Hand-Forged San Mai Musashi Kobuse Harmony Sword

This sword is absolutly beautiful. I just got it a few hours ago and opened the case and saw absolute perfection. This is my first katana and I would just like to say Trueswords you guys are epic!

I received this sword extermly fast. When I opened it I know feel undeserving of the blade. It was imaculate. I lack the words to describe how beutiful it was. The forge lines were clearly visible, the finish was a mirror that reflected everything crystal clear. When I finally picked up the blade again I was shocked the blade was perfectly balanced to the point were it felt like a feather. just to see how good this blade was I held up a peice of paper and slid it along the blade. It was sliced in half almost instantly. If you buy any sword buy this one. Thank you true swords for this amazing blade

there is only one word to describe this blade, Beautiful.<br />The kissaki has a very defined yokote, and boshi. the hammon is beautful, and the tsuba is very well made. when you handle the blade it feels very substantial. for this price it can't get any better, anything more would cost you over 1300. if you have the money, and the skill, to obtain this blade i highly recommened it.<br /><br />the sword bag that was included was very good, however the cleaning kit was unremarkable. very well stocked, but the oil included is NOT Choji oil, i wont use it, but i will keep the bottle.

Truly a magnificent value. And yes I realize I am saying that about a sword that costs $350. <br />  <br /> First impressions are that Musashi nailed the main details, are all very nice. The tsuba is thick, well made and very pleasing to the eye, I particularly enjoy the flower cutout and the raised and polished floral motifs, The fuchi and kashira are also very nice, the flower on the kashira is another elegant and well executed touch. the tsuka has a very tight wrap with a cord that feels like it's of a better quality than the cotton Ito on the 2 less expensive katana I ordered, The wrap has nice even diamonds. The ray skin same is a nice ivory color with fine evenly sized nodules. And all of the fittings are nice and tight. The saya is real wood but a fairly plain looking gloss black finish, it has a nice sageo (cord wrap) that uses a thicker and higher quality cord than the other swords I ordered. And the sword bag that it came with is really magnificent, it's just beautiful to look at. The wooden display box and sword maintenance kit are a couple more nice touches. <br /><br /> The blade is really the showpiece on this sword, it has been made in the traditional Kobuse folding and lamination process as detailed on the description page and to find that on a sword this price is amazing. It's a very nicely shaped blade with an attractive taper and curve, solid thick and heavy, with no bo-hi, (grooves) the folding process has produced a very subtle hada (grain pattern) that is most easily viewed along the activity line of the hamon. The hamon has a somewhat turbulent wave pattern and really stands out on the well polished blade, the kissaki or point is very well formed and has a clear yokote line, it also has a nice boshi. It is very straight and looking down the polish there is not a hint of waviness along the length of the blade.<br /><br />There are only 2 minor complaints I could make about this sword, the first is that the same wrap on the tsuka is not a full wrap, which makes it more likely that with heavy use the ito will shift around a bit, and the second is that seppa (spacers) are a notch below the rest of the fittings. And those are really minor issues on a sword this nice. I can enthusiastically say I give the Harmony a 5/5. <br />   <br /> I also have to say that I would rate Trueswords.com (http://Trueswords.com/) a 5/5 for the great customer service they have given me, the first sword I ordered came with some minor issues, they promptly cross shipped me another sword that came in great condition, and even sent me a return shipping label. Their shipping has been very prompt on all of the things I ordered and they have been very communicative in emails throughout the entire process. I thoroughly recommend that if you are looking to purchase a sword you look here first.

Oh where to start?<br /><br />First of all, this is by far the most expensive piece I've bought here at True Swords. Is it worth it? Yes. I waited a while after I got the sword to let the novelty of getting the sword wear off and give it a fair and honest review.<br /><br />When I opened the package I was greeted with this oversized box wooden box. It was smooth and sturdy. Great for storage and display.<br /><br />I opened it and noticed one thing. The sword bag was black. Now, I was expecting it to be blue like the one in the picture but this one wasn't. Is that a bad thing? Not at all. I really enjoy the color on it and how it compares to the rest of the designs on the bag. If the color is a big thing for you then I would suggest contacting True Swords and making sure it's what you want. <br /><br />Next was the sword itself. When I opened the bag and retrieved the sword the first thing I noticed was how light it was compared to my other ones. I thought that maybe the scabbard was made of a lighter material. It's a scabbard, nothing special to it. Just like any other hardwood scabbard with a piano finish out there.<br /><br />When I pulled the blade out I was confused at what I saw. The blade was wrapped in plastic. It was the first time I've ever seen that but I'm glad it came that way. Once I pulled the plastic off I noticed that the blade was really oily (like REALLY OILY to protect it from rust during storage) and the wrap was preventing the inside of the scabbard from getting dirty. I liked that. One thing that's a problem is pulling the sword out and noticing more oil on the blade than when you put it in, this fixed that.<br /><br />The actual sword itself was really light. The Manganese is lighter than I expected, this is by far the lightest sword I own now (Which isn't a bad thing).<br /><br />Enough of the big things, lets get into the details of the sword. Lets start with the blade itself. Folded steel yields beautiful layers visible to the eye. The layers on this sword (Or at least mine) are very hard to see. It's most noticeable on the Kissaki (Point of blade) and even then you have to look close. This I believe is due to the fact that the blade is well polished, and I mean very well polished. Not something you see often in the $400 and under price range. It more noticeable on the Kissaki because it's less polished and it stands out a little bit more.<br /><br />This is getting kinda long so lets finish it up with one tiny detail that I didn't like. The guard itself. I like the design and the way it looks but mine seems to have had a little bit of trouble in the making. There seems to be a line across it where the metal seems to not have properly joined (At least on the surface). Barely noticeable since it's on the underside of it but it's still there.<br /><br />Also, the "Real ray skin wrapped grip" that is advertised isn't really "Wrapped". To me wrapped means fully going around the grip. This is not so for this sword (Or at least mine). Instead I got something common with a lot of swords and that's panels. 2 pieces of ray skin glued to each side. Again, this is not a big deal, many swords are done like this nowadays to cut back on costs. Just a small thing I thought needed to be brought out there.<br /><br />Overall this swords gets a 4.1/5. It's beautiful, it's light, it's sturdy. The fittings on it aren't the cheap ones that many people use. It's a great buy for the price and definitely worth it. Whether it's used for display or light cutting practices this definitely isn't a bad sword to have around.