gotta be kidding me, Ive never spent over $350.00 for a real sword, and I would know as I have a collection of 27 swords

search for nine circles on google. they make zinc swords for iaido practice plus afew sharp ones for varying prices i own a couple and there certainly woth it.

Imright - if you actually take a look at the links to antique sword dealers on this thread, you will see that the 10,000 dollar limit can easily be reached.

Quality modern mass produced and replica swords of good quality can indeed be had at your 350 dollar range but there are countless things that go into pricing a Japanese swords resulting in such very high figures.

If you are looking to buy genuine antique Japanese swords, then your 350 range might buy you a fitting or two; maybe a broken blade.

You seem to be well informed about japanese swordsmith. Do you know where one can have a look at a list with the names and ranking of all the actual government-licensed swordsmith? I would be very glad to have any kind of information on this subject.

Do NOT be fooled by the Chinese export swords. If you buy a sword from China on eBay..then no matter what they say..it is 100% fake. Forget the ''Japanese prisoner'' story or anything else..it IS a fake. If there is any etched writing on the blade or scabbard...then it is 100% fake. If the blade looks like modern damascus steel...it is fake.
Check this out..it is the best guide to fakes and real stuff..
http://members.westnet.com.au/whiz/richard/Nihonto_Message_Board/Fake_Japanese_Swords.htm

Real modern traditionally made Japanese swords are around $5000 and up. A licenced swordsmith may only make 2 per month by law. All Japanese swords in Japan are registered and ''licenced'' WW2-made swords are destroyed and are totally illegal.
If you want a good priced sword that is quality, then do a search for Hanwei forge.

I purchased a ''Japonic'' katana from China on eBay. If any Japanese soldier wore it to report for duty he would probably be ordered to perform seppuku (suicide) with it.
On the other hand, for the price of a bokken ($9), I got an attractive steel sword suitable for practicing kata. Provided of course you can tolerate the ridicule of being called a fraud.

On another subject, I purchased several Paul Chen swords which have indeed been good entry level swords. Unfortunately my wakizashi has been damaged by excessive laquer inside the saya. Does anyone know how to get in touch with Hanwei to see if this could be a defect covered under warranty?

Re: your question about the sageo.

It does not secure the saya to the obi. The saya sits snuggly in the belt but it must move freely so it can be repositioned to prevent interferance with movement. The sageo is used loosely wrapped around the tsuka to prevent the sword from sliding out of the saya.

I recieved a sword as a gift, when I went to partice with it it started falling apart. Where can I get sa good sturdy Katana at a resonable price that will hold together and is sharp and can be used, if I wanted to slice something in half( not a human of course).

Thank you

If you want a good folded Katana, you can go to bugei swords, but if you are looking for a cheap sword, thats not the place. Their swords range from $800-$9000. But the swords are made from strong sweedish powered steel and is folded and hand made, very nice, and they have an awesome finish. Definitly practical swords.

Katana..? please come to Central Borneo Indonesia, you can get Katana here and absolutely ORIGINAL ONES! I saw some Katanas here. The long ones or the short ones. The cost is about $125,000. The Dayak people got that Katana from Japanese souldier when they lost in World War II and left Indonesia (Central Kalimantan)in 1945s.

OK i need help find a sword! i want a real katana, one that i can actually use not one for display. I live in Miami, Fl. and i would like to know if any one can racommend me to some one or some website that doesn't sell the "cheap" stuff.

I agree with anybody in believing that all of the katanas and various swords on e-bay are absolute crap... You do get what you pay for and no matter how much you kid yourself that it was underpriced or a closing sale a 50.00 katana will be about as good as a one legged man in a wrestling contest. I would also give the advice that i found that Paul Chen makes a rather reliable sword, not awesome, but reliable.

I've also been looking at Katanas and if I can find something to help you, I'll post it, recently I found this site http://www.jidai.jp/index.html and it looks interesting and the swords on there look beautiful. Has anyone ever ordered one of these? This sword looks expecially good http://www.jidai.jp/yk0077.html

Swords are illegal in Japan?!?!
that is so wrong I almost passed out when I read it. What is japan trying to do, forget its godly ancestry?

Bunch of people on this thread have been saying its rediculous and not true that swords are really over $10,000 well there all wrong and the $10,000 ones are the cheap ones if you know what your even talking about then youd know that real Nihonto's are very expensive because there hand made not antiques only but people in japan still to this day make swords easily sold for thousands heres a link to a site
http://www.nihonto.com/itemsaleswordsconsign.html

http://www.nihonto.ca/norishige/index.html

Look at the price of the No-Dachi in the second link and realize that it takes more then a year of work for about 6 hours a day to make one of these.

Oh yea and the nihonto in the second link was appointed in 1999 and all nihonto that are made have to be appointed once there made its like getting a certificate of authenticity to show that its reall and its worth 62,000 bucks my dad makes less then that a year.

There are plenty of companies that make good realiable swords better then most of paul chens stuff, my favorite company would be at bugei trading company and they make incredible swords just as good as the ones sold for thousands but alot cheaper and they acctually are made with the help of Paul chen and Hanwei and they can make you custom swords for around 3000 to 7000 bucks with is alot better then paying 30 thousand for an average katana in japan and then having to get a license and all the trouble of shipping it here and all that bull. so anyone who wants a real sword and is knowing that they cant spend like 200 bucks on a good sword then go to bugei and there swords are around 1600 at the most but for customs there 7000 which i wouldnt even bother with because not everyone is made of money.

Forgot to put a link for bugei

http://bugei.com/subcategory_6.htm


I really like the Shobu Zukuri and the Samurai Katana Check them out better then most swords youll ever see at this price in your life!!!

Hello,

If you travel to Seki city in the Gifu-prefecture, you will be able to find swords(no zinc) ranging from $3000-$150.000 This is not a strnge pricing. It takes 6 weeks( more or less) 9 hours a day to make a real good quality sword. need license though! =) Y

There seems to be a lot of knowledgable people here. Would anyone point me in the right direction to learn about Samurai customs, religion, meditation, sword practice. I would like to leran and start incorporating some of their customs in my own life and need to learn from knowledgeable sources. Thanks