Traditionally made katana!

When the samurai were around there main for of weaponry was the katana. Katana's today are not made the same as they used to be much anymore. In modern times katana's are often made from factories and are sometimes made by hand but you got to pay a lot more for that. When a katana was made the way when the samurai used them its called the "traditional way" because that was the original way of creating one. Now days there are very few true sword forging (swordsmithing) masters left in the world and it really does take a master to create a katana the right way. These days people will generally make katanas from high carbon steel, but when it comes to the masters in japan they have to create their own kind of steel. this
video right here explains in better detail then i could tell so take a look at this documentary from the history channel

types of metals

when looking at the details of a katana the most important thing to find out is the kind of metal the blade is made of. Lets go from bad to good in this one.
Stainless Steel: The worst kind of metal you could go for when it comes to katana's is stainless steal and i mean it, DO NOT GET THIS STUFF! you never want stainless steel if you want a good sword. It may be stainless this metal is not that strong and you would not want to do any heavy hitting with it. If you want an ok looking display piece then that's fine but when you want a usable sword then stainless steel is junk. The other thing is that most of the time stainless steal swords do not come full tang, yes this stuff is fine for cooking but its not good for battle. It might even break if hit against something hard enough.
Carbon Steel:Now a good metal that the majority of people want is carbon steal! why is this better then stainless steal? Well because it is much much stronger and actually looks nicer, but with all good things in life, it comes at a small price. Carbon steel has a tendency to rust so along with it, you need to clean and oil the sword everytime you use it or if you just leave it on the wall and never touch then once every 2 to 4 weeks. So long term short, its much stronger and looks better

Damascus Steel: a Damascus steel katana is high quality sword. its generally stronger then carbon steel and it looks amazing. the blade literally has a grain to it. when making a sword like this it takes a lot of folds in the steel to give it this elegant wavy look. each line is fold and its like layers of a tree. there are so many and the detail has a very nice sense of beauty to it. Damascus may not need oiling because it does not generally rust a lot but the katana at a bigger price the oil and that is cash! a good carbon steel can be from 60 to 100. A damascus katana starts at nearly 200! It may be more pricy then one would want but trust it is well worth the price. For the one in the image, go to
http://www.trueswords.com and for 4096 folds of steel you get your money's worth. So when it comes to this kind of steel, i would give it 5/5 even though its not the best but it is the best for the average person that has a limited budget.
Tamahagane: Ok so you cannot get any better then this when it comes to the kind of metal and how its made. Other kinds of steel can be machined or factory made besides damascus steel but no, this takes along time to make and a ton of work. I will put up a post on how this is made because of how much effort goes into making these but trust me when i say these are the best of the best. These are made the "traditional way" as in the way it was made before modern technology. These were made for the samurai and were built to last forever. This has so thousands beyond thousands of folds, each sword literally starts out as a block of metal and is pounded down, then folded, then pounded, and the process keeps going till it ends up as a work of brilliance  Only true master sword smiths from japan make these and it really shows in the price being able to reach 30,000 dollars!......you know when you have the some of the best swords around when it cost more then the average car! the whole process is a work of art that can not be replicated or faked. its as authentic as it gets and nothing beats it!

What is Tang? here is how it goes...

One of the major things to look for not just in a katana but in any sword is what kind of "tang" it has. Tang is the metal of the sword that goes into the handle. there are few different types of tang and it will decide what good the sword is. if your looking for a working sword that you would be ready to take into battle with then you want a sword that is "full tang". full tang is when the tang actually goes almost or all the way through the sword. when it comes to a katana there is an easy way to tell if it is full tang or not and that is by looking for "pegs" in the handle. for a katana and many other weapons out there, if it is full tang then it will have pegs inside of the handle and that is when there are little dowel shaped items going through the tang and is visible on the outside of the handle. they come in mainly two different materials and those are metals and bamboo. 90% of the time a full tang katana will have bamboo pegs because people like to keep to tradition. also when your looking for full tang then look for 2 pegs cause that means it is held in place in the higher and lower parts of the handle to keep it secure. there are some rare occasions when the tang will have 3 pegs but that's not a problem cause it still means its nearly impossible for the blade to come flying out of the handle. there are also some half tang katana's when there is only 1 peg because the tang only goes half way into the handle but that is not a very common thing. Also a lot of times when it comes to European swords the tang will actually be the but of handle so you can automatically know its a good sword. the other main thing to look out for is the wall hanger stamp of swords known as "rat tail tang". this is when the tang is literally just a welded on strip of metal on the bottom of the blade that goes to the end of the handle and on the end is just a nut that hass been put on at the end of the handle to keep it in place. these are only meant for display because if you were to swing that sword and that nut is loose then the blade could fly out of the handle and possible injure or even kill someone. There are few cases where even though its rat tail tang it could still be a decent swinger. for example i have a basic saber bought from trueswords.com and it is rat tail tang but it has better construction so its not going fly out and you can actually use it to a certain extent. So when it comes to tang, when you want a battle ready sword then you want full tang but when you want a wall hanger that will be left there and never touched then one could say its fine.

When the Price is Right

Ok so before you even start looking at the information of any katana or sword in general, always look at the price. The way it goes is that in most situations is that the cheaper the product, the lesser quality it will be. when looking for the right price you really need to think of how good you want this sword to be. for a basic, decently made backyard beater its going to be around the price range of 30 to 50 dollars.  Petty muxh anything bellow that price will will be a badly made, poorly constructed wall hanger that can also get you hurt, but will talk about that later. if you want a well made sword then it will be around the range from 60 to 100. for a great quality sword it will be around 200 to 500. and when you want the best of the best then it will be in the 1000 to 5000 range. All these different areas of prices can be seperated by the way the sword is made, the tange, the company, and most importantly the kind of steal it was made from. that along can make the difference between 50 to 500 dollars. most of the time you can tell just by looking at the image of the product whether the product will worth buying or not but when you do, always look at the price cause it will tell if it really is worth it. so before you you buy, make sure that the price is right.