Hanwei Miyamoto Daito

[Joe Carr]

Greetings all,

Am looking at the moment to purchase a mid-range Paul Chen katana, and have rather fallen in love with the Musashi Miyamoto Daito. It appears to be a very beautiful blade, but i would like to do some light cutting with it. Recently i read a test review on the PK and Golden Oriele katanas. The Oriele is around the same price range as the Miyamoto, so I assume their performance would be similar. That being said, they reckoned the cutting edge of the Oriele was too brittle (around 61rc or so), which led to some minor chipping.
Has anyone got any experience with the Miyamoto, or other similar Hanwei katanas? I want a good looking blade that isnt afraid to do some work now and then. If anyone has any other suggestions, they'd be appreciated.

Cheers,
Joe

[rich klaas]

To inform you on the Musashi,I have done Tameshigiri with both(katana &waki) with satisfactory results.The swords held up great as far as damage to the blades, no scratching, or chiping with very little stainig.Compared to the BUGEI BAMBOO the Musashi is not equal,i believe due to the sori(curve)difference.None the less still an excellent sword for the price!

[E Yeap]

That report that you mentioned was done in 1999. I think the quality of the blades have improved since then. But of course they are hand made and depend greatly on the skill of the person making the blade.

[Marina Ngo]

I have one. My husband uses it sometimes for kata and light cutting. The one thing is that the handle is a monster at 15 inches. But the sword handles well and cuts. We did away with the leather and changed it to black silk. Re ordered a new handle from lohman and left the handle length as is just for a bit of differences. Personally, I dont like it because of the handle length. My husaband on the other hand likes it. But still prefers a handle much shorter. But hey, its all good.

Marina

[Kmark]

Have you considered saving up even more and going for a Bugei blade? Think about it...a Musashi is around $440+. You're already half-way to a Bugei Samurai, Dragonfly or Crane. Any of those three swords I mentioned are at least three times as good as any Hanwei Musashi and will provide many, many more hours of personal enjoyment. It costs more, but you really do get what you pay for.

Just a thought.

[Karl J]

Have you also considered Last Lengend? After lurking here for a while and doing some research on my own I am more likely than not going to purchase a last legend blade myself, they see, to really stand behind their productno doubt Bugei does the same, I also plan to purchase a Bugei sword in the future as well) But for the money Last Legend has many options that are not usually present on production swords.

-Karl

[Joe Carr]

I just wanted to thank everyone for their help with my question. It's great to have somewhere where i can get information like this with so little difficulty. Stops me from driving my mates mad nattering about swords all day! ( although now i've discovered the Bugei range, i may natter even more!)
Again thanks to all, andtalk to you all soon.
Joe.

[B, Reese]

Originally posted by rich klaas
To inform you on the Musashi,I have done Tameshigiri with both(katana &waki) with satisfactory results.The swords held up great as far as damage to the blades, no scratching, or chiping with very little stainig.Compared to the BUGEI BAMBOO the Musashi is not equal,i believe due to the sori(curve)difference.None the less still an excellent sword for the price!

I have owned one for a while..I have also the tiger, oriole, etc.... I like the dang thing...it is my favorite..and has performed very well..cuts well.

TAO

[Kyle Wolf]

I just bought one off the classifieds here and I can say it handles nicely from what I have used of it. It cuts nicely and gallon jugs don't stand a chace nor do 2-liter bottles escape its wrath. the pervious owner to mine treated it well and I am pretty sure he said it is at least 2 years old. a little scratching up at the kissaki but that is to be expected with tip cutting.

despite saving up for the better models and blades like bugei, what I can say is that if the blades takes a fancy with you and you have the means I say pick one up. if you don't like it, there is almost always some one on the classifeds that is willing to take it off your hands. well, that is my $.02 anyways.

Kyle