Hello,
I am offering my Paper Crane Katana from Hanwei for sale. It was purchased by me in 2015, used exclusively for decoration and oiled regularly. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Below is some general information about the sword.
The Paper Crane Katana is without doubt the highest quality level of Hanweis swordsmithing currently available.
The blade is forged from Hanwei's own Tamahagane steel and the fittings reflect the atmosphere of Japanese theatre. The katana's name comes from the art of paper folding (origami), and the paper cranes depicted adorn the distinctive tsuba as well as the fuchi and kashira, which feature high-quality nanako (dot-stitch backgrounds).
The menuki show mime masks, which are used equally in Japanese and Western theatre.
The saya houses a kozuka, which is decorated with musical instruments from the theatre.
The origami theme is also applied to the extraordinary, hand-woven silk sageo, which is the result of many hours of skilful work on the loom.
Tamahagane steel is produced by building and firing a traditional Japanese steel melting furnace, the Tatara. This charcoal-fuelled furnace produces very pure steel from iron sand.
The resulting steel kera (bloom) can be broken and separated into various pieces with different carbon contents, from which the blade core and the blade sheath are then moulded.
The blade casing is now repeatedly forged and folded to remove slag inclusions and cavities.
It is then forged around the blade core before the resulting piece is forged into a blade, traditionally called cobuse making. Careful heat treatment, shaping and subsequent polishing reveal the hada as well as the white particles of the hamon.
The result of this process is a katana which, with its tasteful appearance, is not
is not only extremely popular with collectors, but also an extremely functional blade, which has a particularly hard edge due to its carbonised sheath and outstanding resistance and shock absorption due to the softer core.
Properties:
Tamahagane steel blade
Outstanding hamon and fine polish
Blade material: Tamahagane steel
Total length: approx. 99.7 cm
Blade length: approx. 71.1 cm
Handle length: approx. 26 cm
Weight: approx. 1042 g
Centre of gravity: approx. 10.3 cm in front of the parry
Blade width at the parry: approx. 3.1 cm
Blade thickness at the parry: approx. 6 mm
Blade thickness at the tip: approx. 4 mm
