Kazeryu said:
I got mine last night, and it's an interesting little piece of work.
The handle is great, looks better than I thought it would - nice matte metal colour, none of that flashy reflective look. The lip of the bell on the handle is just perfect for a three-fingered grip - it slips up between my pinky and ring finger making things nice and secure without pushing my pinky away. The cho is also just the right distance so that I can choke up with all four fingers if I want to.
Mine wasn't very sharp, but it improved decently with some stropping and burnishing. I'll take some 400grit to it later and see what happens - I'm still trying to learn how to sharpen properly.
The blade itself is sort of interesting. I can see small traces of grinding marks all along the bevel which I think gives it character. Sword of Shiva is just a single line, not too surprising considering the size of the blade. Cho is deep and well formed.
I'm thinking I might lightly satinize the blade - would #0000 steel wool work for this?
Mine has the grind marks too... But there are also what looks like forging marks and even a place with a little pinhole... I have NEVER seen a blade with as rough a surface as this one from HI(well I had one of the little Kagas Katne with a crack in it(the blade) that also had two little pinholes it it, but it had the normal perfect finish that I have come to expect from HI). It is COVERED from front to back with polished ridges going in different direction on one side of the knife to the other, and different wider and deeper ridges going from top to bottom...
The 'v' grind(on top of the blade) before the bend does not line up with the 'v' grind on the curved part of the blade either, and has file marks all along it...
And the scabbard feels like painted wood, with the frog so thin that it makes the ones on the Kagas Katne look thick... We are talking about construction paper thin here... I bought this one as a gift, but I am not sure that I would want to give anyone this one...
The Kagas Katne that I had the problem with for bought for a gift too, so it looks like I am jinxed as far as buying gifts goes...
But Yangdu sent me a replacement immediately... The defective Kagas Katne had a THIN frog too, but the rest of the scabbard was good... The replacement had a totally different grind to it(almost a scandi, instead of the convex), and was perfect...
The defective one that Yangdu told me to keep, is turning into a secret project, that I will make a posting on as soon as I get some free time to get some work done on it...
P.S. the Kaga Katne did not react at ALL to a lemon rub... It did not etch or discolor at ALL!!!
