Epitomizing the art of the Samurai sword maker, the Shinto Katana is hand crafted at the Dalian (China) forge of Chen Chao - po, the widely respected authority on the art of oriental sword making. Displaying features usually found only on original Samurai swords, these pieces provide a unique opportunity to own a katana of a quality usually found only in private collections, museums, or in the Orient.
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The guard is a finely-rendered dragon, coiled protectively around the blade. The dragon motif is also found on the hilt ornaments, under the handle wrap and the front and rear pommels. The fittings are of fine bronze with subtle gold accents. The grip is genuine ray skin-covered wood, attached securely to the tang with bamboo pegs. The grip wrapping is Japanese cotton cord wrapped very tightly in the traditional pattern to display the ray skin and the menuki. |
| Forged in the maru-gitae style, the blade is tempered using the traditional clay process dating from 700 AD, producing a hard cutting edge ( KnifeCenter note: there is some variation in the hardness of various Katanas) while maintaining the body of the blade at a lower hardness for resilience and shock absorption. The blade's temper line is one of the most beautiful and important features of the Japanese sword; many "temper lines" are simply etched or ground into a blade and have no functional value but a true temper line indicates that the edge has been independently hardened in the traditional manner. "There are subtleties and nuances in the Shinto Katana's real temper lines that are a result of traditional-style clay treatment and differential heat treating. Many replica swords made in Spain or Taiwan are either acid etches only or machine ground (which are usually shaped like a sine wave). Those subtleties and variances in real temper lines are harder for acid or machine etches to mimic. Though not "mirrored" perfectly on either side like some replica stainless steel swords (real clay treated swords have variances - even ancient smiths occasionally used different styles of hamon) the Shinto katana's hardened edge (or "yakiba") is hardened on either side through the blade." Some ancient smiths purposely made different hamon patterns on either side of their katana.) |  |
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Other authentic details of the Shinto Katana include a traditional lacquer finished wood scabbard, with a buffalo horn end cap, throat cap, and wrapping cord eyelet. A dragon-embroidered fine-cloth bag and a traditional maintenance kit are included, the latter containing blade oil, rice papers, oiling cloth, a powder ball for blade polishing and a brass awl and hammer. |
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