Raptor Series Katana

James Williams of Bugei Trading Company, Paul Chen of Hanwei Forge and CAS Iberia have long discussed the possibility of producing an entry-level cutting sword that would be tough, durable but still affordable. With Bugei's experience in designing both high-end production swords with traditional aesthetics and with James Williams' personal experience as a sword instructor, three designs were created by Paul Chen's Hanwei Forge. James Williams of Bugei Trading Company traveled to China to personally work with Paul Chen in evaluating the blades on various targets including thick tatami rolls as well as yellow bamboo.

The result was durable, tough sword design that is virtually half the price of our competitors' comparable swords.

Each blade is made from through-hardened 5160 steel. To keep costs down the steel is homogeneous 5160 (in other words it is not folded) and there is no hamon. It is less traditional, but the sword was made to be a high performance cutter first and foremost. And while the blades don't have hamon, careful consideration was still given to the overall blade geometry to ensure the blades would be traditionally shaped so they would remain both sharp and durable on targets ranging from soft tatami to more difficult cutting targets.

The photos show James Williams testing a prototype Raptor in China at Paul Chen's Hanwei forge. James and Paul spent a great deal of time discussing various means of fine-tuning each sword for high performance while staying within an affordable retail price structure.

Three different blade shapes were produced to provide a choice for the customer. The first is a "standard" 28 inch shinogi zukuri design with an 11" tsuka. This length combination and shape is one of the most common lengths used by Japanese sword art students. A 29 inch shobu zukuri design was also created with a 13" tsuka for those who like the early style "iris leaf" shape of shobu zukuri. And finally, a 28.5 inch Unokubi Zukuri ("cormorant's neck") sword with 13 inch tsuka was created for those who like the more exotic styling of a more complex blade shaping. While the unokubi zukuri shape is less common than other shapes, the choice of the tough, durable through-hardened 5160 steel made the design a good choice for creating an aggressive, fast cutter.

Bugei will ship each Raptor with a complimentary Bugei Wara (a traditional cutting target) so the customer will have a traditional target with which to test their sword. We will also include target preparation and soaking instructions, sword care instructions, cleaning instructions, and detailed plans for building your own stand for tameshigiri using supplies readily available at your local hardware store.

Call us first and Bugei will get you the best price possible. As a matter of fact we won't just limit this to the Raptors. We will get you the best price possible on *ANY* CAS Hanwei sword found in the US! We want to be your source for "All Things Samurai". So we'll do what we have to in order to make that happen!