Support BladeForums! Paid memberships don't see ads! Anyone know of a few places I might look for a octagonal styled shirasaya tanto? Looking into some of these Chinese sellers but I don't know anything about them
The forum rule against deal spotting for non-supporting vendors gets in the way of this sort of question. It's hard to talk about who makes them when they often sell their products directly and are not forum sponsors. Shirasaya is traditionally more of a way to store a blade than to use it, but it has evolved into the primary sword furniture on cheaper blades due to the lower cost to produce. Making the shirasaya octagonal increases the production cost, so it goes counter to the primary goal of most of the makers pumping them out. Try asking in the sword subforum, someone there might be more able to point you in the right direction.
No, but you need a paid membership to PM. It's basically to not give a bunch of screen time to people or companies who don't support the site and may be in competition with those who do. If Knifecenter or BladeHQ sold them it wouldn't be an issue, but the only people making what you want are either super expensive or Chinese--some of which are decent quality. Avoid Amazon and eBay and that will knock out the most prolific fakers and junk dealers right off the top.
