a japanese website, to order a real Samurai Katana ???

Seshoumaru-sama

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a japanese website, to order a real Samurai Katana where metal is folded a minimum of 200-750 times .. price range of 6000-10,000 US $... anyone into kendo that can help me out?? i want the real thing possibly even an antique to start my collection.
 
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This section is for people new to ESF.

Moved to Off-Topic.
 
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You might do better looking on forums that are more focused on Japanese martial arts. I'm sure they're out there.
 

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It's hard to find actual antique Samurai swords, not to mention many sites claim that they sell antique swords. The swords they claim to have might just be replica's, much like how a lot of people say they have the original Miyamoto Musashi Katana and short sword when really they are just replica's (even though no one really knows what Musashi's swords look like, as far as I know).

I apologize if what I've said is of no use, the only kind of sword I own (and use) is a Bokken, so my knowledge of how to find Katana's is pretty bad.
 

Li Qin

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MC's right. Nets not the best spot to get proper katanas, try to find if you have a local martial arts store near your house and go there. Folded katanas recently made will be at least $5,000 dollars and upwards. Historical ones will be more in the area of $500,000 and upwards. While a katana used by historical figures like Masashi would be pricless.
 
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Folded how much? 200-750 is not only impossible, but all the carbon would have been burnt out, producing really soft steel. Read up on them a bit with some accurate info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katana

Anyway, I don't think this is something you can just order off the internet through sites similar to amazon.com or anything. You'd have to special order it. You might want to see if you can find any contact info for smithies in Japan.
 
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Ah 200-750 is impossible. I was wondering because I found a few 'folded steel katanas' but nowhere near that amount of folds.

Paul Chen (Japanese forge-owner) Katana's (the Tiger series especially) are folded steel, and you can find a lot of them online via Google. They ranged from about $800 to $1200 depending on length and quality.

http://www.swordsdirect.com/paul_chen_kami_swords.html
 

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I'd reccommend that you first of all google for a forum called "Blade Forums" and ask nicely there. They're a great bunch of people who really, really know and love their blades - khukris, bowies, ghurkas, machetes or "samurai" swords.

I'd also be wary of calling it a katana or a samurai sword - im sure theres a more technical name for it. Just in case you wonder why the forum peeps crack down on that.
 

Li Qin

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I'd also be wary of calling it a katana or a samurai sword - im sure theres a more technical name for it. Just in case you wonder why the forum peeps crack down on that.
If you've stuidied Japanese weapons it gets REAL technical for each weapon. Most experts you find in the feild will refer to them as katanas, or of course the MAIN variations that you get (all Japanese weapons have a lot or varitions).

Paul Chen (Japanese forge-owner) Katana's (the Tiger series especially) are folded steel, and you can find a lot of them online via Google. They ranged from about $800 to $1200 depending on length and quality.
Those swords I would be a bit wary of. They don;t seem all that high quality from what I could see in the webpage. Added to the fact that he does "movie" swords too, the quality just seems a bit sus to me.
 

Seshoumaru-sama

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yeah, but the paul chen ones.. even tho folded.. are folded at most 100 times.. thats y its worth 1200... the REAL japanese katanas are (for a decent one) folded 250 times, and on the high end of around 700 times. (the more folds the more expensive ) and you can't really look at wikipedia, because anyone can go on it and change information, its not really valid. Ive done some study into it.. i have a japanese friend to visits there once a year or so and im sure he could get me one.. but im extremely picky
 
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Seshoumaru-sama said:
yeah, but the paul chen ones.. even tho folded.. are folded at most 100 times.. thats y its worth 1200... the REAL japanese katanas are (for a decent one) folded 250 times, and on the high end of around 700 times. (the more folds the more expensive ) and you can't really look at wikipedia, because anyone can go on it and change information, its not really valid. Ive done some study into it.. i have a japanese friend to visits there once a year or so and im sure he could get me one.. but im extremely picky
Yeah, you need to learn about katana's there chuck. If you folded the metal 700 times, the carbon would be burnt off, as in the heat would literally break apart the atoms, creating incredibly soft metal. And guess what happens to soft metal? Exactly. The more folds does not mean the more expensive. Do you even know why they fold the swords? They would fold them so elements such as carbon would be evenly distributed through out the sword making it stronger. Now if you fold it too much guess what happens. That's right, it will again, unevenly distribute that carbon.

And because I know you're arrogant, most people are (like myself) you won't believe me so here is some proof:
wikipedia said:
Contrary to popular belief, continued folding will not create a "super-strong" blade; once impurities are burnt off and the carbon content homogenized, further folding offers little benefit and will gradually burn out the carbon, leading eventually to a softer steel less able to hold an edge
 
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Seshoumaru-sama said:
yeah, but the paul chen ones.. even tho folded.. are folded at most 100 times.. thats y its worth 1200... the REAL japanese katanas are (for a decent one) folded 250 times, and on the high end of around 700 times. (the more folds the more expensive ) and you can't really look at wikipedia, because anyone can go on it and change information, its not really valid. Ive done some study into it.. i have a japanese friend to visits there once a year or so and im sure he could get me one.. but im extremely picky
It's relevant, so I'll bring this up. Wikipedia happens to be very accurate as long as you don't stumble on to the pages where flame wars are going on, and those are usually political hotspots. I dare you to edit the wikipedia page on Katanas and see how fast your edits disappear.

Do you realize how impossible it would be to fold it 700 times anyways? Fold a piece of paper 700 times and tell me how possible it is, then imagine having to do that with hot metal.
 
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Yeah, I know nothing about swords, nor do i like them (dont hate them either) but that does seem impossible to fold steel 700 times. And just for relevance, i heard somewhere that you can fold a peice of paper no more than 12 times, but thats just what I've heard.
 

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