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The anatomy of a *wallhanger* katana -
11-12-2004, 11:31 AM
I decided to take apart one of my stainless steel wallhangers for fun, and as an educational tool for those who may not know the difference (yet).
Anyway, the wallhanger in question looks a LOT like the one in that Home Shopping Network video clip :
I messed up the cheapo handle wrapping, by doing some light sparring with it years ago. Good thing this thing didn't break!
As you can see, the "ito" is merely a twisted strand of material:
"Impossible" is a word that humans use far too often.
- Seven of Nine
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11-12-2004, 11:34 AM
This is what is underneath the wrapping:
That's a pretty ugly looking crack!
"Impossible" is a word that humans use far too often.
- Seven of Nine
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11-12-2004, 11:37 AM
There's a little pommel nut screwed on:
With a few swings of my hammer, I split part of the handle in two:
"Impossible" is a word that humans use far too often.
- Seven of Nine
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11-12-2004, 11:40 AM
I unscrewed the end of the handle (it was screwed on pretty tightly, which was why I destroyed part of the handle), and out slid the rest of the wooden handle and metal separators:
See where the rat-tail tang is welded on?
Another shot of the rat-tail tang:
"Impossible" is a word that humans use far too often.
- Seven of Nine
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11-12-2004, 11:41 AM
"Impossible" is a word that humans use far too often.
- Seven of Nine
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Friendly Forumite
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11-12-2004, 12:50 PM
*waves a big sign that says "Sticky this thread"*
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Bladesmith
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11-12-2004, 12:56 PM
Oh my... You've broken your treasure.... *g* I've taken apart several of these and cut them down and generally made a mess of them (what they were bought for...) I found, interestingly enough, that the weld itself was well done on all of them. That is, it didn't break loose on an impact and would survive a number of full bends without breaking at the weld (just my examples, I'm sure I wouldn't like to have anybody trust these that much... I only mention it because I was surprised about it when I experimented on mine). The tang bends so easily under stress, though, that it will crack the handle on a first hard impact because of the flex... (For the record, my testing was mild and I did it extremely carefully. The end result was known before I started and I actually would strongly recommend nobody does any serious swinging of these... As one *should* be aware that it is really dangerous.... )
Good pics and definitely something that the beginner should be aware of.  (On a side note, I picked up a Dark Magic blade on ebay once. It had broken and only the bottome half of the handle remained. No wonder it broke... a 2 to 3 inch tang and nothing else in there. Worse, it had a plastic sleeve covering the end that was loosely fitted. No way a sword like that could ever be safely handled, even for swinging. And it cost a considerable bit more than the Pakistani made 'ninja swords'.... Worse, it had some written description in magazines of actually being solid enough for use, though not intended for it.... uggghh.... )
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11-12-2004, 01:48 PM
Wow, Jennifer! Thanks for showing this. There are repeated posts about why not to buy these SLOs, and your pics only underline this.
That SLO is a "flying helicopter blade" waiting to happen. 
"Swords Are Fun!" - Auld Dawg
"A Sword For Show, But A Broadaxe For Dough." -
Hagar The Horrible
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11-12-2004, 04:34 PM
I recently took apart the "ninja sword" that was my prized posession when I was 14. The tang was a couple of inches long, at which point it was TACK WELDED to a 7" bolt. The welds were weak enough that I could snap them easily with my hands. I am so lucky I didn't swing it aroung much...
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11-12-2004, 06:24 PM
I used to have a wallhanger identical to the shattering stainless steel one. I took mine apart as well, its a lot similar looking to yours except mine had a one piece tsuka that rattled horribly. The 'same' was just a strip of red ribbon. The tsuka-ito looks about the same as yours. My sword didn't even fit in the "saya" it came all the way. And hey, I have the same tsuba. The kind I am referring to can be seen here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...284823004&rd=1
The scary thing about my rat tail tang is that it wasn't even a uniform round cylinder, it was a misshapen rectangular-like rusty rod that had dips in thickness. The welding to the tang was poor. I was able to break it at the weld spot in half easily when I decided to break the whole thing apart to throw away. Worse yet, the seller advertised it as fully functional, battle ready, and razor sharp. To think that I actually swung that thing around!
Last edited by Choo-Leong Kua; 11-12-2004 at 06:42 PM..
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Bladesmith
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11-12-2004, 07:00 PM
Interesting thing about the ninja type things.... I bought some a number of years ago and then came across some more recent models of the same by accident. Amazing as it may seem, they actually dropped in (I hesitate to use this word in the same topic as these) quality. Who'd a'thunk it? lol
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Settled in Comfortably
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11-12-2004, 09:11 PM
I second the call to sticky this. Destroying these things is pretty much the only good use for them.
There's that term again  |
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11-13-2004, 12:39 PM
This is a great thread to lillustrate what we keep talking about with these things.
Someone somewhere may be saved from a stainless steel missile thanks to you!
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Settled in Comfortably
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11-24-2004, 06:41 PM
I purchased an "official" Highlander sword that was a cheap knock off of this one. http://www.angelic.org/highlander/swords/osod.html it was only about 35$. It rattled badly and I sawed off the handle, as it was no good. I was surprised to find that there was a normal tang, with a mekugi hole, of about 4-5 " with a "rat tail" welded to the end. I ended up gluing a cheap handle on it and am still using it for practice. It has a pretty well made blade for a wall hanger. |
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11-24-2004, 09:04 PM
damn thats just wrong, would it cost them that much more to make a real tang and just epoxy it
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11-25-2004, 12:22 PM
I think we will sticky it or save it for posterity some way. But for now, lets let it "run" a while and get some more attention......
Nice job Jennifer.......
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11-25-2004, 12:56 PM
Hey, I saw that "ito" laced on someone's shoe the other day! Small world 
'I never heard a corpse ask how it got so cold.'
- Richard, "The Lion in Winter"
'Quitters never win, winners never quit, but those who never win AND never quit are idiots.'
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11-25-2004, 02:58 PM
Originally posted by Eric Spitler
Hey, I saw that "ito" laced on someone's shoe the other day! Small world
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lol |
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11-27-2004, 04:36 PM
I always wondered what a wallhanger like that looked like "broken down". |
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11-28-2004, 08:57 AM
Originally posted by Travis I.
I always wondered what a wallhanger like that looked like "broken down".
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Coming soon: a broken down wallhanger wak with a plastic tsuka...
"Impossible" is a word that humans use far too often.
- Seven of Nine
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11-28-2004, 09:50 AM
Originally posted by Jennifer Yabut
Coming soon: a broken down wallhanger wak with a plastic tsuka...
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hahaha, should be interesting |
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The anatomy of a wallhanger wakizashi -
11-29-2004, 12:36 PM
As promised, here are some pics of a disassembled wak.
This is the wak in question, which is pretty similar to most all of the wallhanger kats and waks out there. Plastic tsuka and saya:
"Impossible" is a word that humans use far too often.
- Seven of Nine
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11-29-2004, 12:37 PM
Another pic:
"Impossible" is a word that humans use far too often.
- Seven of Nine
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11-29-2004, 12:48 PM
A closeup of the tsuka:
"Impossible" is a word that humans use far too often.
- Seven of Nine
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11-29-2004, 12:51 PM
"Impossible" is a word that humans use far too often.
- Seven of Nine
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