High Quality Katana?

K

knifenut848

Joined
Mar 19, 2009
Messages
83
I am looking for a High quality katana or japanese style sword for clearing brush, chopping through small trees and different materials. Any ideas?
 
The Kris Cutlery katanas make great beaters. They are made of very tough 5160 steel and have significant niku.
 
If you can find the Ontario Black Wind, you could use that. The finish would prevent it from rust and sap-spotting.

I would advise, however, against using any katana as a machete. Sharpening a sword is a totally different beast from sharpening a knife. You need to account for the extremely beefy steel, the more complex blade geometry, and the heat treatment. Also, any katana traditionally (or somewhat traditionally) finished/built will stain easily.

Just buy a machete; they're much cheaper and just as effective.
 
knifenut848 said:
I am looking for a High quality katana or japanese style sword for clearing brush, chopping through small trees and different materials. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Yes. Buy something made for clearing brush, and chopping through small trees and different materials, and not a katana or Japanese style sword. That's not what they're built for and you'll likely save some money in the process.
 
The Paul Chen / Hanwei Banshee would probably make the best budget yet quality brush type cutter since it was made for that purpose in mind.

The Cheness Tenchi series is also a good place to start for durability. A katana isn't going to really hold up to much tree chopping unless you have a Busse AK or the new Swamp Rat Rodent wakizashi. Swords weren't designed with much tree chopping in mind.
 
Guys, don't give him ideas. Al most all listed blades so far with be absolutely ridden with sap and other natural stainers.

The AK, Swamp Rat waki, Ontario Blackwind, and Banshee are basically the limit of katana-esque blades.
 
High-end isn't necessarily what he needs for brush cuttnig and small tree chopping. That's why I said the Chen Banshee or Busse/Swamp Rat blades. Bugei and high end swords from Paul Chen, etc. are not made for the type of cutting he apparently wants to do and even a very well made and expensive katana will not hold up to that type of cutting.

A machete/axe would be a better tool for the job.
 
Bimmer1 said:
Bugei and high end swords from Paul Chen, etc. are not made for the type of cutting he apparently wants to do and even a very well made and expensive katana will not hold up to that type of cutting.
Click to expand...

I respectfully disagree. Clearing bush and small trees is completely within the scope of use of a Paul Chen Practical Katana. No, it's NOT an ideal tool, but it certainly wont fail in that application.
 
Using a Paul Chen for something like that is really just a waste. Yeah, they're very inexpensive as far as swords go (except for the very high-end Paul Chens which can be well over $1000) but they're pretty well made for the price, and you will have one hell of a time finding somebody qualified to re-sharpen a katana.

I would save the Paul Chens for cutting demonstrations and live blade practice, and NOT for yard work. Something like a Becker BK9 would be excellent for yard work......that's what I use.
 
J_Curd said:
I respectfully disagree. Clearing bush and small trees is completely within the scope of use of a Paul Chen Practical Katana. No, it's NOT an ideal tool, but it certainly wont fail in that application.
Click to expand...

I would like to see what the edge looks like if he lived in Florida or other areas of the southeast and decided to cut small diameter scrub oak trees with it frequently.......or any other small diameter young hardwood tree. The type of tree and hardness would dictate if it is "completely within the scope and use" of a specific katana.
 
Last edited:
Bark River Golok, not Japanese styled, not a katana, but designed for exactly the tasks you describe.

Kevin
 
Dag-nabit said:
Bark River Golok, not Japanese styled, not a katana, but designed for exactly the tasks you describe.

Kevin
Click to expand...

YES. For god's sake don't use a sword to cut trees! Swords are designed for cutting soft, mobile targets, not hard immobile ones. The sword will try "wrapping" itself around the tree, potentially causing catastrophic failure of the blade. Especially a katana with differential heat treatment you'll find the possibility to chip your edge due to the hardened edge zone.

I also advise getting a machete, which is designed for the task as well as being much less expensive. If you want something big and sword like, check out the Condor Jungle Saber or the Bark River Golok. :)
 
I'd propably laugh my ass off if I saw someone cutting brushes and gardening with katana.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Swords are designed for cutting soft, mobile targets, not hard immobile ones. The sword will try "wrapping" itself around the tree, potentially causing catastrophic failure of the blade. :)
Click to expand...

I respectfully disagree with the above statement ;)
[youtube]zRnVY9qLCEE[/youtube]
 
As it can be fun to clear bush and and chopping small trees with a Katana it's not the best idea you can get. As stated above, Katanas are not built for that purpose and can be quite dangerous especially if you don't hit with a perfect angle.

Hitting a hard target such as a small tree with a somewhat incorrect angle or too close to the tip of the blade can result in the blade snapping off and hurting you in the process.

I'm not saying it's impossible though; My brother did cut trough a 2-2.5 inches wide branch quite easily, when he got his Paul Chen's Practical Katana.

However, for your purposes, I'd personally go with some kind of Kurki or similar.

My 2¢
 
Swords were designed to de-limb PEOPLE...aka major bone structure. A good one can hit the hardest of the hard and keep on truckin.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top