United States

R-man

By some cosmic coincidence conversation at work today turned to the wonders of Japanese sword making! Then two very geeky fellows began discussing Kendo kata while I watched in astonishment. (my own martial arts achievements, sadly, are ka-gun and knife-fu )

my sword is a cheap knock off I'm sure (got it at a gun show - pardon the irony!) but it's pretty solid and a man could go out with honor wielding it.

I just hope that like in the martial arts movies, that when I run out of bullets the bad guys come at me with swords!

Talbot

Mike I bought an old Japanese Katana (Samurai sword) from my Sensei about 30 years ago, for about $250. If it wasn't blemished, it'd be worth double or triple.
I checked on getting it polished, and there are only a few men qualified to properly polish a samurai sword.
What they do is to polish what they call a window, which is about 1 by 2 inches, to see if the blade is worth restoring.
The price of this window was thousands of dolloars; clearly not worth it.
Hang on to yours, though, no matter what: they appreciate in value; dunno what mine is worth now, probably double or triple now . . .
You can remove the bamboo peg and slide off the handle and guard. A- a real sword has the master's signature and the tests he performed with the sword, carved into the tang.
And - yeah - no doubt, it is a very very dangerous weapon.
Not as good as a pistol. But, then again - it never needs reloading!

Oh, by the way, besides ka-gun and knife-fu, you might be also be interested in crowbar-jitsu.

Hey Talbot, I use to import those swords 7 or 8 years
ago, and believe you don't want to wield it, it'll break.
I had a guy buy a sword from me and came back all mad
cause the blade had broke off, I asked him what he'd been
doing with it. He said practicing some moves on a tree. I
explained to him the sign that said these are ornamental
swords, not to be used by ninjas.

Yeah, the real blades have upwards of 10,000 to 20,000 layers, folded over and over. The Japanese swordsmiths were real masters of their craft.

Good high carbon bladed swords of modern manufacture are available on the market if you know what your looking at.
Ken Chin as well as some others make combat steel or live steel weapons that are worthy of combat and can be had for much less than Damascus or folded steel swords of both modern or vintage origins.

Despite my Chinese martial art experience I still prefer the Japanese designs of Katana & Wakisashi.

Though I am also quite fond of the Gladius Hispanicus ... a vicious close combat weapon.

The harmonic of wood & steel a different. A steel Katana struck broadside above the hamon by a wooden sword will break.
One of Japan's most famous ronan Miyamato Musashi ( author of BOOK OF FIVE RINGS ) fought almost exclusively with the Bokken ( wood sword ) in his latter years often shattering his opponents weapon at first blow.