GengSwords Dragon Katana and wakizashi


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GengSwords Dragon Katana and wakizashi

(New Zealand)

Bought these two swords from Jack Geng about a month ago at under $100 NZD each which is well under his "retail" price $649 NZD for the katana and $549 NZD for the wakizashi although these are forever under his "limited offer price" at 50% off.

As soon as i received them I know they were low quality budget swords. They're just poor quality forged swords straight from China, nothing more. Anyone that has traveled to China know your able to pick these up no more than $35 NZD.

Confronted Jack immediately and knowing he has finally been caught out, he agrees to the budget quality of these swords and false information given budget quality is his own words he quickly offers me more free swords for compensation but not wanting another low quality sword I gave him 2 options.

If he truly think he has better quality swords available as these are his low priced swords I'll be happy to pay more for them. But if not I just want my full refund.

I got my full refund.

Unfortunately there is just too many fault with these swords to list, their basically ornamental swords with an sharp edge and some of the specs from his website are intentionally false.

Comments for
GengSwords Dragon Katana and wakizashi

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Geng swords (New Zealand)
by: Anonymous

These swords are not just budget swords. They are in fact worthless rubbish. I took the blade off one to an engineering shop to get a take on it. They are in fact (contrary to the sales pitch) merely mild steel with fake everything.
No heat treatment, not forged, not differentially tempered and low carbon content.
The engineer knew nothing about japanese swords
but a lot about metalurgy. His opinion- probably recycled construction steel.
Go ahead, be a sucker and buy one.

Buyers comment on Gengswords
by: John VZ (New Zealand)

I bought the Black Shirasaya and the Geng III from Gengswords. As an architectural/industrial designer and a silversmith I seem to have a different view on matters:

I've just returned the Black Shirasaya because it didn't meet my standards. Jack Geng wrote me they should improve on their qualitychecks. Fair enough.

However the Geng III, no matter it is not perfect, is a very good sword. It has craftsmanship written all over it, even if I found one imperfection in the moulding of the tsuba and had a comment on the colouring of it. The blade? I'd say it's sharp, I mean, not just the looks or it's Ha (edge) ...

For his even more expensive swords I cannot comment. I just don't like the too colourfull finish.

Would I recommend him? Yes, but only from the Geng III upwards.

gengswords, it seem opinions vary.
by: Anonymous

Yeah i got some if these. Just some of the mono steel ones. I'm only displaying them at the moment, so they do that fine. If only for that they are ok, compared to some of the other god awful one's I could have bough off TradeMe. I can understand how gengswords pattern welded ones could be compleet shit as most pattern welded swords are.
As for their cutting ability I can't say, as I don't have any cutting mats lying around.
It would be good to get some proper reviews to see whether gengswords makes any GOOD swords?
This web sight has shown it is possible to make a respectable basic sword for under $100 so who knows?
gengswords have also be making "hand made" swords that look ok with a real hamon, but they usually ruin them by acid etching the hamon & putting gaudy fittings on them.

On a side note here is a beautiful web sight with some of the best sword photos around.
http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/
Very good for studying what a real sword looks like. also the cartoons are cute :-)

RE GengSwords
by: AM

I recently bought one of their monosteel katanas, Jack told me it's one of their older 'traditional forge' models, but I don't really know how it differs from their current clayed monosteel swords (300-400NZD). I paid 650NZD for my sword. The box and silk bag that came with it is pretty frayed and beat-up, I imagine it's been sitting in its box for several years, so I gave the blade a polish and cleaned the tsuka a bit. But other than that it's a very nice sword with a beautiful real hamon, silky red sageo and very tight neat wrappings, some kind of Musashi-esque tsuba and flower-themed fittings which I like a lot. The rayskin are panels, not a full wrap. I like it enough to spend a bit more money to get the saya re-painted at an auto shop (it was textured black, getting it painted glossy maple red!).

On the other hand I also bought one of their zinc-alloy iaito (you can see this one on their site), for 200NZD all up, the fittings are very plain and the sageo and wrapping is very 'shoelacy', not very neat, and the blade had some jagged edges which I had to sand out and polish. It's fine for what its intended use (a training sword that I wouldn't be worried about scratching and dinging etc.) but if I was buying another iaito I'd probably buy one from SuperiorSwords' custom creator which looks nicer.

So... a bit of a mixed bag, I'd reckon anything above their current clayed monosteel swords would be a good buy, although honestly some of their more expensive folded swords look a bit tacky and tasteless but you might think differently. Hope this helps someone.

Get what you pay for
by: Anonymous

If you are buying a mono-steel non-clayed sword expect poor quality, especially if it is not from a official sword outlet such as Hanwei. To get a starting level katana expect to pay atleast $600NZ. I have had many dealings with Gengswords and am pleased with them as I find I get exactly the quality i pay for. Swords under $300 at gengforge are what you pay for standard mono-steel. Their high end products are a bargain. Some people mentioned superiorswords.co.nz here. Their custom katana creator is overpriced starting at 300NZ for a monosteel blade and $1000 for a clayed folded sword. Also their saya's i find their kurikata too low as if they have not been designed specifically to the sword. However they do stock Hanwei.

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