Hanwei forge in Dalian.

keninshiro

keninshiro

Joined
Apr 19, 1999
Messages
2,259
Hi guys,

I've just started work in Shanghai, China 3 days ago.... i might make a trip to Dalian in search of the Hanwei forge sometime mid this year, hopefully i'll get to purchase a Tiger katana or something. If anyone has any helpful information about the Hanwei forge, please let me know...appreciate it very much! I thank you in advance.

Eric.
 
Good Luck! and I say this with sincerity since I've been trying to find a way to contact these people for a long time. on the swordforums.com there were a few people that got an invite tour to the factory, but the summaries from them were not encouraging to visitors as the swords are for export only and the owner doesn't have any sort of visiting policy, in other words, closed doors.

I was in China just three months ago, and I tried to find hanwei products, hardly anyone has ever heard of them which is not surprising given the export only status of their products.

if you find out anything about them PLEASE let me know as I will be back again in about 8 months and I'd love to get the swords in China without paying the exorbitant price over here. especially on the Yanling sword.
 
Thank you for the heads-up, horizon! I figured that much about the "closed-doors" policy from Hanwei to protect the market interest of a certain company in the states. I guess if they allow us(those who works in or visiting China) to buy the sword directly from the factory, we could buy them off at a very good price which is not good for that "company". I will try my best to see if i could come up with something or an idea to locate this secret factory, since i could speak manderin fairly well...we'll see if some "magic" can be done. Will keep you posted!

E.
 
Please do, any information would be much appreciated! I think I read that the cost of hanwei in the states is roughly 4 times the cost CAS get them from China! 4 times!

well, now that I can get them really cheap, it doesn't bug me like it used to, it's a shame I'd already bought everything I really want from their lines already! I should have waited!
 
Originally posted by keninshiro
Hi guys,

I've just started work in Shanghai, China 3 days ago.... i might make a trip to Dalian in search of the Hanwei forge sometime mid this year, hopefully i'll get to purchase a Tiger katana or something. If anyone has any helpful information about the Hanwei forge, please let me know...appreciate it very much! I thank you in advance.
Eric.
Click to expand...

Is Dalian a place? Interesting to note that Dalian means "forge" in Korean, and I assume the same in Chinese.
 
Horizon~ No worries, i'll see what i can do here. Don't mean to cut-in on CAS but since i'm here in China, i might as well give it a try. ;)

Kumdo~ I think the word Dalian being similar to the korean word "forge" is just a coincident. Dalin is a province in China and in chinese it means " big lotus". :)

Eric.
 
the character used for "lian" in "Dalian" is not the character used for "lotus" although they sound the same. it is actually the character for "connect".

Ken:
good luck with your search.

With so many swords being made in China these days, you'd think it'd be easier than this. Cold Steel, D. Guertin, CAS, all get their swords from China, I wonder if next time I go back I'll be able to find out who makes all of them, it's not all Hanwei.

With Gerber, Kershaw and etc. making knives in China, I'm surprised that I'm not seeing much of it over there, heck, not even the M-techs. Saw a lot of slip joints from Henckles, though, and SAKs. I did find that the shops are an OK place to find discontinued models you can't find in the states anymore. Another 8 month, and I'll have enough vacation saved up! Yay!
 
Ooppss!!!...my mistake. It's indeed the word for "connect", just checked it out to double confirm. Thanks for clearing that for me, horizon! ;)

Yeah...i went around Shanghai to look for cutlery and couldn't find much but then again, maybe i haven't dig deep enough....will update you now and then.

E.
 
Eric, glad to hear you are putting your free time to good use.

Keep us posted on Dalian and any sharp and pointed objects you have seen or held in your hands.

Stay safe and don't talk to strangers!! :D :D
 
David,

I went searching for knife dealers in the net and found a few around china but they carry low quality stuff, infact...some of them are just wall hangers labled as "real" knives. I'll start searching for china or taiwan forums instead, maybe i'll have better luck there. As for Shanghai, there's lots of knock offs...not a single authentic knife.

eric.
 
Eric, take your time. I am sure you will find one or two genuine knifemakers there. :)
 
your experience thus far mirrors almost exactly mine last year. this year when I take my vacation, I'm thinking about going to XinJiang, there is a small village that I heard about where they still have the traditional father-son passing down the shop kind of tradition. supposedly the knives are rather good. It won't be easy I imagine, I'm told that there's no road even for cars, but I'm willing to give it a shot.

in stores, i have seen only SAKs and Henckles slip joints and kitchen cutlery at ungodly prices. but there were some models that were genuine "China only" SAKs that you can't buy any where else. it was not interesting enough to justify the price though. essentially just your regular SAK screen printed with night scenes of Chinese cities on the scales.

