Cheness Cutlery carbon/spring steel swords - Good or Bad?

T

TheSurvivalist

Joined
Jun 13, 2004
Messages
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In my ongoing quest for an inexpensive Katana of superior quality, I have recently come across Cheness Cutlery's website(http://www.chenessinc.com/). I must say that I was impressed by the demonstration videos available on the site. I was particularly intrigued the video showing the sword construction process from steel billet to finished product. The company offers a nice variety of steels and combinations (spring steel, 1060, 1045, folded, laminated, etc). Their products appear to be well made for such a low price, but I cannot be certain with only pictures to look at. As I have never heard anything about this company, or handled one of their swords, I would really like to hear any opinions regarding their products.

I'd like to know:
- how the swords hold up to cutting
- if the tempering is good
- if the fittings are decent quality (not really that important)
- the state of the overall fit and finish

I understand that I can only expect a certain degree of quality at such a low price ($250-$500 range), but these appear superior to other production katanas in that range. I could be wrong.

Thanks in advance for any responses.

TheSurvivalist
 
Many reviews on Swordforum. They seem good, but QC is a bit spotty. Paul Chen is a good guy to deal with, and his dedication to improving the product and providing customer service is impressive. Check out how they put on the handle and do the ito - those are much more worrisome than the blade, which seems to handle abuse very well.

http://rsknives.co.uk/review.html
Check out his knives too. Good stuff.
 
I got my 9260 through tempered blade with bo-hi about a week ago.

It's nice. Sharp out of the box (and I do mean sharp, sharper than Practical Katana, Practical Plus or Scottish Baskethilt Broadsword, all from Hanwei). The blade is nice and even, with bo-hi beautifully done (to be honest I was expecting worse). The hamon is brushed on, subdued, but looks very attractive, and the blade finish is relatively fine, not as coarse as say Albion Squire Line blades. It does flex, but it is not easy to flex it (so it won't wobble during a cut). So it will be very forgiving to botched cuts.

The review link posted above with the destruction testing shows the blade exactly like the one I have, and so far my experiences match it closely. I bought a bare blade, not a fully assembled katana, so it'll be a while before I can do some serious cutting with it.

Overall, everyone I showed the blade to liked it. Some people who weren't too impressed with my PPK just looked at Cheness 9260 and said "WOW!" immediately, which is something. I guess it could be the bo-hi (I love how it looks), but maybe not. The blade definitely has a "do not mess with me!" presense to it, you know it's not a toy just looking at it. Looks almost sinister side by side with a "pretty boy" PPK. Has a "go ahead, dish it out, I can take it, just watch your fingers" attutude. Can't comment on the fittings seeing as the bare blade package didn't have any.

So I am happy with a purchase, no regrets, no second thoughts. I just wish I had time to remount it and slay some pool noodles.

Oh, and as a special note, Paul at Cheness (not to be confused with Paul of Hanwei) is a pleasure to deal with. Before I ordered, I asked a lot of questions, and he answered them all, directly, and even offered advice/insight into things. For example, seeing as I was buying a bare blade without drilled holes in the tang or a well fitting habaki, he even offered to mount a habaki himself given a few days to do it in, and then asked to make sure that I had a drill press to deal with the tang when the blade gets here. All emails were answered fast (no more than 20hrs), in a clear fashion, no omissions. It really built up the confidence in the purchase just to know that the person you are dealing with is so open about the product.

So yes, from what I've seen so far, Hanwei has some serious competition coming up... :)
 
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TheSurvivalist said:
In my ongoing quest for an inexpensive Katana of superior quality
Click to expand...

That statement is an oxymoron I believe. As in most things one gets what they pay for.
 
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