[Tim Chan]

http://nihonto.com/ichi.html
here's a 90k shirasaya

swords are handmade and much different from your conventional knives.

display swords can be bought for real cheap, though they tend to be machine made and cheaply made, with cheaper ****l.

minimum neccessities for a functional sword for cutting/practicing are
1.steel quality(high carbon being the cheapist though not neccessarily lest functional). avoid stainless steel cuz they are brittle
2.the shape, thickness, full tang, etc. craftmanship in general.
3.sharpness, depending on whether u just want to swing it in the air, maybe light spar or do theatre work, or actually cut somethings with it. if you feel a real sword, u'd probably be surprised at how sharp they are(sharper than ne ktchen knife you'd probably ever see and around razor quality)

all those usually add up to a sword around 150-600. things such as custumized length, handles, engravings, stingray rayskin, buffalo horn, leather, damascus steel, etc, make swords way more expensive.

http://www.martialartswords.com/prod...products_id=43
here's a site which shows how much extra custumizations can cost.

[kokoro]

Originally Posted by Liquid Snake

minimum neccessities for a functional sword for cutting/practicing are
1.steel quality(high carbon being the cheapist though not neccessarily lest functional). avoid stainless steel cuz they are brittle

mmm.. depends... after all kinds of experimentation and trying new ****ls out... steel is still king in the sword world.. there are some steels... like 5160 (added chromium) and 1086M (added vanadium) which have other elements but only in small amounts.. most of its just plain old iron and carbon..

Originally Posted by Liquid Snake

2.the shape, thickness, full tang, etc. craftmanship in general.

depends on what your cutting... soft targets or hard...?? differents shapes for different targets..

Originally Posted by Liquid Snake

3.sharpness, depending on whether u just want to swing it in the air, maybe light spar or do theatre work, or actually cut somethings with it. if you feel a real sword, u'd probably be surprised at how sharp they are(sharper than ne ktchen knife you'd probably ever see and around razor quality)

false... you'll actually be suprised at how many real katanas are not razor sharp, and even more so at Euro swords.. again.. it all depends on what your target is... if you'll be facing armor... its actually better to not have it razor sharp.. too sharp then less material to support the edge... I'm not saying its dull... it will still cut the crap out of you if you put some correct technique and force behind it... but many katanas (Paul Chens, Bugei.. ect) that I've handled, when you run a sheet of paper over the edge, will not cut the paper... but cut some tatami and it opens it up like a zipper...


heres a good article on choosing a sword...
http://swordforum.com/summer99/katana-shopping.html

different blade shapes through history....
http://swordforum.com/swords/nihonto/shapechanges.html

Best,

Kokoro

[The Gubbinz]

HAhahaha! I wouldn't buy anything over 1000 dollars!! RIp-off!
There is a lot of everything on ebay.

Originally Posted by Liquid Snake

http://nihonto.com/ichi.html
here's a 90k shirasaya

hhmmm, so i would guess the 10k swords people are talking about are the antique kind of swords...

so a top quality sword made today as in performance wise, would be around 1k?

im guessing that there are people who still make it traditional ways and would cost more but would it be made just to be traditional, or because that is the only way to have it perform the best?

oops double post, my bad

[heliogracie215]

.. or you could try something practical like a Dalton Automatic Folder Wasp Proto is a nice carry option ... if your gonna use a blade get some training ... I recommend AMOK ... last piece of advice dont bring a knife to a gun fight bro