Looking for a good and cheap Katana

by Shawn
(vancouver canada)

QUESTION

I'm looking for a sword within $60 or so that is functional preferably like the bushido wind dragon do you have any links to buy a fairly good one?

ANSWER

Hi Shawn,

The Musashi Wind Dragon was indeed an exceptionally good sword for the money - decently tempered blade, solidly constructed and overall - much better value than what you might expect for sixty bucks...

Of course, at this price point - numerous corners are cut. Swords below $100 by their very nature are machine made, and the problem with machine made swords is that the production method often overheats the blade, weakening the temper.

Under normal useage, it is usually not so bad as to cause a serious safety issue, but it needs to be kept in mind - and is one of the primary reasons why we designate swords at this price range to be 'light duty'..

Other reasons why one should be careful at this price point is that the fittings may be poorly assembled, and while not everyone agrees, it is probably better than they be epoxied on to avoid any potential fatal component failures during use (another reason why we designate them as light duty).

However, bearing all this in mind - here are some specific recommendations for some cheap Katana that come close to the Wind Katana in terms of being a servicable and decently made light duty cutter...

MUSASHI SWORDS Are my personal manufacturer of choice for sub US$100 swords - and you can see a decent range of them here at Trueswords.com

The swords listed here are all quite close in overall quality to the original Wind Dragon, and trueswords will take care of you if you have a problem (these guys have some of the best customer service ANYWHERE!).

Next, you might want to have a look at some Masahiro swords - while their QC does not seem to be as good as Musashi, it is possible to get a pretty decent sword for the money.

Indeed, their Mt Fuji Samurai Sword which you can pick up from Jason Moore's new site Swords of Destiny, is quite a popular model and definitely worth a close look at.

There are many other swords at this price point, but you need to be especially careful.. I don't want to name names here, but I have heard some real horror stories about people buying cheap Katana from ebay or other sellers and ending up more or less just throwing their money down the toilet (and the sellers reply to any complaints being 'what do you expect for $60)...

So if you are going to be looking at Katana under the $100 price point, it's probably best to stick to the above recommendations - you can branch out if you feel adventerous, but it is really quite a gamble and pretty hard to really get anything much better...

Anyway, if anyone else has found anything that is worth recommending - feel free to add your $0.02 and comment below..!

Hope this helps!