Looks like the most basic practical katana is worth most for what you pay. I like that it has real hamon unlike non differentially hardened mono blades from other manufacturers. Is there better practical swords that you would recommend?
Their QC has really slipped in recent years. I got a lemon of a shobu Zukuri raptor that shouldn't havenleft the forge. Heard of several others who have as well. Was also gifted their Oda Nobunaga model, which for a $600+ katana, was lacking in several areas.
I'm not encouraged to buy anything higher end from them, but I still love my basic old Practical and the Plus has been a decent beater cutter, but the ax-handle had to be reshaped.
Assuming it's pinned and not a rat-tail with a hidden bolt: If it's never been taken apart before it may just be very tight as they tend to get hammered on at the factory. (This will also make the tsuba hard to remove.) They may also put in some glue and shims if the grip isn't well fit. However, sometimes they hammer them on and then drill the pin holes through, leaving a lot of metal "flash" extruded through the grip by the drill bit that acts almost like rivets. (These issues are common on lower end Chinese katana that don't have well-finished tangs.) What I do is tap out the pins and then carefully tap the tsuba with a piece of wood or rubber /nylon mallet until I create just enough space to get a flat screwdriver between the fuchi and tsuba and carefully pry to get it moving. But if you hit the tsuba too much/too hard, you may bend it or worse: split the habaki. If it won't budge, I've had to make the choice between leaving it be or unwrapping, splitting and rebuilding the tsuka. (Sounds like I need to make a video.)
@@michaelrizzo5523 What MooreFishing might be referring to is the probability that his PK (like my own) might predate your version. Your PK appears to have a bit of waisting to the tsuka, the mekugi pin looks to be bamboo(?), and the seppa look to be some kind of brass/alloy metal. My own PK is almost 20 years old and - although the features/design of the blade seem identical - the hilt & fittings are a whole 'nother story... Like you, I was drawn to the simplicity of the plain tsuba - but yours appears to have some tapering around its circumference, whereas mine is a flat disk with a perpendicular edge, and what might be less than a half millimeter chamfer breaking the right-angle egde on each side. The seppa on mine are also a blackened material, and I would wager they've been soldered/braized/welded in place on either side of the tsuba. The fuchi is the same blackened steel (definitely a carbon steel as there are signs of surface rust on it and the tsuba, where sweat from my hand has probably settled), and I'm not convinced that the seppa-tsuba-seppa-fuchi isn't actually four individual pieces fixed together in some manner. The tsuka is.... disappointing (but as you've said, we knew what we were getting when we bought them, right?) It's a parallel piece of wood with what feels like actual corners running along its length. No waisting, no swelling, no real effort to make it comfortable in the hand whatsoever. The "rayskin" panels are plastic, and spliced together in a sawtooth pattern where needed - not a whisper of a fake emperor node anywhere. The wrap (I'm not going to dignify it by using the term ito) is glorified shoelace of about 5mm (approx. 3/8") width, and it buffs up to a nice grimy shine after many years of handling. The menuki are the same copper sakura, which I'm willing to bet are hollow on the underside. But here's where it gets interesting, and is the crux of MooreFishing's question... The mekugi on my PK (and possibly Moore's as well) seems to be the same blackened steel material that the other fittings are made from - only it's the same diameter all the way through - not tapered, and it runs straight through the tsuka, not angled to allow access from both sides. This single pin sits at about 1.5" down from the underside of the tsuba. I've a vague recollection of tales told by collectors 20 years ago, of their attempts at dismantling the hilt in some vain attempt at cleaning the word correctly, etc., but that the nakago wasn't actually the correct shape/design, and that it was indeed gued in with epoxy. Well, it's going on 20 years since I got this thing and I've always had a hankering for modifying/upgrading it to at least some small semblence of accuracy, so I think I'm going to dismantle the hilt, see what's inside, then carve a new tsuka and wrap it with something new and exciting - I'm thinking kangaroo rawhide... I've dabbled with some hazuya stone on the hada of the blade in the past, and it needs some touching up after being left to sit untouched for a few years, so I think I'll do a full makeover thing on it. Would anyone be interested in following along if I were to put up progress vid's on Th'Tube?
