88BKW Japanese Samarai Sword Review
You might ask, what is a Japanese Samarai sword? I mean ‘Samurai’ sword, right? Well, yes and no... Call it an idiosyncrasy, but I tend to lump in the uber modern Cold Steel Katana in a different category than the traditional blades and the ebay cheapies. These swords are very different from a traditional Katana. They are thicker, stronger and handle quite differently. "And they don’t even bother with a fake hamon, and have a different sori (curvature)..." But at the end of the day - they are – essentially, extremely functional no-nonsense cutters designed for good old fashioned backyard mayhem. Hence, the alternative spelling... ;-) In this review of Cold Steels coolest and least expensive Japanese Samarai sword, the Warrior Series 88BKW, sword enthusiast John K puts the Warrior through its paces with a bargain model he found as a clearout in one of my favourite recommended online vendors. So without any more ado, let’s check it out!
Cold Steel 88BKW Warrior Katana
To start off I only bought this sword for $180 at Trueswords.com it is usually $299.99. But as they mentioned in the clearout section, the catch is that there was a small chip in the saya (pictured right) and the Habaki is a bit loose.Everything besides that is perfect. Nice and secure. What caught my eye with this sword was the cheap price and I know cold steel have sharp and durable swords.
Specifications:
Weight: 46.5 oz.
It came in a normal cardboard box but it was wrapped in bubble wrap. It came with a blue cotton sword bag. I loved the look of the sword at first. When I first picked it up it felt like one solid piece. I ordered this sword Monday at about 3 and it came Wednesday, Trueswords has great shipping.
The Tsuka Ito is nice and tight and I cant figure out the Mekugi is, some kind of dragon. The tsuka is very sturdy.
The Tsuba is nice and tight fitting with a pretty cool dragon on it.
The Blade The blade is very nice and extremely sharp floats through paper like warm butter. The only issue is the sword is a bit heavy but remember its COLD STEEL they are very sharp and durable but they are kinda beefy so the swinging isn’t too graceful but it is one solid cutter let me tell you! I don’t know why there isn’t a hamon...and also on a pretty dumb move I hit my wood stand really hard (not on purpose of course) but it caused no damage what-so-ever.
Now on to the best part where this sword really shines...
It’s a solid buy you just can’t go wrong with it, its an amazing back yard cutter!
WHERE TO BUY Like all Cold Steel swords, prices on this Japanese Samarai sword vary quite dramatically. The official MSRP price to buy it direct at Cold Steel is a whopping US$549.99, which at this price – I wouldn’t even look at it twice. However, thankfully it is available for several hundred dollars less. John bought it at here at Trueswords.com , where they sell it for the lowest price at just US$299.99 – plus their customer service is among the best in the business. Definitely worth looking at, and they do sell some clearly marked factory seconds from time to time (unlike at ebay, where many of the factory seconds are sold at full price – but that is a different story...)
I hope this review of what I refer to as the Cold Steel Japanese Samarai Sword has been helpful. :-) To return to A Beginners Guide to Authentic Japanese Swords from 88BKW Japanese Samarai Sword Review, click here
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