CAS Iberia

K

kaosu04

Joined
Apr 26, 2005
Messages
988
It seems very difficult to find specific information on any Hanwei products, especially the practical series. But, I've heard that the newer Practical Katanas have a metal habaki instead of the copper coated plastic, which was apparently one of the biggest concerns. Can anyone verify this?
 
Yes the plastic has long been replaced. I think their made out of 1095 or close to it. A good buy for the money. First sword I bought and have had it for years. Lived threw all the "experminting" I did before you know any better.

Get one, its good for the money.
 
I got one new several weeks ago on ebay. $170 including s&h. Am very satisfied with it. The handle feels incredible. Holds a great edge. Love the real hamon line. The one and only thing I could ask for in addition is for the inside of the scabbard to be sanded. And I imagine it would be a lot of trouble to split the scabbard and sand it myself. I havent had the opportunity to cut anything other than mailing tubes so far. Will hopefully get rice mats soon. But I dont consider it wasted at all just sitting in the foam box on my dresser. It's a beautiful piece of work for an incredible price. I'm glad to hear they got rid of the plastic habaki. No regrets buying this at all.
 
I'd be careful cutting targets if I were you - the PK and PPK have been known to have more than their fair share of defective blades. Lots of pictures of blades neatly snapped in two by tatami cutting. I believe the tag that Hanwei puts on newer production runs of the Practical series sums it up best - "not for cutting."
 
I dont plan on attempting any crazy feets of cutting several feet of tatami. Just enough to be able to judge and adjust my cutting angles.
 
Most of those breaks were on normal sized soft targets. There seem to be good Practical swords and really bad Practicals, but nothing in between. That's probably why they put the do-not-cut/only for display warning on the newer runs.
 
Thanks for the warning. I'll keep that in mind. On second thought I think I'd rather take a couple months of shin kendo class first. A razor sharp hard steel blade just doesnt seem like the best thing to "experiment" with unless you've had proper training. Though I'm sure a lot of people would argue with me about their $30 stainless steels and branch cutting. Or branch pounding I should say. The experimenting with mailing tubes was just to compare the sword to the edge retention of my recon tanto. PK stays unbelievably sharp btw. And is very resistant to scratching.
 
Have you started classes already? I'm actually looking at a Shinkendo dojo in my neighborhood as well. You might want to ask your sensei about the sword - there have been cases where Practical series katanas have been banned from dojos.
 
Nope. No shin kendo classes in this city. Maybe I'll just continue the fencing classes I started last year. (not japanese fencing)
 
Mine has yet to break or suffer any damage. Since it was my first sword, it suffered a lot. I think thats what impresses me the most when I realize I still have it, and its still in 1 piece.

fencing class sounds like fun. Wish they had it in my area.
 
I hear very many mixed feelings about the hanwei practical. I read the intensive tests and comparisons Sword Forum did with a PK against an equally priced Kris Cutlery katana, and being a somewhat traditional looking katana that was made in a somewhat traditional way, it seems like a great deal at $170. So I dont know if this leads me to believe maybe the people who break them just had a defective blade due to poor QC, or maybe they were just unlucky with a bad cutting angle. Even a cheap stainless display piece can take a very good amount of punishment if wielded correctly. And yes, fencing classes are very fun. Easy to jump into, always challenging. Theres never an end to what goals you can reach in fencing. And it is the closest you will ever get to a real sword fight, period. Me and my friend used to compare our sword fighting techniques on each other. Western fencing vs Shin Kendo. This of course is a very broad comparison, especially since samurai wore armor. But it was better than blind speculation.
 
Reminds me of a funny interpretation of the name, "CAS Iberia":
Cheap-A$$_Swords from Spain

<<Rimshot>>
 
kaosu04 said:
I hear very many mixed feelings about the hanwei practical. I read the intensive tests and comparisons Sword Forum did with a PK against an equally priced Kris Cutlery katana, and being a somewhat traditional looking katana that was made in a somewhat traditional way, it seems like a great deal at $170. So I dont know if this leads me to believe maybe the people who break them just had a defective blade due to poor QC, or maybe they were just unlucky with a bad cutting angle. Even a cheap stainless display piece can take a very good amount of punishment if wielded correctly. And yes, fencing classes are very fun. Easy to jump into, always challenging. Theres never an end to what goals you can reach in fencing. And it is the closest you will ever get to a real sword fight, period. Me and my friend used to compare our sword fighting techniques on each other. Western fencing vs Shin Kendo. This of course is a very broad comparison, especially since samurai wore armor. But it was better than blind speculation.
Click to expand...

Just to note, that particular review was done a LONG time ago, both swords have changed a pretty good bit since then. Everything lives forever in cyber space...
 
The general consensus on the Practical line is that its evolution has made it lighter, easier to wield, and prettier. This comes at the expense of sturdiness - the cross section has become thinner and more diamond-shaped, and blade strength has suffered as a result. Most of the higher end non-folded models have had bo-hi added as a feature, which makes them lighter and increases aural feedback - again at the expense of overall strength.
 
is that bohi, executed properly and being sufficiently shallow, do little to affect the blade's integrity with proper technique (though torque and lateral stress from improper cuts of course are bad).

I'd recommend the KC stuff.... apparently in some years they've had quality issues, but recently in the last couple years, their stuff is very good, pretty much unbeateable for the price range.... if you save up, the Shingen is a nice, inexpensive kat from the reviews on SFI. Nothing incredible of course.... but very nice all the same.
 
senoBDEC-

You're right, good bohi do not make a weak blade, but they always make a weaker blade. On a good handmade sword, you could feel pretty confident with a well-executed fuller, but on production stuff I think it pays to minimize any potential problems. Bohi can save good blades that suffer from deep surface imperfections and/or poor balance - that's a lot in their favor.

Along with Kris Cutlery, there's the Furuyama line at j-armory.com. Those look like a strong competitor to Paul Chen / Last Legend. If only they had more distributers...
 
Yeah, the Furuyama line is nice... but as I recall it's designed by the Bunjinkan people and J-armory... hence the lack of distributors.

Well..... bo-hi can be good or bad... there should be no performance sufferring nor weakening of the sword's strength in terms of cutting. Does it make it weaker to lateral, etc. stresses, absolutely yes.

On some production swords, the difference is minimal, as it should be. Not saying whether the mass-produced Hanwei stuff is good or not... but meh.

Personally, I'm going for a DGuertin designed blade. Very nice prices.
 
Like I said, the goodness or badness of bohi depends on a lot of factors. If you have perfect form and aim, you should be able to cut your targets with any sword and leave the blade undamaged. But most people will make a bad cut a few times in their training.

Also, bo-hi would affect cutting performance by presenting a new boundary for the target material to catch on - the trailing end of the hi would basically behave like a flat piece of metal being dragged behind the sword proper. That would also be a potential problem for beginning, mid-level, and even advanced practitioners.

In any case, I've just bought two pieces from Randal Graham. Really nice stuff, I just have to go find a mounter for them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top