Tamahagane steel constructed Japanese swords are impressive, but there are other swords and types that are equally impressive. Just one example, like the Ulfberht is just as much a technical marvel for its time period, yet nobody holds the opinion that they are some sword without peer, which they absolutely were for their time period.
I own many swords, many of them Japanese and Chinese in origin, from WW2 officers made from pretty cheap steel, to full length katana and wakizashi that are several hundred years old. I'm also a member of the Japanese Sword society of Canada, and a friend of mine runs the http://www.nihonto.ca/ company, sourcing Japanese swords and weapons for commercial sale. While the time and techniques put into a modern commissioned Japanese sword constructed by authentic/historical methods, especially the polishing and sharpening, can be appreciated, such a sword really doesn't perform or resist edge damage all that much better than a modern sword in the $1000 range. Blended carbon steel swords these days made with 1095/1060/1045 blended steel that are deferentially hardened, I'd put them up against any priceless Tamahagane constructed sword with a 3 month polish job, in terms of cutting/battle performance and edge damage resistance. That's how good the modern steel and techniques have gotten in punching out blades that perform. Are they as pretty? No, and obviously they hold little historical value or significance, but they work as well as anything ever made.
Considering how many swords companies like Paul Chen and Ronin Katana sell, and how many students like ITTA and other iaido/kenjutsu/tameshigiri schools have, plus the kendo clubs around here, I think the interest in Japanese swords and swordsmanship is at an all time high. My first short story I based on the missing Honjo Masamune in fact, mostly due to the current level of interest in swords in general.
Bustr - you ever do any work with/for James Williams in California?
For cooking blades I've used the same Spyderco set they gave us when my former company used to distribute their knives, I don't think one of them was retail more than $100, and they still sharpen up like they were new. MBS26 stainless steel, nothing special at all.
No I had an agent named Cary Condell out of San Francisco back in the late 80's. He was trying to get the SF museum of fine arts to let me work on the restoration of some of the handles in their collection. I'd reached the point that other collectors didn't know if my re-wraps were sourced from Japan unless he told them. Fame was not paying the bills so I went into the IT industry. Mr. Williams was probably a restoration customer through Condell. Once my work was at that level, he started pushing handle re-wraps. Unless the sword you are re-selling has historic significance or the wrap is of a significant school of work, you get the handle re-wrapped like remodeling your kitchen to resell your home. I spent a lot more hours touching up pieces for resale and doing re-wraps versus new work from scratch.
Most sword students are on a budget including in my school, so I was always being requested to come up with cheap ways to do things. I was told once by several students that they could just use a table saw and a router and didn't need to spend the years I did learning to do everything with traditional tools. There is a set of three chisels for in letting the the two halves of the saya blanks and you can modify western chisels with a propane torch. They were not interested in all that work.
Always wondered if anyone had a custom router bit created that would do a generic blade cross section, especially with a few of the sword web sites I've seen who will supply inexpensive generic saya for Iaido. You still have to ship them your sword, otherwise it takes about 6 hours by hand to shape the blank, rip it by hand, plane the faces, and inlet both sides. Then scrape down high points with a special knife, let alone creating the koiguchi and tuning it to the habaki. Those students didn't know you had to account for the habaki and collar the mouth of the kurigata with horn or even durable plastic. They were not interested in learning how to make a basic copper one. And they decided to use fine sand paper to work down the high spots. Guess they had money to burn on a sword polisher.
