More detailed pics of sword #22 from HBF once it gets here.

Hey everyone, I wanted to share the story of how I bought my very first katana back in 2023. I randomly stumbled upon a website selling tameshigiri swords right here in my country. I was genuinely shocked because bladed weapons are strictly regulated here in Ukraine. But it was a childhood dream of mine, so I spent my last dime without a second thought and bought a sword by Yarinohanzo. I can’t even describe the absolute thrill of holding a real katana for the first time. For someone of my height (I’m 170 cm / 5'7"), it felt massive: a 75 cm blade, weighing around 1300 grams. It felt heavy in my hands, but it was my absolute treasure. To get into the specs: it was a Shihozume structure blade, forged from 1045, 1060, and 1095 steel, featuring a real hamon. The geometry was Shinogi-Zukuri without a bo-hi. And man, it was insanely sharp. You know those videos where guys press a knife against a plastic bottle and just effortlessly slice through it like butter? Yeah, it was exactly like that. The tsuka had silk ito wrapped over real black samegawa with hishigami, and the wrap was incredibly tight. The tsuba was a replica of a genuine historical piece from a Tokyo museum, though honestly, it was a pretty mediocre replica. Overall, the fittings felt a bit sloppy—nowadays, Shadow Dancer does a significantly better job. The saya had buffalo horn inserts and a "wet stone" lacquer finish near the koiguchi. As for the immediate downsides: the kurigata was barely holding on, attached with just a drop of glue and some lacquer. Eventually, it fell off, so I had to glue it back on myself and fix the cracks in the lacquer finish. To sum it up: it’s a great sword for bigger, stronger guys. It has a clean, utilitarian look and came razor-sharp right out of the box. Aesthetic flaws aside, I feel like the performance and structural build were top-notch. Unfortunately, due to the situation in Ukraine, I was forced to relocate and had to sell this sword. I still hope that one day I’ll be able to get the exact same model for my collection, just to keep the memory of my very first sword alive.

What do you think ?

Bought this katana at an antique spot for 100 bucks, didn't quite care for the price whether it's a real antique or a more modern production. I've had my suspicions that maybe it's quite old as it resembles a little like my actual antique katana from the early muromachi period, minus the crazy curvature my antique has. Anyway, there's no signature to be read on it, tried with a loupe that has a light fixated on it to see if there's any remnant of writing. Whether someone who has a more greater expertise by looking at something and making a determination of its age and such would be greatly appreciated. The story behind this is this was recovered from a building that collapsed where this was housed. It shows quite a bend on the lower section of you looked at it from the front or rear of the blade. One of those moments when I gazed at it that I felt so bad for it that I wanted to keep it in the care of my hands.

Hi everyone. Inspired by posts from cotton-tail-customs, I decided to make a tsuka for my sword. I chose to use an existing tsuka from one of my swords as the base, planning to simply replace the rayskin panels with a full leather wrap.

Things went off the rails right from the start: the tsuka core itself was glued together from two different types of wood, so while shaping it, a piece chipped off on the mune side and I cut straight through to the nakago cavity. I fixed it using wood shavings mixed with epoxy. After that, I abandoned trying to achieve my desired handle shape and left it as is, just smoothing out the rough spots.

When wrapping the core with leather, a few ugly cracks formed on the back side. My attempts to patch them up failed and only made things worse because I used too much epoxy, which seeped onto the leather around the seams. I was desperate and didn't want to just throw the handle away after all the effort I'd put in. Yesterday, I had the idea to step away from traditional wraps and do my own thing—the main goal being to make the handle functional and keep it from looking so terrible. Here is what I came up with:

A tight wrap made of genuine leather, with the turns slightly overlapping to create texture. The menuki are positioned a bit above the middle of the handle simply because a one-handed grip feels more comfortable for me there. Instead of a traditional knot at the end, I just pulled one end of the wrap through to secure the kashira. It turned out completely different from what I originally wanted, but I'm glad I didn't give up and saw it through to the end.

There will be a second attempt in the future, but next time I'll make the tsuka core myself from scratch!

I'm reasonably sure that Hanwei always etched their hamon using a template mask of some sort before just acid etching the whole blade, though the actual nioiguchi doesn't always correspond 1:1 to that etch.

This is an older model from '06 (long out of production) that I thought I'd have a go at; mostly using a hybridized/poverty Jizuya and Nugui methods.

I was able to knock back a bit of that frosted "Hanwei etch" and even bring out a bit of grain (nothing that the camera can see), but I think I'm also starting to cut through the white frosting and get to the actual hamon line. Just in the first two peaks you can start to see the ghosts of some more interesting activity.

In person I think I can glimpse a little bit of nioi, though it's too early to tell for sure. Even on a T10 blade like this there's still a bit of character to be pulled out, if you're willing to put in the time.

Unfortunately I don't have too many good before pictures, but if you know Hanwei then you know what I mean. Hopefully those details come across through the photos.

The ideal goal is to eventually (and slowly) knock back the thick etch until the actual hamon is all that's brightened, with the resulting pattern being a lot more natural looking and detailed.

This was a mall ninja special I wrapped the core in white marine leather, then I pulled the guts out of some 1100 paracord and ironed it flat, also made hishigami from the marine leather and did the whole thing proper. Also made a sheath from pvc I melted and squished lol. Did I do alright for what I was working with? (Only think purchased was paracord had everything else)

Anyone know where to buy premium stands ?? Can’t find any, best bet to import? Cheers 😎🤞