Anyone have the Cold Steel Chisa katana?

[Kevin Geaslin]

I used to have a Paul Chen Practical Katana but sold it on Ebay a few years ago. I was looking for another practical cutter under 200 bucks. I have a Cold Steel push knife, which I love, and really trust their products. I came across the Chisa while surfing Ebay, and at first thought it was a wakizashi or a "ninjato" due to it's size. Any reviews?

[Jason Chambers]

Found these (and more) at the Cold Steel site Kevin.



Now, we have bought a few blades, iaito and shinken, from Cheness.com and have been very pleased with them.

[Brian Owens]

Found these (and more) at the Cold Steel site...

"Double Edge Katana"?

The blade is a copy of a kogarasumaru tachi if I ever saw one.

[Ken-Hawaii]

There are a whole bunch of waza that you simply couldn't perform in MJER with a double-edge katana, Kevin. I strongly suggest you not go that route.

My wife uses the Cold Steel O-Katana for tameshigiri, & it cuts really well. Don't know if it's under $200, though.

One funny: we happened to bring her katana to a meeting of the Japanese Sword Society of Hawaii, & two of our most experienced members (they're shinsa!) were very impressed. They told us it's modeled closely after a Bizen Nihonto, & that it was likely the sharpest katana we will ever see.

[Liam Cognet]

Did you do any waza with the o-katana?

[Ken-Hawaii]

No, she uses her iaito in normal waza practice, Liam. Although we both hold dan in MJER, Sensei doesn't see any reason for us to use shinken in our training sessions.

[Maro]

Strewth - how tall is your wife? I used a DF O-Katana for Tameshigiri and it was large even for me at 6' 1"

[Ken-Hawaii]

Linda's not that tall, Mat, only 5'6" or so, but we both prefer longer blades when we cut. My iaito is a 2-4-5, but my shinken is 2-6-5. We both certainly have to do a good saya-biki when we draw, but no trouble when cutting.

[Maro]

I use a 2.6 Shaku iaito and a 2.6 Shinken. I usually find the Tsuka too long on most 2.5 + blades.

My shinken is custom.

It's hard to find decent production blades over 29 inches with Iaito length Tsuka.

[Ken-Hawaii]

I'm 5'10", Mat, so the 2-4-5 iaito works fine for me. My next iaito will probably be a 2-5-5 or so, & will definitely be custom-made, too.

I tend to prefer a longer tsuka - within reason - as it gives me more swinging "leverage," & keeps the blade from feeling too point-heavy. But I know quite a few other iaidoka who prefer the point-heavy weighting, so I guess it's just a preference. My Sensei doesn't really care how long/short/heavy our iaito are as long as we can perform our waza precisely.

One of my friends is about 6'3" & 300 pounds, & uses a 2-3-5 iaito that looks like a tanto when he swings it. But he passed his shodan exam a few months ago, so I guess the judges didn't die laughing....

[Maro]

I understand. I like to keep my tsuka under 12 inches for 31" + blades,