About 5 months ago while browsing another forum I saw a rather arrogant post: Can your tanto cut like this?
Inside was a video of a person cutting tatami omote with a 10" tanto, saying it cut better than all other tanto's he owned. This was of course impressive but the issue was he sold them.
After a long heated debate with a few forum members (including myself) many decided to drop out of the discussion since Dadao was talking the talk but we had no idea if he could walk the walk.
I decided to put my money where my mouth was and I purchase his tanto. What he calls a Hung Shing True Sharp "Shobu Fighter".
The specs:
Nagasa (blade length): 10"
Guard: 4.5~"
Steel: Chinese T10, Forge folded and clay tempered
After exchanging names I learned his name was Ricky, and he ran a new company named Hung Shing True Sharp with specialized in competition geometry cutters, and sharpening.
Upon receiving his paypal email, I noticed something strange, he lived not 30 minutes away from me! I emailed him back and told him we lived rather close, and he offered to deliver the tanto himself. We agreed.
The next day while at work, Dadaochen (Ricky) delivered the tanto as well as a free hanwei wara mat.
It came with a thick leather sheath.
The Tanto itself:
The tanto is done in a traditional shobu zukuri style. Overall proportions were okay, and I would consider the geometry traditional. The mounting however was meant for a tactical hunter. A bear fighting knife as Virtuoso would likely call it.
The folding grain is tight, and is done is masame style.
Masame style jihada (steel folding grain pattern) is done by taking a billet of steel and folding it over repeatedly on the same side, like a sandwich. This creates an effect of layers of steel.
The clay tempering produced a hamon in the gunome style, producing a "even" waves pattern.
Ricky did not know this until much later but the forge he uses in China does not fold the steel themselves, they buy the billets prefolded from a company that makes them using metallurgists and machinery. This they say assures no air pockets, no welding issues, etc.
100_0546 by crazysur123, on Flickr
No tsuka, or fittings just a leather sheath, some samegawa (sharp skin) strips and a japanese style tsukamaki wrap done in Hineri maki without alternating ito. The ito itself as a low quality cotton ito, and the samegawa strips were of low quality. They were shortly replaced with high quality samegawa, shark skin, (Namikawa grade 1) and wrapped in semi low to medium quality cotton ito.
Overall the tanto's steel was superb, the person who polished the tanto out however was not as the shinogi (flat spine) was uneven. Problems in chinese quality control.
The gathering:
A day later and after some grueling tests I realized Ricky was actually telling the truth. It was an astounding tanto, super sharp with a 0 bevel edge. Cutting bottles and chopping wood (safe, dw) with it were a breeze and apparently the steel's heat treatment held up remarkably well with no edge damage.
After posting my initial test results, Ricky invited me to get together with another backyard cutter and we got under way with cutting bamboo tatami omote and hanwei/bugei wara mats.
The first attempt at making a cut on tatami omote with the Shobu Fighter was a success. You don't feel a thing, just glides on through. It was meant as a heavy tactical use tanto with full niku for forcing thrugh tough materials. It was an incredibly buy for $120~, but unfortunately is currently discontinued although he may make more batches not sure.
[video=youtube;_OxP57NQI34]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OxP57NQI34[/video]
Other knives tests: kris Cutlery tanto, and some other swords.
You can find him at http://hsts.weebly.com/
As well as a sword forum, for lower prices.
100_0549 by crazysur123, on Flickr
100_0545 by crazysur123, on Flickr
100_0544 by crazysur123, on Flickr
Inside was a video of a person cutting tatami omote with a 10" tanto, saying it cut better than all other tanto's he owned. This was of course impressive but the issue was he sold them.
After a long heated debate with a few forum members (including myself) many decided to drop out of the discussion since Dadao was talking the talk but we had no idea if he could walk the walk.
I decided to put my money where my mouth was and I purchase his tanto. What he calls a Hung Shing True Sharp "Shobu Fighter".
The specs:
Nagasa (blade length): 10"
Guard: 4.5~"
Steel: Chinese T10, Forge folded and clay tempered
After exchanging names I learned his name was Ricky, and he ran a new company named Hung Shing True Sharp with specialized in competition geometry cutters, and sharpening.
Upon receiving his paypal email, I noticed something strange, he lived not 30 minutes away from me! I emailed him back and told him we lived rather close, and he offered to deliver the tanto himself. We agreed.
The next day while at work, Dadaochen (Ricky) delivered the tanto as well as a free hanwei wara mat.
It came with a thick leather sheath.
The Tanto itself:
The tanto is done in a traditional shobu zukuri style. Overall proportions were okay, and I would consider the geometry traditional. The mounting however was meant for a tactical hunter. A bear fighting knife as Virtuoso would likely call it.
The folding grain is tight, and is done is masame style.
Masame style jihada (steel folding grain pattern) is done by taking a billet of steel and folding it over repeatedly on the same side, like a sandwich. This creates an effect of layers of steel.
The clay tempering produced a hamon in the gunome style, producing a "even" waves pattern.
Ricky did not know this until much later but the forge he uses in China does not fold the steel themselves, they buy the billets prefolded from a company that makes them using metallurgists and machinery. This they say assures no air pockets, no welding issues, etc.
100_0546 by crazysur123, on Flickr
No tsuka, or fittings just a leather sheath, some samegawa (sharp skin) strips and a japanese style tsukamaki wrap done in Hineri maki without alternating ito. The ito itself as a low quality cotton ito, and the samegawa strips were of low quality. They were shortly replaced with high quality samegawa, shark skin, (Namikawa grade 1) and wrapped in semi low to medium quality cotton ito.
Overall the tanto's steel was superb, the person who polished the tanto out however was not as the shinogi (flat spine) was uneven. Problems in chinese quality control.
The gathering:
A day later and after some grueling tests I realized Ricky was actually telling the truth. It was an astounding tanto, super sharp with a 0 bevel edge. Cutting bottles and chopping wood (safe, dw) with it were a breeze and apparently the steel's heat treatment held up remarkably well with no edge damage.
After posting my initial test results, Ricky invited me to get together with another backyard cutter and we got under way with cutting bamboo tatami omote and hanwei/bugei wara mats.
The first attempt at making a cut on tatami omote with the Shobu Fighter was a success. You don't feel a thing, just glides on through. It was meant as a heavy tactical use tanto with full niku for forcing thrugh tough materials. It was an incredibly buy for $120~, but unfortunately is currently discontinued although he may make more batches not sure.
[video=youtube;_OxP57NQI34]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OxP57NQI34[/video]
Other knives tests: kris Cutlery tanto, and some other swords.
You can find him at http://hsts.weebly.com/
As well as a sword forum, for lower prices.
100_0549 by crazysur123, on Flickr
100_0545 by crazysur123, on Flickr
100_0544 by crazysur123, on Flickr
Last edited:
