With that said, here's a look at my collection...
Cavalry Sword
This is the first sword in my collection. It was my dad's and when he died I inherited it. I remember as a kid it was always around the house and my brother and I used to play with it.
I never realized how old it really was! After my dad died I brought it home and did a little internet research to figure out what exactly it was. It turns out that it's a pattern 1864 cavalry sword. Now that doesn't necessarily mean it was made in 1864, but it still is an antique from a time when swords were still a useful piece of military equipment. I won't be doing any test cuts with this one!
Here's a close up of the handle. It has a curved hand guard with a Maltese cross cut out of it and a rubber grip.
Short Katana
This is probably my favorite sword right now. It's kind of my beater sword. I've done a lot of cutting with it, and it's held up pretty well. It's the one that I used in my cutting video. And if you watch the video, You'll see that I wasn't exactly babying this thing.
This is how the handle looked when I first got it. The wrapping looks nice enough, but it was actually pretty lose. It came apart on me when I was hacking at some tree branches. This can be seen in the video. After that I took it apart, tightened it up again, and then wrapped it with tape. It may not look as pretty but it works.
Here's a close up of the blade. The nice pattern is from the different layers of steel that have been fused together.
Samurai Sword
This is my nicest katana. It's full length and has a nice weight to it. I haven't sharpened the blade yet or done any cutting with it. But I am eager to see how it performs.
It's got a nice iron tsuba, and even real ray skin on the handle.
When I first got it (I bought it second hand) the tsuba was pretty loose. I took it apart to inspect it and tighten it up. I know this picture is small but if you click on it you'll see it bigger. Come to think of it, all the pictures I post on my blog are click-able and usually lead to a full size resolution...
And now, the swords that didn't make it...
Brass Katana
I call this one the brass katana because the handle, tsuba and sheath are all made out of brass. Sorry this picture isn't the greatest, but it's the only one I have of it...
This was the first katana that I took apart and sharpened. I never did manage to completely eliminate the looseness in the handle. And cutting with it only made it worse. Then one day I bent the blade trying to cut through a coke bottle. After that I took it apart and used the spacers from it to tighten up my beater sword.
Short Jian
This is a Chinese style straight sword. It's hard to tell from the picture but it actually has very nice details. Real ray skin on the handle and sheath, prominent folding pattern on the blade and it also has a fuller.
I sharpened it up and took it out to do some cutting, it was performing pretty good but I got cocky and bent it trying to cut through a coke bottle. These stupid coke bottles are pretty tough! Anyways I managed to bend it back pretty straight again, but then I did some flex tests on it. -Well actually I abused it. Kind of a shame really, it was a nice sword... I did get it all on film and will probably put the footage in my next cutting video.
So what? You have a question about the pic? Is it my drunken grin? My blue adidas shorts? The dirty dishes in the background? A detail about the sword? Or maybe it's those chickens on my shoulders? Well my chickens is a subject I'll save for a future blog post...
-Peace.
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