Musashi - 1060 Carbon Steel - Clay Tempered Samurai Sword

This specific model of Katana is well known around the internet for being a good sword "for the price". This certainly is not a top quality Japanese blade made with Tamahagane or anything like that. You can only expect so much from a 100$ sword. What makes this "1060 Musashi" blade somewhat famous is the fact that it has the blade quality of many $200-300 swords, making it an excellent bargain. However truly good Katanas cost well over $1000, so set your expectations accordingly. Despite this it's a well built functioning sword perfectly capable of cutting through bamboo, pineapples, and your usual sword practice targets. It's also just strong enough to be used as a defense weapon if the need ever arose. Needless to say, this sword is not a "toy" and should not be used by someone who has not at least had introductory stance training.One benefit of the Musashi 1060 is that it is a well known enough model that there are plenty of videos on Youtube showing off its capabilities and build quality. Simply plug in "Musashi 1060" in the search bar and you get tons of reviews and demonstrations. Watch those first to decide whether or not this Sword is worth your money.On a final note, this sword is indisputably good as a "Babbies first real sword". This is the sort of thing you buy your teenage son who is studying a martial art which involves weapons, and has reached the point in his training where he would benefit from having more than just a bamboo blade. Or buy for yourself if you are getting into sword collecting and would like to have an actual rated CS blade that requires sword-care instead of your usual Stainless-steel "Decorative" swords.

I only had my sword a day but I cut a few bottles and a Ti Leaf plant and it still passes the paper test after that, I believe my blade is slightly bent towards the tip but I didn't check it before hand just removed the plastic filled some jugs and started hacking away at them.got mine from SDN, they gave the real deal came in the musashi box, musashi stamped in the top of the handguard had the certificate of authenticity ect. I specify SDN everywhere in case anyone like me is wondering and didn't see who that provides prime shipping is legit. I live in Hawaii so the prime shipping is a huge deal to me. $7 for fedex on a fricken sword that's over 36", IN a double boxed package I mean, come on, HUGE savings on shipping. I want to try one of the cheaper $40 musashi katana's later and sharpen it and replace the handle. If it's still decent steel I see it being a great bargain. I bought this as a beater/user 1st katana. Read reviews everywhere including sword buyers guides and it came as a recommended brand an had good reviews everywhere so I felt confident. After reading comments on Amazon a few of the gripes were on SELLERS giving unauthentic stuff, THAT was my biggest worry. After getting it and realizing it was legit, I was already satisfied.Only negative on the sword besides the bend in mine "keep in mind I was hacking a small tree with a hard over 1" thick stalk" is the blade is very tight in the sheath making it seem impossible to draw from the waist or any type of 1 hand draw. I saw someone else post this and thought no big deal but it's pretty tight in there for sure. other than that, great sword so far and I really hope it stands up to the abuse I plan to put it through. Its my 1st time swinging a real sword and I must say, I was probably a little disillusioned in how much force it would take to cut flesh and bone, after whacking the bush stalk I think it would take quite a bit of force to decapitate a zombie, while being sharp enough it just takes power/speed of swing I would think still to chop half or a whole head off. I will find out next time I go hunting and bring something back, I clean my own animals so cutting off the head is something I need to do anyway... so far thumbs up and from my single purchase I have no problems buying from SDN again so don't hesitate anyone reading this! I was flying solo so no action pix/vid, here are bottle pix, tree pix and a short vid of the sword after using it to cut the bottles and bush stalk. I'll try to get some action shots this weekend and see if I can add them.[...][...][...][...][...]the ti leaf was one stalk that stood over 6' high so if you're familiar with them, the base was pretty solid/hard and the sword did ok. If not for the sheath being too tight I'd give it a 5 stars for sure. here's the vid of after the beating on it..[...]feel free to watch my shooting vids if you want, I just like to share all my fun moments on FB or forums so I try to take a lot of pix/vids of things.All in all so far I'm happy with the sword and would definitely recommend it to others. Only things I noticed other swords are starting to be rated in 1095 carbon and some have a wider tip so they are stronger from reviews I read online but have not found any from a reputable brand so opted for this. A nice battle ready Odachi or Nodachi are also something I'd like to see/get at some point from a reputable company and I look forward to adding one to my collection or some more powerful sword that can hack harder with a smaller swordsman and have better decapitating ability with less effort. oh, last thing, it's not shaving sharp but mine could pass the paper test as you can see if you watched my link vid of AFTER I did all my testing.

I'm relatively new to handling swords, so bear that in mind! That doesn't entirely invalidate my opinions, but it does mean they're going to be less informed than those of someone with more experience. Now, onto the review.I'll get my only real negative out of the way: the furnishings. They're not *quite* as good-looking as one would hope. That's really to be expected though for the price. They're still quite fanciful, but they lack a bit of the charm one would expect to find on a high-end sword. This, however, is a cheap sword so that's really not a very fair complaint.As for the positives: everything else! It's balanced about where a katana should be (~5" from the tsuba). It is full tang, and I've got no reason to doubt that it's 1060 carbon steel. I put it through a mild stress test of chopping thin branches and hitting filled thick plastic jugs; so far it's endured no scratches or chips, and the blade is still very straight. The saya is really good for the price; I've had swords twice as expensive with scabbards much worse.In conclusion, I've spent much more money on swords that I've liked a lot less. If you want a budget sword you can swing around and cut stuff up with in your back yard, this is a really great option. *Especially* considering the low price point, I would buy from this company again :)