Sub-$300 Katana (2014 edition)

TrueBlue11c said:
Yeah, I'm debating right now what to get.
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My concern with the higher end Skyjiro's are that they appear to be for collector types. With the "10,000" layers and whatnot. A lot of spelling errors on their site, but that could just be because they speak poor English. They claim to use a high end polish, and they DO appear spectacular.
 
Not that I'm an expert or anything, but what I have learned/heard so far in my research is to beware the "XX,000" layer swords. But they "look" traditional. For some, this is their #1 concern, that it look authentic. Not necessarily for dojo use or cutting. What do you think?
 
While blades folded hundreds, thousands, or even millions of times are encountered in fiction, there is no record of real blades being folded more than around 20 times. With each fold made by the maker, every internal layer is also folded, and so the total number of layers in a sword blade is doubled at each fold; since the thickness of a katana blade is less than 230 iron atoms, going beyond 20 folds no longer adds meaningfully to the number of layers in the blade. Folding a blade only ten times will therefore create 1024 layers; 20 times will create 1,048,576 layers.
 
Your in New York, right? If so, the shipping should be similar to here. Ah, I see. Just checked the site, cheap as fuck. I have seen some as high as $60 shipping costs, kult is <$13!
 
TrueBlue11c said:
While blades folded hundreds, thousands, or even millions of times are encountered in fiction, there is no record of real blades being folded more than around 20 times. With each fold made by the maker, every internal layer is also folded, and so the total number of layers in a sword blade is doubled at each fold; since the thickness of a katana blade is less than 230 iron atoms, going beyond 20 folds no longer adds meaningfully to the number of layers in the blade. Folding a blade only ten times will therefore create 1024 layers; 20 times will create 1,048,576 layers.
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Right, and with the quality of modern steel, there is diminishing returns as far as the structural integrity is concerned, right?
 
Yeah, I think news paper soaked and bundled would be fine. When I first started I'd roll up straw or hay and sometimes just cut bamboo.
 
The only martial arts store even remotely close to here got shutdown with all that shit you read about in the news. So it looks like online tatami for me, or the newspaper route. Plenty of bamboo around, but I would prefer softer targets, at least at first.
 
I don't know about how great modern steel is exactly. I've worked with steel and used to do the hardening process. Any steel fubbed in the hardening process is like glass.
 
I think the traditional style will suffice, I don't plan on chopping anything harder than bamboo.
I've broken high end knives and I've had cheap knives that exceeded the more expensive knives.
 
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