Bamboo Katana

At Bugei we reach into history to design blades to be used by the student of traditional Japanese Sword Arts. The Bamboo Katana was Bugei's first production sword. All these years later the updated Bamboo Katana with its elegant black fittings and gold bamboo highlights continues to be one of our most popular swords.

Bamboo is a popular theme for Japanese sword mounts as it represents both strength and flexibility, qualities highly prized by the Samurai.

The tsuba (sword guard) is made from a plate of soft copper that is given a hard gloss black coating and then gold highlights are applied to the intricate bamboo. The tsuka (handle) is wrapped in premium black Japanese cotton ito to complement the gloss black saya and glossy black fittings.

Originally made of Manchurian Rail steel, the Bamboo Katana is now made with a superior folded Swedish Powdered steel for added beauty and toughness. The Bamboo is a larger sword with moderate niku ("meat to the blade") creating an excellent sword for more difficult traditional targets.

As always, our swords not only look like high quality swords, they also have quality of design, fit and finish that is not readily visible, like our 10" nakago with two mekugi to insure that the blade stays secure in the tsuka.

The steel of these blades is folded and forged, then clay coated and heated to a red hot state before being quenched in water. This forms a resilient softer steel body (45-48 RC) with an aggressively hard edge (59 RC). This provides exceptional strength and shock resistance with superior edge holding and cutting ability. Careful polishing reveals the hamon and hada showing off the different crystalline structures of the steel. Our swords clearly show the martinsite edge, the pearlite body, and nioi crystalline structure that lights up on the true hamon. Both the tsuka and the saya are hand made for each individual sword. This attention to detail means that you, our customer, get the best that we can provide.

We also offer a tanto with fully matching furniture should you want to form a matching set (daisho). And as is true of all of our swords, each sword is carefully hand inspected for defects in workmanship and functionality before being offered up for sale.

Blade Steel: ASSAB K120c
Hrc Edge: 59
Hrc Back: 45-48