Paul Chen Practical Plus XL Light Katana

[FrozenIpaq]

http://jbaillargeon.googlepages.com/Untitled-1.png


Well I just received my PC at 5:00pm today from UPS (was waiting all day!) and couldn't wait to tear apart the box to see what the was waiting inside, and low and behold - the Paul Chen Practical Plus XL Light katana that I ordered from SOM on Sunday was waiting patiently inside.

Since I do not have a maintenance kit (brother says he "used" his up) I will not be cutting with this blade until I can get one (which won't be for another few weeks :( ). I will however post a review on what I can when I can.

First Impressions:
When I took the sword bag off I was amazed at the clean and simplistic look. The saya has a black speckled finish to it, which is difficult to describe. It's got a basic black finish with black specks on it...that's the best description I can give. The tsuba is your standard sunburst tsuba, which I fell in love with at first sight and wouldn't settle for anything less. It's got a nice cotton tsuka-ito with two mekugis (double-pegged for good security). Most of the fittings are the same as you would find on other PC Practical products, so if you own one then it isn't much different.

The biggest difference from other PC swords however is the blade gemoetry. I know the description described it as "massive blade geometry", but it truely is more massive than I had thought. The width of the blade is huge, much wider than any other katanas I have seen - this gives it excellent competitive cutting ability, or so I'm told. Just looking at the saya in relation to other sayas will show the difference - none of the pictures seem to really show this difference so I'll compare it with my brother's Musashi.

The hamon is well pronounced, almost too pronounced - extremely easy to take visible pictures of it. I'm not sure if it's a fake hamon or not :o (not educated enough in that department yet)

Pictures:
http://jbaillargeon.googlepages.com/Tsuka.jpg
http://jbaillargeon.googlepages.com/Tsuba.jpg
http://jbaillargeon.googlepages.com/Saya.png
http://jbaillargeon.googlepages.com/DSC02073.png
http://jbaillargeon.googlepages.com/DSC02075.jpg
http://jbaillargeon.googlepages.com/BladeWidth.png

[Brian Brazier]

the finish of the saya is usually described as textured, IMO they are allot tougher a finish than the standard piano lacquer. Even though that sword is a great cutter, it is only meant for soft targets, like beach mats pool noodles, and plastic bottles, don't try and cut bamboo, or wood or you will damage the blade, it doesn't have enough Niku (meat) to cut solid objects. I was lucky with mine, I hit the wooden dowel that holds my mats to my stand, the damage I did was minor and doesn't affect the swords cutting ability, if I didn't have good form to begin with I would have probably destroyed the sword

I hope you enjoy your new sword, and please be careful

[FrozenIpaq]

the finish of the saya is usually described as textured, IMO they are allot tougher a finish than the standard piano lacquer. Even though that sword is a great cutter, it is only meant for soft targets, like beach mats pool noodles, and plastic bottles, don't try and cut bamboo, or wood or you will damage the blade, it doesn't have enough Niku (meat) to cut solid objects. I was lucky with mine, I hit the wooden dowel that holds my mats to my stand, the damage I did was minor and doesn't affect the swords cutting ability, if I didn't have good form to begin with I would have probably destroyed the sword

I hope you enjoy your new sword, and please be careful

Thanks for the tip, I don't plan on cutting anything large with this as it is indeed a thinner blade than the standard size blade.

[69NINJA]

The hamon is well pronounced, almost too pronounced - extremely easy to take visible pictures of it. I'm not sure if it's a fake hamon or not :o (not educated enough in that department yet)

You should be relieved to know the hamon is not "fake" just enhanced by a chemical process that I know nothing about and shouldnt pretend I do...:detective::blackeye:
some sort of an acid bath I believe.

the blades are differentially(sp?) tempered at around hrc60/hrc40, give or take. I do know metal-glo and some time can go a long way in bringing out the Actual temperlines.



METAL-GLO: http://www.swordsofmight.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=295 ONE OF SWORDS BEST FRIENDS.


~

[Brian Brazier]

69 Is correct Metal Glow and elbo grease will remove the etched hamon and bring out the true hamon, if you take a look at the pics of the PPKE I am selling you can see what it looks like without the etching

[FrozenIpaq]

Thanks for the information. The definition of a real hamon was difficult for me since it didn't look fake, but it looked like it was definitely treated with something.

I'm uploading some pictures to the first post now, I really wanted to emphasize the difference in size between this and your "standard" katana.

[Jason Moore]

Nice review frozen! I am hoping for a cutting vid! Then you could enter the contest and win about 30 maintenance kits! :celebration:

[Taygrd]

Nice review. Glad to have your contribution here.