Cheap Samurai Swords
Over the last few years, with a helping hand from hit movies like Kill Bill, a love and fascination with samurai swords has swept across the entire world – particularly the West. Samurai swords – with their excellent variety of styles – make excellent decorative pieces or collectables. There’s only one problem: real samurai swords are expensive. An alternative then, are cheap samurai swords which offer similar decorative qualities at only a fraction of the price.
What is the difference between cheap samurai swords and expensive ones?
Of course, old samurai swords in good condition – and from the right periods and from particular smiths – tend to be the most expensive because they have history and age, much the same as an old piece of well preserved furniture. New samurai swords can also be very expensive, if they are forged. What makes a samurai sword expensive is the process by which it is made. Cheap samurai swords tend to be cast and made by machinery. Real samurai swords – even today – are hand made by qualified smiths, and are made from folded steel, hammered, shaped, sharpened and decorated entirely by hand. Real samurai swords today are made to the exact same standard as swords of old. In that respect, cheap samurai swords aren’t comparable.
Forged samurai swords also have other qualities noticeable and appreciable by serious collectors such as the color of the steel, the pattern of the edge. Such details are where the beauty and value lie, so for serious collectors only the real deal will pass muster.
Prices for real samurai swords, new and old, generally run upwards of $1,000 and far more.
Cheap samurai swords are a good alternative for the less serious collector, and someone who just wants something that looks quite good without breaking their bank, since they can be gotten for less than $100. Just be warned that cheap samurai swords are cast and do not have the hardness nor edge of a forged blade, so if you plan on cutting into trees or anything similar, you could quite easily shatter the blade – so watch out.