Review on Full-Size MAKOTO Handmade Musashi Ring Samurai Katana Sword - Sharp & Practical by Bill Kodba

1st the sword I got was from onikiri not Musashi(they are the same company and steel just different name). The sword shown on ebay picture is not from the Daimyo line. That line is their TH 1045 blades, and the picture looks to be one of the DH 1060 ones possibly which have a genuine hamon and is stamped on the habaki as such, the Onikiri brand have a wire brushed fake hamon. So that not what the swords really looks like. It's lame that the picture they provide is misleading, though. Now the onikiri is a little better than Musashi brand and this one cost less then the Musashi so it's all good! The onikiri swords MSRP is 60$ and on sell there 43$Now on to the sword. It came in a nice gift box with a sword bag and Onikiri certificate of authenticity and it was clean and nice looking out of the box. The sword is not really sharp out of the box, it looks like someone start on it but really did not finish the job but the top and bottom part of the blade is sharp. All it needs is to use some 400G 3M sandpaper to finish it and get it real sharp. On sword-buyers-guide.com they have a lot of good info on how to take care of your new sword. There not much I can same about this sword, it's full tang and can be disassembled. The blade of the sword is constructed of 1045 carbon steel with a hamon(Habuchi, The transition zone from soft to hard steel) along the edge of the blade.This sword features a visible kissake on the tip of the blade and Ridge Line dividing kissaki from the rest of the blade. The scabbard of the sword is wooden with a high gloss black lacquer finish. Wrapped around the upper half of the scabbard is a black cotton sageo. The guard of the sword begins with a bronze blade collar (Habaki). The actual guard is blackened steel in the double ring design, the exact same design as the great Musashi. Each side of the guard is secured by a bronze spacer (Seppa). The sword is full tang and secured by two wooden pins in the handle of the sword. The pommel of the sword is a simple blackened steel end cap. This is a very beautiful sword and I think Saeko Busujima from high school of the dead or Miyamoto Musashi would like this sword for it form and that it can be used for zombie combat. Buy this sword if you want to have a sword that you can use for cutting and something that looks cool on your hip. For the cost (this sword remember starts at 60 and I have seen it as high as 80$ on other sites) this sword is the best deal. After sharping i cut a tameshigiri substitute of wet rolled 4 inch thickness newpaper with no core in it and it cut cleanly and that is the same thinckness of a humman arm. If you do try cutting tameshigiri get some practice on something easyer 1st(like 1 inch rolled paper) and learn how to do it right because any katana even the cold steel sword can and will bend or break if you make a bad cut on real or substitute tameshigiri that is too thick or if you add a green bamboo core to approximate bone.