samurai sword

[zim]

Well I'm interested in buying a nice sword and I came across this on ebay.
http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...wpics=1&stab=0
Now, does anyone else think this is a scam or is it really worth buying? The shipping is around $50 so is it worth it?

[Russ]

if he has any there cheap crap

[streetster]

look how wide the top of the blade is... tis gonna be a pretty heavy sword i would have thought :s, plus the guy has 0 feedback.. i personally wouldnt bother, but its entirely up to you

[Moonshade]

I would have to agree with streetster...I think you can find better ones. But it's up to you.

[m2c4u]

take a look here -> www.blades-uk.com

[petrefax]

iirc butuz is the man to speak to about these, he got a really sweet one a few months back

[zim]

petrefax, yeah I saw that thread when I was searching for swords on the forum. He's got a really nice one but that probably costs a lot. I'll check out blades-uk and see if there are any cheaper ones but still good.

[Grey M@a]

it has to be a scam, look at the product details, the items are a couple of quod but the delivery is anything from 40 - 65 quid, do not touch this at all I would say

[MAS]

Yeah, I've seen a lot of these before and I'd steer well clear. For what you're going to pay in shipping and insurance, you could buy one over here.

[Butuz]

Hi.

Do not buy any swords off ebay unless you really know what your doing/looking for. Most ebay swords are either cheap fakes selling for rip off prices, or absoloute rubbish that would fall apart if you picked them up too fast.

www.blades-uk.com is the best site to buy swords from in the uk it is where i buy mine from. They have forums where you can ask sword related questions too.

The katana i bought was a Paul Chen Practical Katana, and it is very good, and a very capable cutter for only £145.

There are three types of steel that a katana will be made out of:

Stainless Steel: Fragile, not suitable for cutting anythying unless you want to risk the blade shattering. Commonly used for what we call "wall hangers" i.e swords for display only. SS swords start at £40 and go up to £150 odd for paticularly nice looking/ film themed models.

Carbon Steel. This is proper steel for making proper what we call "functional" katanas as the japanese have for a thousand years or so. The steel has a small percentage of carbon in it that makes the sword far stronger and less brittle. These swords can be used to cut without danger of them shattering. My Practical Katana is a fine example of a fully functional carbon steel sword. These start at £130 and go up into the thousands.

Spring Steel. This is really the finest grade of steel for sword making and makes the strongest sword with the hardest edge. Commonly found on swords starting at around £500 and going up into the multiple thousands.

So, decide if you want a stainless steel wall hanger, or a carbon steel functional sword, and then buy one off www.blades-uk.com. Easy

Butuz