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.
Daab –
“The” samurai sword… In all the HANWEI blades I have been looking many weeks now, I found finally “The” one I really want…. So… See you online during this year as customer…
Krunan –
Drunken Review (has some foul language) This is a review I made for the oni katana be warned it has some foul language – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce-aGh38j8c . This blade was second hand and not bought from KoA but it might be helpful. Basically +100pts for coolness -100pts for durability.
Ordinary Man –
Oni Katana Review (Sept. 2015) Feels great. Looks beautiful. One of the better production Katanas. Has an aspect of “Yugen” to it.
Ordinary Man –
Oni Katana Review part 2 (Sept. 2015) The sword is large and well balanced. It has a “lively” feel to it. It is not top heavy, though it looks like it should be. Iai and double cuts were well executed with this Katana. The balance feels to be a couple inches above the Tsuba.
-Blade-
The Bainite has a unique finish. A mixture of gloss towards the Mune and matte towards the Ha. It also has 3 slightly different shades of steel going on, all which run lengthwise down the blade in a uniformed configuration. The Sori is not to deep and appears to be Torizori (curve with deepest point at the center between Habaki and Kissaki. The Kissaki is an O’Kissaki (large/long tip) and appears to be well shaped despite one thing…, the Yokote is not very pronounced. The blade is a little bit taller than average, creating a very aggressive looking blade. It balances this with having a little less blade thickness. This can make cuts glide through tatami with ease but may strain the blade a little with harder targets.
-Koshirae (fittings)-
The theme is obviously demons. As such, you’ll find them throughout the Koshirae. The Habaki and Seppa are more of a silver color rather than brass with diagonal lines etches in it. The Tsuba is a small round shape that is matte black and is fairly thick. The Fuchi & Kashira are matte black with two silver demon faces on them. The nice thing about the Tsuba is that it doesn’t feel like it will snag on anything. The Tsuka is long but could have benefitted from a waisted shape in my opinion. Perhaps they can implement this on version 2.0. The Ito is nice but could have been allot tighter, not that it was horrible, but they could have done better.
-Saya (scabbard)-
The Saya is very striking because of the lobster tail style near the Koiguchi (Scabbard mouth). It is a deep glossy black throughout.
Edward Haun –
Love this katana 5 stars, balance weight helps cuts, beautifully done.