Ryumon Hand Forged Samurai Sword 17-Inch Overall

Ryumon RY-3045 Hand Forged Samurai Sword (Tanto) I purchased this "Tanto" from Amazon. With my promotional discount, and my free Super Saver Shipping discount, I only paid $36.53 for it with shipping. I also consider it to be worth the current list price of $46.53 as well. I put the word "Tanto" in parenthesis, simply because it is not listed as a Tanto, but it surely fits the description, and that's why I purchased it. Upon receiving it, I anticipated it being simply a display piece, but I was actually fairly impressed with its' construction upon inspection. It's total length, when placed within the scabbard is exactly 17". The Handle (Tsuka) Assembly: Appears to be made of solid hard wood, wrapped nicely with real, white ray skin and tightly over-wrapped (tsuka-ito) in the traditional diamond pattern with cotton cord. The pummel (Kashira) of the handle is likely a zinc alloy, but is nicely made with gold eyelets and attached tightly to the handle via the cord wrapping. The handle also contains a nice dragon ornament (menuki) on either side, under the cord wrapping and traditionally offset. I do not know if this is full tang or not, but my suspicions are that it is not, as it only has one peg (mekugi), about an inch and three quarters from the tsuba. The peg appears to be made of hardwood. Never-the-less, it's only a 15.5 inch total length "Tanto" (without the scabbard), thus it really doesn't need the support of a full tang as a true long or short sword would need. The collar (Fuchi ) between the handle and guard is nicely adorned in traditional markings and seems to also be made of zinc alloy. Note: "Full Tang" simply means that the handle has a core of solid steel that is the full length of the handle and is usually formed from the same piece of steel as the blade. This gives a knife or sword maximum support, strength and durability. The Guard (Tsuba) Assembly: The guard is a zinc alloy, and contains a rather nice depiction of a dragon with its' tail on the side of the blade, and its' head on the side of the handle. Though the guard is simply a zinc alloy, it is quite thick, thus fairly strong. The guard is also quite tightly mounted, thus does not move around at all (some cheap models do). With regular use, you might find things starting to loosen up in time. The wedge shaped metal collar (habaki) between the tsuba and blade appears to be made of real, quality brass. The spacer (seppa) between the habaki and tsuba also appears to be brass and of good quality and has a "gear-tooth" appearance. The Blade: The 1 inch blade is carbon Damascus steel and appears to be of good quality. It also contains the folded lines throughout the blade and on both sides (lots of collectors are not fans of this design). It is only semi-sharp out of the box, but could easily be honed to a razor sharp edge. The blade itself is 8 and 7/8 inches long, not including the habaki. Since these are "hand made" (likely with a hammering machine), the specifications will likely be slightly different from piece to piece. The blade contains a nice "blood groove" running 7 and 1/4 inches from the habaki. This grove makes the blade look rather aggressive in my opinion and is a nice addition to the blade. The blade is a 1/4 inch thick at the habaki and gradually narrows as it approaches the needle sharp tip. Obviously, the cutting edge is the same thickness from the habaki to the tip. The Scabbard (Saya) Assembly: Is very light weight, thus likely not a high quality wood. However, it is nicely made to fit the "Tanto" quite tightly, and does not allow the "Tanto" to fall out when held inverted. You must pull with a good deal of force to remove the "Tanto" from the scabbard. The "knob" (Kuri-kata) on the side of the scabbard (for attaching the cord) is adorned with traditional accents (usually gold in modern reproductions). Though these accents are likely not real gold, they still look quite nice against the glossy black lacquer finish of the scabbard. The scabbard also contains the traditional cord (Sageo) used to tie the "Tanto" to ones waist or shoulder... Though I doubt it's long enough to actually use, it still looks quite nice when simply left tied to the scabbard. The Storage/Display Box: The box is made of rather cheap wood (feels almost like balsa or cheap pine), and is lined with what looks like imitation yellow silk atop a Styrofoam cushion liner. All this is laid within the box to give it a very nice custom fit for the "Tanto" and scabbard. The storage box and lid are "box-jointed" together at the corners and appears to be strong enough to well serve its' purpose of a storage/display container. The only drawback that I can see, and it's really just a personal preference, is that it would be nice if it included a cleaning/care kit as well as a small sharpening stone (as some other models do). All in all, I highly recommend this quality "Tanto" for both display and practice. Though it is of good quality, I would not recommend it for regular, or survival use. As with all my reviews, the above is only my opinion or observation of an item that I own or have tested. Consider that it is possible that I may have either purchased/tested a faulty unit or an exceptionally good one. Your experience may differ from mine, better or worse. Paying attention to the up or down trend from several reviewers will help you make an educated decision on whether or not the item is for you. Best of Luck!!

