r/iaido • u/More-Competition-603 • 17d ago

Any recommendations for a real katana (traditionally made)

Looking for a traditionally made katana, i don't care so much about the type of steel as long as it's a quality katana but i would like a budget friendly katana, not a fake one that can be sold for like 30 quid. A proper katana, i wouldn't mind even a name of a company that sells good traditionally made katana's.

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u/doveranddoubt 17d ago

Traditionally made and budget friendly don't really go together, with Japanese swords. You can buy good live blades for a reasonable price, but they are unlikely to be made in a traditional fashion... still good enough for practise, demonstration and/or tameshigiri. Tozando and ninecircles are two that ship shinken to most places...

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u/More-Competition-603 17d ago

Thank you, i appreciate your response, but is it really not possible to find a katana traditionally made yet budget friendly? 😥 i see. I'll look into the companies but what about 1060 carbon steel would that not work traditionally made? For a budget?

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u/Beneficial-Shape-464 Seitokai MJER 17d ago edited 17d ago

Traditionally made from volcanic sand. It's a long road from black sand to a polished sword, all done by hand. You can't change the material or the process and call it traditionally made.

You can get differentially hardened monosteel for a reasonable price.

You can get one of the multi-steel processes with modern steels and differential heat treatment. Heck, you can get a Damascus katana.

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u/More-Competition-603 17d ago

Thanks will help

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u/FoxHead666 17d ago

No, it is not. A traditionally made katana takes a long time to make by hand and they start at around $7000 for just the bare blade. Fittings add another thousand or two.

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u/OceanoNox 17d ago

It really depends. There are shinken made for iai that go around 400 000 yen (but not made to order).

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u/itomagoi 17d ago

A genuine "nihonto" (made in Japan to traditional standards by a licensed sword smith) is considered a work of art. A licensed Japanese sword smith is only permitted to forge a limited number of blades per year. So between the labour intensive nature of producing such a blade and the limited quantity, you're looking at a starting price of mid-high thousands USD for shinsakuto (newly forged swords).

There are bladesmiths that produce swords using the same or similar process, but as they are not in Japan and are not licensed Japanese bladesmiths, their work cannot be called "nihonto", and those blades would be illegal in Japan. But if you want something cheaper and don't mind that it's not actually "Japanese" then there are such producers in the USA and Thailand. I am not in the market for these (I live in Japan hence they would be illegal for me) so I don't have their names at hand but it shouldn't be hard to find them online.

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u/More-Competition-603 17d ago

Honestly i dont mind so much but the process traditionally made