Henckles? well, since I now have access to dealer stocks here in the US at their price, it's so much cheaper for me just to buy it over here, so that was also a no go.

I have heard of Fred Chen having a forge in China, unfortunately, no one seem to know or willing to share where it is. I KNOW he takes on custom works and I really want to get one of those, but....

good luck and keep us updated.
 
Hi Horizon,

I went to some "antique" shop area here in Shanghai yesterday and i've never seen such a large amount of antiques!!! Given the fact that most of them are not real but they are still interesting non the less. I did found some "bronze" age sword which i'm doubtful of their authencity and age but at the prize they are offering, it's still cheaper than any CAS replicas(IF CAS have such replicas). Also, the beauty of such places is that you can bargain for the price you want to pay. The catch of the day was i found 2 swords worthy of attention: first is a chinese long sword and another is an old katana with recently made shira-saya(but ugly though). These 2 swords have forged DAMASCUS blades in satin polish, they are well made: straight with no wavy, uneven surface. The only down side is i'm not confident with the tempering of these 2 blades, they may or may not break during use. Now for the moment you're waiting for, they cost USD$130-$160 each!!! Less than what you pay for a production folder! If i were to purchase these blades, i'd strip them from their original handle and sheaths and put them in new ones which you can easily custom made. The whole project could cost you less than USD$250 in total. I'll continue my search this coming weekend, who knows what i may find.

Eric.
 
Eric:

That sounds sweet. I've not had much luck with the antique district on my trip, mostly because as you say, it is pretty doubtful what age they are, but they are certainly a lot newer than the seller says!

I've encountered my share of wall hangers though, and they look pretty darn good and cheap.

Good luck if you were to buy those two blades. wonder if you can talk the seller into giving you only the blades. I don't know, have really no experience with this sort of deal, but US 130 is essentially about $1000 RMB, not a small amount, is that the bottom price?

Thanks for the update. In ten months I hope to be back there again and be travelling around, maybe we can meet up or something.

david.
 
Hi David,

I have a friend in shanghai who had stayed here for about a year so he is pretty good in finding such antique streets and shops, most of them are just businessman but there are "treasures" to be found now and then. When i'm at such places, i usually follow my gutt feelings...if you think they are fake, your first answer is usually the right one. ;)

I may go back to buy either the katana or long sword, hopefully i can get it for RMB$800 or something like that. I think the price is ok, seemingly the blades are real damascus after all and you can't get one any less then USD$200 for that size. Strip the casing and custom make a new handle and sheath, you'll get a nice long sword.

It'll be nice to meet up with a fellow forumite all the way here in china, please do drop me a line when you're about to make the trip.

Eric.
 
Hello Eric,

You should contact Guido at Swordforum.com. He is a moderator there and is the only guy I heard of who have been to the Hanwei factory. From what he said, Hanwei doesnot sell products domestically. Of course this was several years ago and Chinese standard of living has risen.

What do you do in Shanghai by the way?
 
Hi Silver,

Thanks for the heads-up, excellent information and indeed good news for me and david. I will try to contact Guido and hopefully he can direct me to the Hanwei forge. I've only been in Shanghai for about a month or so, i'm currently working in an advertising agency located at Huai Hai zhong Lu. I see Shanghai is one of the destination in your profile, are you currently in Shanghai as well? If you are, maybe we can meet up for a cuppa?

Eric.
 
That's actually where I got my info from too, swordforumsinternational I think, SFI for short. I forgot the guy's name so I didn't mention him. This was back in the day when Hanwei still had their "mainland distributor" note the quotation marks, they had a website with most of hanwei's stuff on there but when I inquired to where in China they were selling them, no one bothered to reply. later on the website was changed so you needed a password to get in.

just checked, you still do. (www.swordcom.com)

I actually have tried the phone number they listed on their website when it was still up, but no luck, never could get anyone to pick up.

david.
 
Alex Huangfu travels around China, and he get really old (200-500year old) wushu weapons and swords, and spearheds. They are in terrible shape when he gets them (for a piittance) and he refinishes them and such.

I think he has a shop nearer the capitol tho. I'll hafta dig up the web URL for his site, you may be able to get in touch with him if you are really looking for actual antiques. He is also qualified to idenitfy fakes, and does so on a regular basis.

Keith
 
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