I rate this product 3 stars not because it is not worth the amount of money paid for it. But because it is overall a tad cheap on fittings. Ryumon has some good functional blades(at times) with cheap fittings. As far as I can tell, it has an authentic hamon, but with possible acid etching over it, to ad the aparently desirable "damascus effect". It looks realistic, but is not as subtle as the pictures on here make it seem. I also want to point out that it is not actually known what traditional Damascus steel was made of. The tsuka is wrapped tightly albeit a bit sloppily with the usual shoe lace, however as far as I can tell it is real ray skin underneath it. The tsuba is indeed a zinc alloy however the blade length, as another reviewer had said, is 2 inches shorter than advertised. I believe the blade is carbon steel though, and was actually folded as well. I pretty much invested the $46 for just the blade and saya, with the intent of re fitting it(The handle is slightly loose as well). The saya is a darker red than in the picture as well.

I really like this blade because it looks good, feels good, good price. The guard is oversized for a blade of this length (which was a selling point for me, it's ahistorical in a way I like without getting too weird. The blade should have some curve and doesn't, but this wasn't a major downside to me. Biggest problem is the scabbard is a little lose, but that's fixable at home. If you are looking for very historical, keep going, but if you like the way this looks, the quality seems good.

Came a few days later than expected but can.t complain, nice blade.

I purchased a Ryumon Wakizashi that I was very pleased with, so I was somewhat excited awaiting the arrival of this product. I was initially disappointed to report that this item did not live up to my anticipation and expectations. First the pros: It is a beautiful piece. The blade appears to be high quality Damascus steel, although there is no documentation supporting this, but it is a gorgeous blade with countless folds, and comes reasonably sharp (and was readily brought to razor sharpness with minimal effort). It comes well-oiled, too. The Tsuka and Tsuba appear minimally aesthetically pleasing. It is a perfect weight and size for combat with a large knife, and has great balance. The cons are striking, for me at least, however. It is advertised as 17 inches in total length, but it's blade is 9.5 inches in length, and the Tsuka/Tsuba assembly is 5.25 inches in length, for a total length of 14.75 inches: a full 2.25 inches shorter than advertised. That's a pretty big error when dealing with an object of this size, in my opinion: as it is a discrepancy well over 10% the advertised size. The larger issue to me, however, is that the blade was a little loose. Bottom line: it is a gorgeous tanto. It is a relatively low price. It appears largely combat sufficient, but I do feel somewhat cheated out of my 2 inches, and a loose blade is never acceptable to me, which is why it only gets 3 stars from me. I'm going to return it, so if the replacement is not loose, I'll likely edit my review, and upgrade the rating to 4 stars. Update: My replacement was not loose whatsoever, at least upon arrival. Unlike the other, my replacement had a really rough spot on the edge of the blade near the front, but since I was able to smooth and sharpen it within mere minutes, I won't hold it against the product, and upgraded my rating to 4 stars.

A beautiful piece of steel as sculpture. Very pleased with it.

This is a very poor knife, the Metal in mine was full of inclusions and the tang was fractured. This blade is not safe. However I did keep it as that I intend to use it as a prop. I will use it to cut soft cheese, cake, and spread peanut butter. Look elsewhere if you want quality, not very sharp, blade is not formed right for the edge, the little squiggly thing internet samurai love to talk about (hamone) might as well be drawn on with a pencil.

Overall nice quality. Fittings leave something to be desired though.