Toledo Katanas

S

seanait

Joined
Jun 22, 2007
Messages
3
I gotta question: what's the difference between a Toledo katana and real katanas (besides the geographical difference)? Will Toledo katanas hold up to... something? mind you, the one i have i got from a store.. one of the thousands in Toledo, heh

its a decently sharp blade, so... yeah... any help will be greatly appreciated!
 
seanait said:
I gotta question: what's the difference between a Toledo katana and real katanas (besides the geographical difference)? Will Toledo katanas hold up to... something? mind you, the one i have i got from a store.. one of the thousands in Toledo, heh

its a decently sharp blade, so... yeah... any help will be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...

I can't speak to your sword specifically since I have no idea what it is, but in the main these days for the most part Toledo is a Mecca for the creation of decorative swords. Probably 99% of the swords created that are suitable as display pieces only.

A few questions:

1) What steel is your sword made out of? If it's stainless it's almost certainly a decorative sword.

2) Is the temper line regular say almost like a sine wave and does it appear to have been etched on? If so it's almost certainly a decorative sword.

3) How much did you pay for it? If it was below 1000 dollars it's almost certainly either a decorative sword or some local equivalent (or imported equivalent) of the low end production pieces that one can find all over the place these days.

Post pictures if you can, the moniker "Toledo Katana" doesn't really mean much. We need to see what you are talking about.
 
seanait said:
ok! here are some pics of my sword... i don't know what type of metal it is (didn't ask :o ), but judging how smooth and shiny it is, i'd say stainless steel or something of the sort...

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y111/Seanait/Katana%20pics/

are new battle-ready swords still made with metal that can rust or are they made of stainless steel?
Click to expand...

Nuts, unfortunately I can't look at your picture until I get home, our firewall blocks photo hosting sites. I'll take a look then and let you know what I think.

If it is stainless unless it is made by one of a couple very high dollar smiths (which do not operate out of Toledo) it is a decorative piece. Stainless in the main makes lousy swords because of the grain structure. Great for low maintenance kitchen cutlery, bad for sword length blades.

Probably 99% of currently produced usable swords are made from some version of carbon steel, again this has to do with the grain structure and the stresses the sword will be placed under during cutting.

There are usable katana-ish swords that can be purchased for less then 500 dollars but to my knowledge none of those are produced in Toledo.

I'll check your pictures this evening...

I hope these answers aren't too disappointing, most of us have some stainless, docorative wonder that was our first sword purchase...
 
Definitely stainless. Even beyond the bad geometry, the hamon (incorrectly called temper line) is beadblasted probably, and the handle wrappings look to be of some cheap material, and not that well done.

Do check out Swordforum.com. myarmory.com and Netsword are mostly Western swords.
 
the hamon looks bead-blasted because up close the "grain" consists of round dots instead of polish lines

and nah, i won't be too disappointed... i wasnt expecting to go practice with it and decorative is cool by me... i didn't think it would be functional beyond being a good bagel cutter, but it was worth a look, right? for my first sword, well, its my first sword... which is awesome in any light
 
I concur, you've got yourself a decorative katana. Stainless blade, fake sine wave like hamon, some sort of alloy fittings, etc. etc.

It's a piece to hang on the wall for atmosphere. I would highly recommend against test cutting with it. The suggestion to start doing some serious reading on the subject is a good one. As I noted earlier most of us have one and it lead us to this very enjoyable hobby. Good luck in your future endeavors. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top