how wavy can a spine be?

by bernie & ginny miron
(danbury, CT 06810)

QUESTION: Hello Paul & friends, we bought the Teigoku katana & the Teikoku wakazashi set from swords of might (sold seperately, not as a set per say)......they are very beautiful, exciting to hold, very hard & solid (one can feel it in the hands in comparison to other swords)......with the exception of a slidy tsuba on the short sword, they were delivered perfectly with no blemishes..........they are damascus style blades & very reasonably priced for what one gets for the money, we think........oh yeah, they cut like scalpels & handle quite well for such a stiff blade......we know we shouldn't have, but we cut a five inch branch clean through in one pass with the katana with absolutely no harm or blemishes to the blade. we don't know the manufacturer....these come from the "other" swords dept. located with the other good swords they offer....we own musashi(brand) & cheness, but these just struck us when we looked at them & we couldn't stop thinking about them (OCD?)

Our question is, when looking down the spine of the katana there is a certain amount of waviness & thickness variation........we read or heard somewhere that this could be normal for a handmade carbon steel 1065 blade......is our memory failing us? or is it okay? the blade edge looks pretty straight & it doesn't seem to impede its performance..............but........we don't know too much, so we are asking the masters of time & space here what they think.......thanks & God bless your family.......happy new year.


ANSWER:Hey Bernie and Ginny, nice to hear from you both again. :-)

They sound like some really nice swords! I just had a zip over to swords of might to check them out, the red same isn't really my cup of tea, but otherwise they certainly seem pretty good for the money.

At the $150 price point, I wouldn't be too concerned with any slight waviness with the swords spine - and it is certainly not uncommon on a rather inexpensive hand forged sword - so no, your memory is right on! :-)

The only thing is, as this sword was folded - it may be indicitive of inconsistencies with how the blades were folded, which could be a safety concern (low priced folded blades can be extremely unpredictable - monosteel is definitely the way to go).

So I'd go easy on those 5" branches. ;-)

Take care folks and talk to you again soon.

Best,

- Paul