I am thinking about buying a katana to decorate my room. Im in the UK, I can buy a sword of any size aslong as it was made using the tradition handmade methods am I right? (even if it is over 50cm and curved?) Also anyone happen to know any good websites / price guidlines Not sure if I will get many replies on a tech forum but ill just wait and see lol
i wouldn't worry about the legal side of things, all the UK websites i've seen state whether a particular sword is legal in the UK. but yeah the law was amended to include traditional made swords as being exempt. its a stupid law, you can clearly still kill someone with a blade shorter than 50cm, and for some reason the law only applies to curved blades.
of course, its more for public appeasement IIRC they were only banned due to a few high profile attacks involving katanas, and some woman going on a crusade against katanas, because "that is what her son would have wanted" but really at the end of day, if someone is willing to attack another person, there are plenty of things they could use as weapons, i dare say i could go on quite a effective killing spree armed with a Phillips screwdriver.
If you're looking for a quality sword fabricated using traditional methods, you probably won't have much luck at any of the typical sword websites. They almost always carry poor quality replica blades that are made by some factory somewhere. It's the only way they can keep the prices at a reasonable level so that the common man can walk around Renaissance faires pretending to be Jack Sparrow.
The biggest blade I own is just under 12 inches, and it's completely illegal for me to carry it one inch off my property boundary. That is as much useful information as I am going to be able to provide on this subject. I've never looked into katanas or swords, I'm a knife collector only. I only own two legal (to carry in public in the UK) knives, and I rarely carry either. I don't even keep a foldable Stanley knife in my toolbox any more. I've said it many times here on bit-tech before, the UK knife laws are stupidly strict, are a result of one generation of British youth criminals and ruin the day to day use of a - useful - tool for countless sensible people. [edit] Forgot about my USMC knife, which is the biggest I have. 12 inches, not 5!
Yup, love my USMC and also my teeny tiny TDI, but unfortunately both are almost too dangerous to even display in the house
This will help explain the law: http://www.britishblades.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?39-Blades-Britain-amp-the-Law... And here's an area to look at/ask questions on the katana: http://www.britishblades.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?56-Oriental-Historical-amp-Militaria... In general, people are probably more anxious about knives than they need to be. Flick knives, gravity knives and butterfly knives are banned outright, while you cannot carry a blade more than 3" long about your person unless you have good reason.
I have it in a locked cabinet but my display case doesn't lock, so I don't keep it in there. I've been meaning to get a lockable glass display case for my knives and flashlights for ages, but they're incredibly expensive and I don't need or want one enough to spend the money on it.
As illegal as they are, there's a sword shop in leeds that is quite openly sellng curved bladed swords, so you can get them if you so wanted. I beleive his words were 'we get what we get depending on how customs officers are feeling'
The fact that you said 'room' and not 'house' suggests that you live at your parent's home. That also suggests that you probably aren't in a financial position to purchase a handmade Katana made by traditional methods. I would think that even a wakizashi would be pricey for you (Jim Hrisoulas' Tantos start at $1300). What is available at a reasonable price are, while not stamped cheap imitiations, are competition swords made for Tameshigiri (right around $4000). I'm fairly sure you aren't competitive in sword testing, and so they would be illegal in the UK under the current laws. I have to ask here, Why? Why do you want a sword to decorate your room? Why a Katana? It would be one thing if you were studying Iaidō, but it doesn't sound like you are. FWIW, I'm no where near ready to be making swords and even if I were; there are too many liability issues. Please, be very careful here. The swords that you can own in the UK are weapons. Art pieces, yes, but also very dangerous weapons. You have no idea what 3 pounds of razor sharp laminated steel can do once it starts moving. That is what you get for $44.95. There is nothing "practice" about that set of "swords". What I would suggest you do is go to a breaker yard and get yourself a toyota leaf spring (since I know what type of steel it is), build yourself an anvil and forge, and start making your own blades. By the 15th or 16th one you should be up to 12" or 14" bush knives which are legal and not as prone to the internal stresses a laminated and differentially hardened blade is.
I actually own a real Japanese blade (shin gunto, not katana) and believe me-you don't wanna look at what a traditionally made blade costs. Mine is valued well above what I paid for it, and I didn't pay the stamped-steel sword price. I practice kenjutsu, as well as tameshigiri and iaido. Have done so for 13 years. It was an investment (and a fragile one-old folded steel blades won't hold up under a new solid-steel tameshigiri blade) not a purchase and it's not a wall-hanger. According to the certificates with it, it saw use in WWI and was used to kill a few Allied soldiers-to say nothing of its history before it was remounted in shin gunto fittings. The tang is rusted enough I can't make out all of its history, but it's old enough to have been tested on corpses. It's a weapon, designed to be a weapon and be damn good at it. It may be a thing of beauty, yes, but I had a friend (who collects weapons, and knows what he's dealing with) over who dropped a piece of paper on the blade and it cut halfway through the sheet-it's NOT a toy. If you want something awesome to hang in your room, go make your own shortstaff. It's completely legal, has a long history in England (single stick and quarterstaff) and will give you a sense of accomplishment for doing it right. Plus, it won't hurt you nearly as bad if it falls on you.
To give you guys an idea of how dangerous they can be, and how a properly made sword performs in the hands of someone who know how to use it: Those rolled tami mats are wet, giving them the density of a human limb. Notice how some of his strikes are so controlled, the tami stays upright in the position it was before being sliced. Now imagine that on your wall, and your friends pick it up after a few beers. They start whirling it around like in the movies and suddenly their arm is lying on the floor. or yours. Edit: I have nothing but respect for that guy and the man who made his sword (kinda in awe actually). Don't get me wrong, I aim one day to be skilled enough to make one. I just don't think it's the best decoration for your room, right now.
He should stick a length of green bamboo inside those soaked mats. Simulates the bone. That sword can handle it, too. Competition tameshigiri is different from training tameshigiri, though. Those tatami are proper competition style.
