![]() Howard Clark's swords are top of the line, typically worth over $10,000 when fully mounted and polished. Now the Oni Katana in particular is not made with the same skill, time, and effort that's put into making a Howard Clark bainite sword: Paul Chen's swords are mass produced, which is not to say that they're bad, but they're obviously not on the level of top smiths' works. ![]() ![]() Theoretically speaking, the bainite sword has a tougher structure than tamahagane which the samurai swords were made of. I hope this helps, and I wonder what people have to say about kultofathena. Perhaps even the Paper Crane (which is made from tamahagane) would be worth the money too, because it sells only for $1660 on their site. But I digress: if anyone has actually bought from and says they're reliable, then the bland and unfolded oni blade may be worth the money. I remember I ordered a cold steel katana a while ago (when I hardly new anything about the sword market and sword specifications) and the damn blade was crooked. Also, I prefer to see a product like a sword up front before I buy it. Kult of Athena is selling the oni for under 1100 dollars, and although that is substantially cheaper than the retail price, and cheaper compared to most sword vendors, I don't know if is a reliable and trustworthy site. But in modern times we have metals that are far more 'pure' than the ones in feudal times, so folding is more an aesthetic and more historically accurate way of making the blade - you can say, "wow, I have a folded blade, the way they used to make them back in the day", but given the purity of today's steel, again, it hardly strengthens the blade, if at all. About the folded blades: folding the metal was a process that used to strengthen the blade because of the inconsistencies in the metal back then - folding would destroy and equally distribute any unwanted and weak material in the metal, so by folding the metal and spreading the material equally throughout the blade you wouldn't have a blade that was very strong in one area and very weak in another. If it were at least a bit more polished I would have gone with the Oni (because I really love the fittings and black ray skin too). ![]() To answer the last comment, this bainite blade is NOT folded, and that's one of the reasons I went with the Kami instead: that, and the fact that it's not a very attractive, and rather bland looking blade. Hey, I don't own the blade, but I contemplated buying it a while ago, but settled with the Kami katana. Time, and some demanding tests, will be the only way to know for sure. )īut yeah, the short answer is - no-one really seems to know yet. It is a bit out of my personal price range for a destructive test, but if no-one else does it - well, I might look into it down the track. But the thing with L6 is it isn't just the steel, it is the heat treatment that is critical - and no-one that I know seems to have taken the plunge and bought one to put it through its paces. Howard Clarks L6 blades are tried and tested, and have been around for years. You know, I think I am about as curious as everyone else about this particular sword. hope you answer soon, thanks for everything and keep up the great business. I just want to know if this $1669 oni katana L6/Bainite is also good enough to own and practice with and that is comparable to howard clarks blades. I have also heard of Howard Clark and he makes the best L6 steel blades and they cost around $7000 and more. But I want to know if it's better then the bugei line of katanas (samurai, crane, bamboo, etc.)? Since the bugei line also range in the thousand dollar range. Is it worth the money? I know its a L6/Bainite steel and I heard wonderful stories about the steel. My question now is about the Hanwei Oni Katana. Keep up the good work on helping everyone out. Again, I want to say thank you for answering my previous questions from before.
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