Price on Katanas

How do you determine what lenght handle and blade to get? Or is it just preference?

Check out a book called Hagakure, it's an insight into the mindset of a Samurai in 17th century Fuedal Japan. Also the Book of Five Rings and The Art of War are good read. Hope this helps.

As someone said earlier, you get what you pay for. Most of what has been talked about are decent practice swords for under 1000. Obviously opinions vary. I have a Paul Chen sword and broke it almost immediately. I would never buy another one of his. You can collect thousands of blades under 350.00 but that doesn't mean they are good. If you can't identify quality from cheep, then you either aren't serious about the art, or haven't practiced enough to understand or deserve a true antique japanese katana. My advice is to have one custom made to your specs. They are still costly, but then you can get what you really want. I recommend hayesknives.com - good quality, useable and not an antique that you wouldn't want to beat up anyway. Beware of anything on Ebay. Good luck.

Been reading alot of the stuff written here.

So where can one find real-deal katanas with 2000 layers of steal( :) ). You know, the real deal. Not some cheap stuff to $1000, thinking along the line of $5000 - $20000. Doesen't seem to be too many shops who deals these kind of things online... :)
--hf

Im Vincent and i have live in many country (china, laos, thailand, taiwan, japan). I do martial art and i have many sword from all the country that i have see. The samurai sword is the most expensive and the one who cut the most but is not my favorite. The katana is the heart of japan and they dont gona give you there heart at $350 or $2000 or even $7000. A real saimurai sword is made by a japanese samurai and not by a american or whatever. For making a sword it dont take a year, do you know someone how gona pass one year, 6hour a day on a blade, the one how have done this is a fool. The blade of the samurai sword is made by 2 irons (hochotetsu and the tamahagane). The tamahagane is rare and can be found only in the mountain of japan. You know now that the bugei canot prduct real sword, cause they dont have the good irons. For one blade it take 2 o 6 month. The shinken sword is the real sword like masamune was do it in old time. Im sure that all of you that have katana is a iaido katana. The iaido katana look like a shinken katana and the weights is similar to a real katana shinken. Shienken katana is more then $9000. You canot find one at a lower price. Why japanese samurai will sell you a katana at $1000. This is there Heart, there tradition for more then 2000 years. My sword was made by a samurai in japan, i buy it $20000 but the blade is over $20000. My sensei have talk to the swordsmith for a lower price. I was there every day in 6 mounth for see it make the blade for me. this old samurai do all is blade like old time and it was very honorable to see it make it for me. I do kung fu and many other martial art and you canot have a real sword if you dont are samurai and when im talking about real sword im talking that a japanese swordsmith samurai is making the sword.

to call spending huge amounts of money on something that can give vigour, life, peace and indeed death is naive. because you yourself do not nwish for quality in a katana- you should not scorn those who do. I have searched the internet for six years to find Shinken ("true-sword") and I recommend the site nosyuiaido... do not laugh at what you CANNOT UNDERSTAND. folded steel katanas weigh less than a bag of sugar- find that on e-bay.

Anybody want to give me a really expensive sword and a really cheap sword and i can then settle all the arguements? ha ha ha!

Why anyone would want to pay thousands of dollars for a genuine Japanese hand made katana or any other katana for cutting exercises is beyond me.If you want a piece of history and you wanna use it then get a decent WW2 NCOs blade but not from Chinese sellers on ebay,99% of these were made last month.A WW2 blade will not have the beauty of ancient or modern ones but will do the job and look good on display and won't break your heart or the bank if it gets damaged.If on the other hand you want a display piece then buy a Chinese fake,how many people who visit your home would know the difference.Some idiot has said here that a Samurai made his sword and he used a type of iron only available in Japan,what a load of bull,Samurai never made blades,smiths did and still do and iron is iron no matter where it's from,it's the way it's refined that makes all the difference.

you can find a stamped ww2 katana {ak. nco} high carbon steel quite sharp very strong an not 10,000 bucks. P.S.does anyone know why stamped if not folded yet still does not rust with handeling an keeps such an edge

i like to by a paul chen sh1210 katane sword where can i buy it for lowest price.

Depends on where you are,the SH1210,"Paul Chen Bushido"can be bought cheaply on eBay but be careful who you buy from,check for good feedback and how long seller has been a member.Pay via PayPal,never wire money direct.If you are not in the USA the S/H and import duty and taxes may cancel out the saving.If you are in Europe go for a Last Legend Tsunami DS katana which is a much better sword with a "You break it,they'll replace it" guarantee and they offer a few options on blade and tsuka length and a choice of colour in same and tsuka-ito etc for about the same price.Check out www.nordavind.net and click on English Page and then Katanas where you will find the whole range.

You should visit a blacksmith, before buying it. In order to take an appointment, e-mail is sent in easy English or Japanese. If zeal to study leads, it will be practice with sufficient relations. If relations become good, it may yield at a low price than the price of a market.
‡@http://www.yokosha.co.jp/~fujiyasu/english/e_index.html
‡A
http://www.h5.dion.ne.jp/~kaneru/
‡B
http://www.net135.or.jp/~katana/

hallo
i loive in denmark buy it do not matter where i buy it i just wan a god one i think it is best to buy it japan . do you now where

if you haf any links it has to be in english

Someone is offering me a hand-made katana for 690 USD, but since I am no expert I can not tell if it is a fake or real.
Here are some pictures of the sword:
http://foto.volja.net/view-album.php?lang=slo&album_id=7819

According to the seller it was made by Kunisada-sama, Bizen, Japan.
He also said that only hand-made katanas have hammon.

Nigh impossible to tell fake or real from photographs but it don't look right to me and at $680 for a real Japanese made blade,it's either a rip off or the guy is nuts.Expect to pay 5 figures,at least,for the real deal.

Was recently told that Paul Chen used to live and make his blades in Japan. He was apparently extremely talented but came at odds with the Japanese government due to his Chinese background and was forced to leave. Is this even remotely true?

Ok, bottom line: Is there anyone out there who belives Paul Chen katana blades are as good as finely forged blades made by official true Japanese smiths?

Not in a million years.Last Legend and Bugei are far better but more expensive.The closest you'll get is a Howard Clark blade from Iowa,be prepared to pay big bucks and let's not lose sight of the fact that the Chinese and Koreans were making folded blades before the Japanese,not in the same style but in the same way.

Here is a site that sells "Real" katanas not some cheap, dull, shiny ones this is the real deal if you really want a fully funtional battle ready katana http://www.jidai.jp/Shinken.html