Best place to find/buy good quality Katanas in the UK?

Already own a handforged Kill bill Katana (£90 type) but up close it's a little rough around the edges. this got me wondering if you guys know any UK companies where you can buy decently made Katanas?


I'm not necessarily looking for a kill bill rep, neither am I looking for a £4000 japanese-made one. Maybe something in the middle? I want a couple to display and that hold up under close inspection in terms of quality of craftsmanship.

Looking forward to any advice anyone can give.

I use www.blades-uk.com they are the cheaper end of the scale but I quite like the quality. I have the 2 highlander katana's, the Zorro rapier and the Conan sword.

Fast delivery too.

doppelganger said:

I use www.blades-uk.com

Click to expand...

I bought a couple of katanas from them in the past. The blades were nice hand forged ones but the fittings were really cheap and nasty, so I swapped all the hilt components out for nicer (and some antique) ones.

Try Kult of Athena, they have a great selection and good prices to boot. They have a pretty good selection of katanas from a wide range of manufacturers with prices ranging from cheap stainless bladed wall hangers to high end ones with high carbon steel, differentially hardened steel blades.

http://www.kultofathena.com/japanese.asp

i'll put my 2 cents in for blades-uk.com too - i went with the practical plus range - and i think they look great - fully dismantleable (never done it though) differentially tempered blades - for the money hard to beat

I may sell you a antique one, Muromachi period blade, good fittings, simple design tsuba, price about 1000£, historical piece, no movie replica.
There are actually no decent movie replicas katana in low price range, even in high price range.
Actually, with a real blade, I mean, clay tempered folded steel, only irishamericanlad is offering interesting stuff, he has license for several highlander swords.
No accurate kill bill except mine and the one made by JBlackey, even it's different design, but none for sale.
Except that, just, nothing, either quality or accurate, nothing.
You can find cheap, less or more accurate replica, cheap kill bill's are a good example, you will find lots of anime and manga, heroes, zatoichi, highlander, and some other stuff, you can also find marto highlander, quality is low, but it's really accurate, because they made the serie swords, and movie sword hero had similar blades.
If you are looking for a non replica katana, it's far easier, you have to select "folded steel clay tempered" swords, as simple design as possible, avoiding relief carved guards or weird colored blades, sheats, handles and fittings, the simpliest design are mostly made from steel (guards and fittings), avoid the grooves on blade too.If it's no clay temper, you don't buy.
If you want a duncan marto katana replica, I may sell one, I have a vintage one from the 90's and want to spare, low price.I can also sell scree used blades, from a steven seagall movie, funny, hero and stunt blades together.