Hanwei Paul

Hanwei Katana – Forged or folded?

Im looking to buy the wind and thunder series katana from Paul Chen (about £500), which is hand forged. But obviously the blade wont be as good quality as the folded steel katanas which go for over double the price of what im willing to pay. Just wondering if the hand-forged katanas are still strong and well built, and if they can endure rigorous cutting exercises???

I just took a look and can’t find what TYPE of blade process they used. Since they are not saying a particular process was used, I did see that it’s differentially hardened, leaves me to believe it’s a mono steel (maru) blade. But a lot of reviews say it’s a real nice blade, but HEAVY. I’m including a couple of links to reviews, but my opinion (based on experience and the reviews) is that it is a good blade for tameshigiri and there would be no need for a folded blade. Honestly, as has been mentioned, forged modern steel is sufficient for all your needs as long as the laminating process is considered. There are many methods of laminating
( http://www.geocities.com/alchemyst/laminate.htma ) blades from Maru (1 solid type of steel) to Soshu Katae (7 layers of varying hardness of steel) and the resulting flexibility and edge hardness run the whole spectrum. But once you start asking questions like this…. start adding zeros to the end of the price! JK… there are lots of <$1000 laminated blades out there. Folded Blades are nice, but not necessary any more.

http://nihonzashi.com/shinken_wind_and_thunder.aspx

http://www.sword-buyers-guide.com/katana.html

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