Price on Katanas

If you are looking for a quality Samurai Sword for a very reasonable price go to www.japaneseswords4samurai.com.

they ship anywhere in the U.S.

got some great Paul Chen swords at low prices.

There are many Sword Shops in Japan that will ship swords outside of Japan. Any Japanese can and do own real Japanese swords. One shop that I visited in the past, and will visit again today is, www.aoi-art.com also do a search using Antique Katana for sale and you will come up with some nice links. Here is one link that is really very good. http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/nihonto.htm

I've just read through a lot of answers about purchasing swords on ebay. I'm given to thew belief that you pay for what you get. I have just been given a sword by an old family friend who passed away. The blade is marked on the tang by a sword smith MINAMOTO KIYOMARO HOKA ERA 44TH (1848) AUGUST I have no intentions of selling it, but i would like to know the value of the blade to have it insured. I live in Australia and i'm hoping someone can help with identifing my blade as the real thing. I love this sword and any help with it would be great. thanks

Holding the blade by the tsuka or handle; kissaki pointed down it should not touch the ground; noramlly 2 inches above the ground.
As for Japanese vs. any other made katana; It is all in the steel and how the smith works his steel.
I have been polishing for 7 years and if I had to take a blade to combat it would be a gendai or showa period blade mabe a koa isshin; they had very good steel and were water quenched. Very hard ha or cutting edge. I have blades that are papered to 1504 and are nice but never would you see me cutting anything unless it was the last resort; but I do know it will cut...

I truly love the art of japanese sword making and I love their many styles, but I also like a fine rapier also. Buy what you can afford; but just buy the best you can afford and that comes though knowlege of what you are buying.

There are a lot of truths and a lot of plain ignorance on this forum here. First of all, yes, there is a kind of iron ore made from an iron sand that only exists in its purest form in certain places in Japan. Similar ore can be found in China, but it has more imperfections. It is smelted in a traditional clay forge to make a steel called tamahagane. It comes out of the smelter in a large billet that is roughly the weight of a medium-sized cow. It is examined and the quality of the different parts of the block are determined. Certain pieces are used for the blade of the katana, slightly lower-grade pieces are used in the core of the katana, and the rest are sent off to be used in other, lesser products like cook ware and the like. The cost of the nicer steel can be roughly 50x that of traditional steels.

For a nice sword, look for something made of L6 steel, or Tamahagane. I doubt you'll find traditional tamahagane swords outside of Japan, and not for under $9000. You will find Chinese tamahagane, which works great, but is not as pure or strong. This shouldn't matter for most people, unless you're VERY worried about tradition. You'll be able to find some L6 blades too, but they will also be expensive. Check out stuff by Howard Clark. He rarely takes orders anymore, and they fill up VERY quickly when he does. Be prepared to spend $7000+. Basically, a folded tamahagane blade is what people are referring to when they say a "real" Japanese Katana. Good luck finding one.

As for why I actually came here, I'm searching for someone who might know where I could acquire raw tamahagane, and if not, where I could acquire the iron sand used to make it. Thanks.