Playing Gek has inspired me to buy bokkens and sword replicas online

[Kharille]

Really inspirational stuff.  Revives my interest in the ol' 50's kurosawa movies and all.  And revisiting Wikipedia on the old warlords of that age.

Amazing stuff.

 

[gebhard001]

Yeah I was diving into the Wikis, myself. Changed all the Lord's names to their historical names in my game using Morgh's and made the Samurai outfits a bit stronger so they'd be viable late-game with the cool traditional look. I also been searching for anime with a lot of sword play! Just mowed down Samurai Champloo and some other ones.

 

[Hasegawa_Taizou]

Changed all the Lord's names to their historical names in my game using Morgh's

i heard, after being captured, lords return their old names.

 

[gebhard001]

hasn't happened to me yet. I hope not! Took me like an hour!!

 

[metafa]

Me too, just got a Musashi Ichi Katana !!  Are those in the game btw? All I could find until now were Bizen Katana and Masamune Katana.

 

[Articulo34]

Me too, just got a Musashi Ichi Katana !!  Are those in the game btw? All I could find until now were Bizen Katana and Masamune Katana.

There are three plain ones, Soshu, Yamato, Bizen, Yamashiro, Mino, Masamune and Muramasa.

Same for Tachi, Nodachi, Nagamaki and Wakizashi.

 

[Ichimonji Hidetora]

Me too, just got a Musashi Ichi Katana !! 

They make some decent looking replicas nowadays, when I was young(er) I had to settle for poor quality wall hangers.
Once I got my first antique Nihonto I never looked at replicas the same way again.

Are those in the game btw? All I could find until now were Bizen Katana and Masamune Katana.

No, the replica you got was named after a famous swordsman because it sounds and sells better then "random katana replica # 32-B".
The blades (swords or otherwise) in Gekokujo are named after the Gokaden, these are the 5 main traditions that were named after the provinces were these traditions originated from.
The names of the traditions are:
Yamato-den (from Yamato no kuni).
Yamashiro-den (from Yamashiro no kuni).
Bizen-den (from Bizen no kuni).
Soshu-den (from Sagami no kuni, also known as Shoshu).
Mino-den (from Mino no kuni).

You can Google those names for more information, and if you Google the tradition names for pictures you will see many antique examples.

Furthermore, Masamune was a famous swordsmith, he was considered to be the founder of the Soshu tradition, although his practically forgotten teacher could (and should) take the credit for that.
It's not unusual for replica katana to be named after Masamune because Masamune was such a famous swordsmith, again, a big name sells better then "random katana replica # 32-A".
Muramasa is also a famous swordsmith whose blades you can find in the game, I'm sure there are replica katana named after him as well. (Note: actually, there were 3 generations of Muramasa).

 

[metafa]

Ok awesome, great insight Thanks.

 

[Kharille]

Just bought another one. 

http://www.ryansword.com/high-quality-clay-tempered-abrasive-japanese-samurai-shihozume-wakizashi-sword-ryan797-p-622.html


The last shirasaya I bought I cut my hand accidently grasping the blade.  Glad I still got two hands and ten fingers...

 

[Goutlard]

Just bought another one. 

http://www.ryansword.com/high-quality-clay-tempered-abrasive-japanese-samurai-shihozume-wakizashi-sword-ryan797-p-622.html


The last shirasaya I bought I cut my hand accidently grasping the blade.  Glad I still got two hands and ten fingers...

Be most careful those used to be quite effective and dangerous sidearms ! 
I mean, even knowing and applying most closely the rules of safety practiced in Iaido and Battodo, I had one or two close calls that might have made me cut a bit into my hand.. Especially whilst sheating.

 

[Ichimonji Hidetora]

Just bought another one. 
http://www.ryansword.com/high-quality-clay-tempered-abrasive-japanese-samurai-shihozume-wakizashi-sword-ryan797-p-622.html

It looks like people are still willing to buy double pegged swords, when I first saw one of those I had hoped that this silly fad would pass quickly as customers would demand at least some authenticity for their swords.
Then again, it makes telling a replica sword from an authentic sword very easy, even for people who would otherwise not be able to tell if a sword is authentic or not, so I guess it's a good thing that they're double pegged after all then.

The last shirasaya I bought I cut my hand accidently grasping the blade.

So... how did you manage to do that?

 

[Kharille]

Double pegged?  Better look this up on google. 

Swung the sword, then pulled it back and grasped the blade.  I really need a longer handle.


