Practical Katana 1st impressions.

The General

The General

Joined
Jun 6, 2000
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I bought one of the Practical Katana swords the other day. All in all I would say that whilst the fittings are the very definition of 'basic' I am very happy with this item.

I did do a certain amount of research on this excellent forum about what was a good starter Katana and the PK has impressed me in several key areas. Before I talk about those, I would add that I was very well aware that the basic PK was literally that. I would have gone for the PK plus if I had wanted a more fancified sword. That said, the level of... Basicness? Is well, very basic. A little more thought and detail would have made very little difference to the highly competitive price and really made a difference to the appearance.

On to the things I really like though! When I got the sword, I noticed the spine area, has a mirror polish. The middle section of the blade a semi satin finish and the edge area quite a rough looking finish. Now I know this sword is made from carbon steel (forged) and is differently heat tempered using clay. Thus I was expecting to see a very prominent Hamon. However I was quite disappointed to see little evidence of said Hamon with initial inspection. Indeed it could be said that if I had not been told it had a Hamon I would not believe it! The polish simply seemed more rough for about a fingers width along the edge. After having seen a proper Katana with an amazing Hamon (400 year old sword at the Leeds armoury) I was expecting a lot more than this.

However, when got the sword home and ran some Militec-1 on a paper cloth over the sword and held her up to the light, I began to see levels and nuances of detail that were simply not visible before. The Hamon became very noticeable with an almost cloudy finish along the edge. Further inspection showed that the sword had very very clean and even lines and was actually sharp out of the box! Amazing at this price. The edge does need some work to give it a hair popping edge, but a serious swing with this would do amazing damage. Looking by feel and experience, I estimate the edge angle to be about 25-22 degree's per side. There was no sign of any burr and I was very pleasantly surprised how consistent and even the edge grind is. Of note is the absence of tell tale white patches of an uneven edge grind and more importantly the tip section is sharpened right to the edge. I have seen few Katana or Wakizashi for less than £500 that do not need major stock removal at the first couple of inches of the tip to gain an actual edge. This area always seems a weakness in cheaper stainless steel blades. The tip of the sword does also have a very slight distal taper.

The point of balance is between 5.4 and 5.7 inches from the cross guard.

Once question I do have is about the tang. How strong is the tang and how thick is it? Is it a full tang and how much of the handle length is tang?

Many thanks,
 
Congratulations I'm glad you are pleased with your purchase. It is my understanding that those swords are supposed to be able to be used for cutting practice so one must assume that the tangs are there and up to the job.
 
Don't worry about the tang. It is sturdy, and good for cutting. I used my PK as my regular tameshigiri sword before moving up to Tiger kat. I cut thick wara (around 5" diameter), bamboo and sugar cane (my fav target) and the blade did not receive any damage whatsoever - aside from minor scratches which are acceptable 'damage' in a cutting sword. It is a good sword for cutting, but one should have received some proper training before cutting anything hard.

If I'mnot mistaken, the tang goes 3/4 of the handle and it is epoxied. It is IMPOSSIBLE for the blade to jump off from the handle withut destroying (literally) the handle first.

Congratulation on your first buy, and I must admit that it is a wise choice to go with the PK. Now, better save your money, because you'll want something else.

:D
 
Thanks! I am glad the tang is not a concern.

Swords are like knives I guess, now that I have a reasonable one, I will be looking for the 'Sebenza' of swords.

Any suggestions? I have my eye on a local swordsmiths work. He works 1050-1075 forged steel and works to classic broadswod type patterns. I have seen some of his work and I have to say its simply stunning. Very authentic and well finished. The price is the only problem, from £600 upward.Thats about $1000
 
Very close inspection showed a dozen or so, very tiny rough 'pits' in the middle of the blade in a roughly 1cm diamater area. I used a good pan cleaning compound that I use to polish up and remove rust spots on my knives on this area. They do not apear to be rust spots though. I think it may be a slightly rough finish, or more likely as this Sword was the 'pick of the bunch' in the shop, that it has had a little corrosion there and subsequent pitting that was the result of a finger print (its the right size). Luckily the pitting is very very light and only really noticable when you really look close 'just so'.

I have given the entire length of the blade a thourgh wipe down twice now with a clean paper towel and Militec-1. Yesterday I used the pan cleaner (its not a highly abrasive model at all) to give the blade a darn good clean and polish. I then cleaned this abrasive away with some more oil. I then wiped the oil away and used some white grease on the blade. A good thick coating of Teflon white grease. I am leaving this on for 24 hours to nulify any residual rust.

