New sword in the armory

Background: Every Saturday, the Independent Film Channel shows a samurai movie, and for a few months they were featuring Zatoichi movies. The sword gods struck me with an undeniable craving - I HAD to have a Zatoichi sword!

But the commonly available Zatoichis are, for the most part, crap. They either don't look right, are built for wallhanging, or both. But if I refit the KC Korean, I would have a good blade and if it didn't look quite right, I'd have only myself to blame.

So in late May I contacted Cecil at KC. He's willing to custom build almost anything based on his production blades (Think of the mechanic in Mad Max: Speed's just a question of money - how fast do you want to go?). I wanted a removable tsuka (stock Koreans are pinned and epoxied), and preferably with a prominent hamon. After a few emails back and forth, discussing prices and options, I more or less gave up on the hamon. The stock Korean is differentially tempered, but the hamon is not dramatic and difficult to see without a polish and etch.

At this point, Cecil revealed that KC was revamping the Korean line with blackened iron fittings, and he would be willing to sell me the photographic prototype at a good price, if I could wait a few weeks while they arranged photography for the catalog and website. Since my main objection to the Korean in the past was the bright brass fittings, this sounded perfect. Deal struck and deposit made.

Fast-forward to Wednesday night. I came home from a hard day down in the pixel mine to find that UPS had dropped off my new "custom" KC Korean!

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The "new model" Korean will be available and appear on the KC website sometime in September, but it seems to be the same as the old Korean, but with iron fittings. The tsuka wrapped with brown cord, and the furniture is plain, unembellished blackened/browned iron.

The habaki is also iron, but has a brushed finish.

The tang extends well into the tsuka, and is held in place with one pin. The fit is very tight. The tsuka core and saya are a hardwood called "lanote," which Cecil describes as being native to the Philippines and Indonesia, but is seldom exported. The saya is satin finished on a buffer, with black iron fittings. It is very light, and has a good firm grip on the habaki.

The blade itself is flat ground with (to my untrained eye) an unusual, diamond cross-section:

It will be interesting to see how it cuts, but that will have to wait a few weeks. My only real "complaint" - and I use that term loosely - with the sword as shipped is that the tsuba rattles a bit. Cecil assures me that this is not an issue with his usual custom or production pieces, as the tsuka and fittings are firmly epoxied. In this case, it IS a prototype, intended only for photography and my tsukamaki experiments. I can solve the rattle with a seppa, but I'll probably have to make may own, due to the blade cross-section.

Kissaki, shot with flash:


Kissaki, shot without flash:

Since I first ordered it, I've reconsidered my Zatoichi plans. I may still make a Zatoichi setup I can use with the blade, but now I'm thinking about an "Americanized"/"tactical" setup. Don't ask for details, I'm really not sure yet.