Years back, in the 90's I managed to swing a heavy wakizashi replica onto my shin.  Fortunately the cut was only, 5mm deep....  and the blade took off an inch of skin, somehow the blade came off sideways and scraped that off.  Glad I still got two legs....

 

[Ichimonji Hidetora]

Double pegged?  Better look this up on google. 

Yeah, it looks like he likes to use two mekugi to pin the tang of the blade into the tsuka, you can clearly see an example of two pegs in the hilt here:
http://www.ryansword.com/hand-forged-maru-clay-tempered-japanese-samurai-nodachi-ninja-sword-ryan853-p-676.html
People first did that in order to sell more swords then their competition, they claimed that two pegs were better then one because if it had only one mekugi and it would snap in half then a blade may come flying out of it's hilt...
Yeah... it's stupid.
Even if a mekugi did snap, the bamboo peg would not end up in two seperate pieces, so the blade could not just come flying out when you swing the sword.
Also, if the tsuka properly fits the tang then it could still require some effort to take the blade out of the hilt because in that case it would not be loose, although it is easier for wakizashi and tanto to take the blade out of the hilt simply because they have a short tang.

So saying that two mekugi are better then one is just as silly as stating that two steering wheels are better then one just in case one of them breaks so the salesman can claim better safety for the cars he's selling

Swung the sword, then pulled it back and grasped the blade.  I really need a longer handle.

Aha, just in case you don't know: blades mounted in a shirasaya are not intended for actual use, the shirasaya is only meant to protect the blade against corrosion.
If a sword is complete, it should include both a shirasaya and a proper koshirae for combat (or ceremonial purposes).
Antique Japanese swords often only have a shirasaya because when the Japanese had to hand over their swords to the Americans after the end of WWII, they often kept the valuable koshirae, and so many of the sword blades got separated from their koshirae, those swords were handed over in their cheap shirasaya.

Anyway, it should be obvious that a sharasaya is not suitable for combat use just by looking at it, it's just a simple wooden hilt for holding the sword, so there is nothing to prevent your hand from slipping.

Years back, in the 90's I managed to swing a heavy wakizashi replica onto my shin.  Fortunately the cut was only, 5mm deep....  and the blade took off an inch of skin, somehow the blade came off sideways and scraped that off.  Glad I still got two legs....

Sounds like you did not hit your leg squarely, that's very lucky because if the blade did hit you properly then the injury could have been much worse, unless it's one of those blunt wallhangers.

 

[Kharille]

I think I got the one handed sword skill of a looter....  drunk. 


I remember the first katana replica I wielded was so harsh on the wrist, after swinging it around my wrists felt really strained.  These days I don't have enough room for that.  But its good to own them. 


Also bought bokkens on another site, Seido

https://www.seidoshop.com/

I was quite surprised to hear that some of the hard woods seemed to resemble organic glass and weren't good for impacts.  According to this site, the best for impacts are red and white oak bokken....

 

[Goutlard]

Anyway, it should be obvious that a sharasaya is not suitable for combat use just by looking at it, it's just a simple wooden hilt for holding the sword, so there is nothing to prevent your hand from slipping.

And in actual combat the lack of a Tsuba would be really.. Really a disadvantage.
I mean, now that I have gotten used to it, many swings I catch end up on the tsuba, if I lacked one with the style I am using, I'd loose all of my fingers too easily.

 

[Ichimonji Hidetora]

Anyway, it should be obvious that a sharasaya is not suitable for combat use just by looking at it, it's just a simple wooden hilt for holding the sword, so there is nothing to prevent your hand from slipping.

And in actual combat the lack of a Tsuba would be really.. Really a disadvantage.
I mean, now that I have gotten used to it, many swings I catch end up on the tsuba, if I lacked one with the style I am using, I'd loose all of my fingers too easily.

Yeah, it's a well known problem for any sword mounted in aikuchi koshirae (a guardless sword or dagger).
In spite of the obvious problems with swords that lack a tsuba, they were still quite popular during the Sengoku jidai, this is no doubt because their owners did not expect to do much if any sword fighting anyway.
So the guardless sword would be a bit more comfortable to wear, and that's also why aikuchi koshirae is most often seen on short blades such as tanto and shoto, as tanto were mostly used when grappling with the enemy, and shoto such as kodachi and koshigatana (now better known as wakizashi) where mostly used for suicide, and only occasionally for combat.

Some examples of Tensho aikuchi koshirae for swords: