I have wanted this sword since the moment I first saw it, in fact it was going to be my first sword but I was like, almost 80 quid short and so it made more sense to go for the Hanwei Practical. I was over the moon when I got my Hanwei and I still have it, in fact I will never be selling it because I am so attached to it.... BUT
This sword by Huawei is an awesome oddity. Traditionally they only really existed as tanto or wakizashi and often they were suriage, which means they were cut down from larger swords or polearms and repurposed as other weapons. To see them in katana lengths was practically unheard of. Modern forges though seized a glorious opportunity to recreate this historical unicorn of a sword.
Not to say that there are no downsides to this particular build. The sageo sucks. its just stretchy shoelace, like so many katana nowadays. I will replace this with a decent quality silk sageo. Its a gorgeous sword, I hate to have it let itself down with a silly detail like this.
The fittings are understated, which I appreciate. I hate gaudy fittings. the almost plain black kashira for instance is perfect. The fuchi is the same.
The tsukamaki is pleasantly satisfying. Like every production tsuka, its not perfect, but it is one of the best I have seen on a production sword, only rivalled by my TSW Batto, the review for which is here
The horn kashira adds a touch of class to an already very pretty saya. Its not bulky like some are, its made of a decent wood, not anything weird like oak or a resinous wood.
And now, on to the actual blade. :)
The geometry of Kanmuri Otoshi Zukuri is best described to other sword people as such;
The blade starts off with the stereotypical shinogi zukuri geometry, sometimes with bohi, sometimes with bohi and sohi, sometimes with nothing but a flat shinogi-ji.
Partway up the blade, the shinogi-ji is relieved, or another way of putting it is the back of the blade comes to a false edge. At the kissaki, the blade looks very much like shobu zukuri with the shinogi coming straight to the very tip of the kissaki.
This very elegant geometry when you look at it, explains visually why it was used for polearms.
For those of you who aren't sword people, please, simply enjoy the pictures.
Post a Comment