Overview
Our sharpening service will provide a good serviceable edge on the blade. The result is typically “very sharp” with a small secondary bevel and a bit of an “apple seed” profile. The resulting edge is somewhat dependent on the particular blade. Some blades will take and hold sharper edges than others and the thickness of the blade will determine how wide the bevel will need to be. We adjust the angle of the edge to suit the specific blade and attempt to get as close to a bevel-less edge as possible without marring the surface of the blade.
The Sharpening Process
The sharpening service is done with a belt sander. The process involves many passes with sanding belts of various grits. The blades are rested between passes to prevent them from becoming hot and damaging their temper. By default we will sharpen as much of the blade as possible including any false edges if appropriate. If you have a different preference, feel free to make that request in the special instructions at check out. We can sharpen only the last half or third of an edge, for example. Our sword sharpening expert has personally sharpened several thousand swords at this point, so will provide you with a professional service.
What the Service is Not
The resulting edge will be “sword sharp” not razor sharp. Our goal is to provide you with a usable edge for cutting practice that will hold up to some use and not require constant re-sharpening. In other words, we intend to provide you with a serviceable weapon, not a personal grooming implement. The service will not provide a completely bevel-less edge. To create that type of edge will necessarily scratch up the blade surface and we lack the machinery and time to provide a full re-polishing of a blade’s surface. A service of that nature would be significantly more expensive as a great deal more time would be required. We do not offer this type of service at this time.
Disclaimer
We make no guarantee that the resulting edge will meet with your expectations. Every blade is different and some will take and hold a sharper edge than others, due to the blade material, heat treatment or geometry. Some customers can also have incorrect assumptions about sword sharpness and improper expectations as a result. All we can say for sure is that the resulting edge will be sharper than the default edge, in most cases, significantly so. We can not provide any refunds for the service once it has been completed, so consider it to be provided “as is”. That being said, if you are unhappy with the product for any reason, we do still allow you to return the item for a full refund, including the sharpening costs under our normal return policy. This does not apply to special sharpening requests, for example if we sharpen something specially for you that does not normally list that option on our site. The vast majority of our customers are happy with the results of the service, so as long as you keep the above mentioned in mind, we are confident you will be pleased with the results as well.
Kroenen –
Quality Beginner blade This is the first real sword that I’ve ever owned, so I don’t really have a reference point for the overall quality of the blade, but what I can say is this sword is solidly made with no lose fittings and a very solid feel. This sword also looks amazing, it’s hard to overstate just how gorgeous this sword really is. the only negative points I can find so far is that the saya is full of gunk that is almost impossible to clean out and that the blade isn’t particularly sharp. But it wasn’t really advertised as being that sharp, I can also understand why they put the gunk in the saya so I can’t be too mad about that either. Overall I had to stretch pretty hard to find anything wrong with this purchase, I don’t think it’s perfect but it’s a surprisingly solid and functional blade, well made and very VERY pretty. Extremely happy with this purchase!
Doublebad B. –
Mildly functional display Purchased this sword from an un-named e-tailer that inspired me to find KOA ….
Cut one two liter with proverbial baseball swing, blade bent immediately and bottle cut actually.
Moderately sharp, tsuka is too long for tang and tang may shift during medium pace forms and certainly changing directions in cuts.
Rayskin is fake AF, menuki seem to be cast brass, tsuba seems solid, other fittings a bit garish imho.
This ito is synthetic and not horribly durable, saya is plain lacquered wood with no horn fittings, appropriate for price.
Personally, am looking at a hanwei next.
New to katanas, master mall ninja so address me as Master Beatty.
Swinging a cutlass for a decade+, looking to learn basics of handling and caring for Japanese style blades.
The dye will come off the blade, in my limited experience ( owned four Shinwa blades, gifted one ) they are easy to get razor sharp with a free hand ceramic stick. Have two that will shave, haven’t sharpened the “black damuscus” for me this one is mostly to look at. YMMV.
Master Beatty says buy it if you like the looks and understand its limitations. Three stars as we have made much better hang for Buck blade scores.