Hanwei Swords

I never meant to claim that they would be a "Collector" sword. What I should
have said is if you want a cheap one to display, a Hanwei sword is the best
quality out there for a reasonably low price. Hanwei are of good quality and
hold true to the traditions of the makers. Now with that said, compromises
have to be made to keep the cost of them reasonable. Hanwei swords were never
intended to be collector swords, they are made for practitioners and your
average Joe with an interest in them.

Greg
"Saigo Made Eizoku Suru"




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I agree with Greg. I used to be very dismissive of these modern replicas, but a young friend of my daughter's boyfriend works for the Australian company Global Gear. At his invitation I have looked at some Hanwei swords and I have to say I was very impressed. The price/quality equation is superb. The sugata (shape) is very good and the togi (polish) is also amazingly good. The hamon ("temper line") appears to be real, i.e., water quenched. To top it all off there is visible hada of a sort. Even the koshirae (mounting) is a quite reasonable looking facsimile of the real thing. Now, a Nihontô lover's collector sword it ain't, but for AUD$500 up it is the closest thing anyone is going to get to a real katana. The CEO of Hanwei is Mr CHEN CHAO-PO and I have seen a DVD produced by him about his company, swords and personal philosophy. I was really surprised to discover that his son Ron has studied with the famous Japanese swordsmith Yoshindo Yoshihara in Japan - http://www.samuraisword.com/nihontodisplay/other/yoshindo/index.htm for those not familiar with the world of Nihontô. I am fortunate to have a sword made by Yoshindo's grandfather Yoshihara Kuniie. Whilst, as Greg notes, "Hanwei swords were never intended to be collector swords", I would nevertheless commend such a sword to a non-practitioner as a good "substitute example" for a real katana that would cost thousands of dollars for the equivalent real thing.

Best regards,
Barry Thomas
(Melbourne, Australia)

----- Original Message -----
From: INRSTRGTH@...
To: samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2008 1:46 AM
Subject: [samuraihistory] Hanwei Swords


I never meant to claim that they would be a "Collector" sword. What I should
have said is if you want a cheap one to display, a Hanwei sword is the best
quality out there for a reasonably low price. Hanwei are of good quality and
hold true to the traditions of the makers. Now with that said, compromises
have to be made to keep the cost of them reasonable. Hanwei swords were never
intended to be collector swords, they are made for practitioners and your
average Joe with an interest in them.

Greg
"Saigo Made Eizoku Suru"
.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]