More Nakago Woes

I recently heard back from the manufacturer of my newest blade, which some of you may recall had a broken nakago. I found this upon inspection of the blade. The current nakago ends in a jagged break which is about seven and a half inches in length. The manufacturer stated that the normal length on his 33" O-Katana is ten inches. SO, it appears that the blade was damaged when the tsuka was hammered on in the factory. :(

We'll see how it ends and hope for the best, however. So stay tuned for the latest up date.

Foolish Destructive Testing

The problem with putting a video like this on youtube is that it opens you up to tons of criticism. On one hand it is very impressive that Cheness makes a blade that is capable of cutting into a steel barrel. On the other hand, no Japanese style blade was ever designed to cut a steel barrel. The practice of destructive testing is informative, but it is very reckless and people can get easily injured by flying broken blades. I'll be showing a prime example in my nest post so stay tuned!

-Enjoy the video.

Cheness Nakago

I recently inspected the nakago of a recent blade acquisition and I was a little disappointed in what I saw. The nakago appeared to have been damaged in the assembly process and I think the remainder may be embedded in the end of the tsuka. The total length of the nakago is about seven and a half to eight inches and ends in a jagged break. I'm not sure if it's ok for any cutting as the blade is thirty three inches long, which really is disappointing since I really do like the blade. So, what do you think? Is a seven and a half inch nakago acceptable on a thirty three inch blade with a twelve in tsuka? Feel free to share.

-Enjoy