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.
Ah’Sver Oh’Zvir –
I bought mine from the SBG, when it had a lower price there, but ultimately it arrived straight from Hanwei, after months of back-order (inventory error, oops!, though same oop! happened before with the KoA).
The polish isn’t perfect on one side of the blade, but it’s an easy fix, and the marking are not deep. Likely caused by the scabbard wood that in the beginning kept the blade in waay too tight, which, I suppose, is better than the other end of the spectrum. It did get better with use and some oiling and waxing of the blade.
The externally scabbard is done amazingly well. The opening is a bit crude, I am thinking to carve out an oval of wood on my own to cap the opening. I expected better from Hanwei, to be honest. Cosmetically — it’s bad, practically — it works fine.
The handle had some deeper grains that I don’t like a whole lot, and the wood came very dry, though I asked Hanwei to put extra layer of oil over the wood, doesn’t seem they cared a bit. I’ve been treating it with cutting board food grain mixture of oil and microwax, and it got much better. Where the wood meets steel — middle of the handle — is also not exactly master-work, but OK enough. I’ve been practicing sword-dancing with this sword and the grip is staying well-attached, I suppose that’s the most important part.
The sword did come sharp, as expected, but to make the edge shine a bit more, and be more surface-even, I’ve been honing the blade with a high-grain sharpening stick. It also made the blade sharper. It is sharpened on the back-side for few inches as well, as it should be. Single thin fuller, though a not-so-thick-back (that is normally to be used for parrying and blocks) — may have not been enough to lighten the blade.
It is supposed to be a light, single-handed saber. I have some “regular length” katana/shinken that are lighter than this shashka. Matter of training, but it is supposed to be lighter.
In the end, I am a bit torn. Yes, the scabbard is great, steel fittings are well-machined, some scratching on the blade, less-than-appealing scabbard opening and not quite a light blade — make me give it 4 stars. Perhaps it’s a bit generous, but it is a higher spectrum of a budget blade, especially when it comes to Hanwei.
The blade can be easily polished, the opening into the scabbard capped, the blade can be more sharpened making the “V” shape of the edge a bit more narrow. So none of the things that are less than ideal and are game-changers.
Out of curiosity I ordered a nearly half-the-price Shashka by Depeeka, to be sharpened in-house, asked to make it extra sharp (to, hopefully, lighten the blade), hopefully to be used more for training, and the more expensive one more for display. Let’s hope Deepeka did a slightly better job at creating the full package for less. Wishful thinking but you never know. Some of my cheapest shinken are some of the better built ones. It’s a bit of a lottery when it comes to swords, even considering $1k+ priced replicas.
If you every would like to discuss or have any questions, feel free to hit me up on:
https://substack.com/@ahsver