Once this has been done I will remove the grease and use Militec-1 on the blade again. Thus I will store the blade. I do intend to use either my Sharpmaker or Spyderco Ultra fine bench stone. I dread to think how difficult it would be to sharpen such a large blade!
 
If he is really good 1000 dollars would be extraordinarily cheap for a custom sword. What's his name if I could ask?
 
To be honest, I don't know. The reason is I have seen his work in a local shop, the website is knightsgoneby.co.uk or.com. The site is poor, but has contact details.

I was told the man lives on Angelsy, which is a local island near me. I can confirm I have seen an example of his work though and it was certainly not some cheap stainless steel type of flasy looking sword.

I get the impression that the shop does not want to "let the cat out of the bag" as I bet they have a commission proffit to keep!

BTW, very informative site, very intersting.
 
The General,

Nice purchase for your first Katana.:D

One warning though.
DO NOT SHARPEN IT TO A HAIR POPPING SHARP EDGE!!!!!!!!!

You will weaken the edge doing that, it will be too fine and it might roll or chip.

If it cuts paper it is sharp enough, trust me.;)

Katanas don't need an edge that sharp to cut, it is more cutting technique than blade sharpness. You Katana is sharp enough for practice cutting.
 
Originally posted by The General
I was thinking more about a polished edge.
Click to expand...


With katanas the cutting comes from your technique than from a razor sharp edge.

I really depends on what you will be cutting with it too. If you are cutting thick heavy targets then leave the edge alone because you will roll it. With a fine polished edge it weakens the edge so when you cut with it the edge breaks down quicker leaving you with a dull sword.

A few strokes from a 600 grit diamond file will do, just one or 2 strokes on each side on the edge to keep it in shape for cutting.
 
Interesting info, much appeciated!

I guess the sword has a 'user' edge, it does struggle somewhat to cut paper cleanly and I figured some passes with my Ultra Fine Spyderco benchstone would give the edge more consistency. I am not looking to change the angle and indeed if I were to do so, this would not be the stone to use! LOL!:D It would take years.

To be blunt (pun intended) I have zero experience in sword styles and this blade will be hardly ever used. I just want to give the edge a more 'hand finished' edge I guess. A more polished edge is unlikely to make it weaker as the edgle will be the same. At least thats my experience with knife blades.:)

One last point. A couple of inches of the edge has some black spots on it. I think this was rust at some point and I wanted to polish these out at the same time.

Do you recommend oil of cloves for protection? Is this as its a more traditional product? Or because of some special property? I was thinking about using Tuf Cloth, but I don't want that cloudy finish.
 
If you want a very sharp honed edge, you can have one. Cutting with a very sharp sword does not necessarily mean it will take damage, though it is more likely if your ability is less than stellar.

However, I see nothing wrong with polishing the bevel a little bit, to get a smoother surface near the edge if that's what you want. However, some may feel it is almost counterproductive to polish the edge up very high, as a typical "tameshigiri" finish is of a relatively low grit equivalent. While art swords often have an extremely high level polish right to the edge, some feel it is unnecessary, as relatively low finishes (perhaps 400-600 grit SiC range) can implement the small scratches to help give the sword more "bite" and aid it in grabbing the target to initiate your cut. I'm sure you're aware of the concept of an "aggressive" edge, so I don't need to describe that much further. Perhaps to some degree, this helps the popularity of Phil Hartsfield's and others' swords, which appear finished to only a very low grit. You can cut with a very high finish too, but you might find yourself wanting a "sharper" edge, as it doesn't grab the target the same way as a toothy edge. It depends on how you use the sword and what you use it against, as was stated before. :D

Get the edge to whatever degree you feel comfortable with. If you have not done a lot of real cutting with a katana, you might want to be cautious about how you modify your sword. There are a lot of things one CAN do to their sword, but not all of them are for the sword's benefit when the swordsman can't take advantage of them :)

Glad you are satisfied with your purchase, I think the PK is probably the best low-price option for a Japanese-style sword, though I wish they would use copper for habaki instead of brass!! :grumpy:

Addendum: Choji oil has been explained a few times here and on other forums, so if you want info on it you can find it fairly easily. It is essentially mineral oil with a tiny amount of clove oil (less than 5%) added for fragrance. Clove oil by itself is not recommended for sword maintenance. Any popular relatively pure oil that will protect and not stain the steel will work well, and some enjoy using BreakFree CLP and other varieties (though BreakFree stinks IMO, choji is purdy smelling).
 
Great and very in depth answer!

Very much appeciated guys, many many thanks! I guess I want the edge to be able to slice paper cleanly, then I will be happy. I am always a little wary of a factory edge, unless it is a Chris Reeve item!

Best,:)
 
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