For me I would stick with the shadow dancer between these two. They can throw on a copper habaki if you ask and with a mono steel blade not sure the slight improvement in polish is worth 400$ too me with the function being similar.

Matt awesome video: great humble approach and perfect job laying everything out to show what the actual difference is between the two. Since you asked for two cents, I’d say while your video and explanation did to me demonstrate that your two swords were different (and that the mini katana one was the “nicer” of the two) as a sword collector who doesn’t specialize in Japanese swords, the differences shown would be very very difficult for me to consider different product lines. I’d have likely chocked it up to variance outside of things like the seppa and habaki!

I feel your filming technique managed to captured the subtle differences in the cleanliness of the lines between the two. I expect that if it was able to be captured that way, the difference in actually observing them in person would be much more noticeable. At least in my experience that's always how these things go.

Thanks for the followup Matt.

@Matthew_Jensen

5 ай бұрын

You bet!

Yes. From what little I know I can see a slight difference between the two katanas. If I had money to burn I'd get the better one. Since I would prefer the Shadow dancer. They both look great. Cool video like always, man.

I love your videos and they also made me feel old…the last katana I picked up was a last legend 3000 series. Great stuff for an old practitioner here and thank you.

@Matthew_Jensen

5 ай бұрын

It it is doing what you need, then why change. Though there are some fun things out there now.

Thanks for the explanation. I made the original post on Reddit where I laid out my suspicion that they might’ve been the same sword. Mini katana has been accused of being a selling swords that can be found much cheaper from Ryansword, RoM, etc and it looked to me that they were reselling a Shadow Dancer for 2x the price (curiously, the SD sword now says it has a copper habaki on their website.) I was also wondering if the differences could simply be the difference in two of the same handmade sword. For example, I have a Hanwei PP XL and PP XL Light, the quality difference between the two is quite noticeable, even tho they are basically the same sword from the same forge. I could buy each again and have the reverse happen. The fact that the blade geometry is different convinces me that these are two different swords, even if they may be very close cousins at the source.

@joske2838

5 ай бұрын

I agree, (they could either be from the same company or not) but I bought 2x of the same sword from shadow dancer (different model number / fittings) but the same sword with different fittings choice, the first one was slightly lighter blade with more slender tsuka / better in my opinion. & the 2nd i got was a tad more robust / tsuka was wider and habaki / saya wasn't quite as well fit (still oustanding quallity for the low price) but i liked my first one just that bit more. - & had the thought that if the same person makes say 10 swords (handmade) a few might turn out better / some not as as good but the overall quality should be around the same from the same company. but like from hanwei , two of the same models of katana bought / made at different times could surely turn out not quite the same.

@Matthew_Jensen

5 ай бұрын

It was a solid observation and something I should have included in the first video. Glad to hear the video shows the differences clearly enough.

Hope to see you do a review of LK Chen's Tatsu Katana one day.

Yeah don’t own a sword sadly but I watch your videos. And was wondering about a lot of little things seemed like that company that changed their name for reasons haha. And I remembered you saying you hadn’t seen those shitedome on an older dragon sword and noticed same ones on that. But I know parts are shared so who knows. Glad you made the video though.

I do see the differences you say and I trust you on that. I wondered in a similar way as to when people would ask if zsey and dragon sword were made by same people. They both seem like good sword I thought it looked like mini katana farmed it out to them which isn’t a bad thing. They seem to do a lot of little things right. But I defiantly noticed the similarities

I thought you were reviewing really small swords... I was confused. I refused to watch the first installment because I thought you were reviewing those letter opener sized katana that those kids like so much... until I late-night clicked. Now I see. Good review.

@Matthew_Jensen

5 ай бұрын

They did send me some of those. I will probably make a video. I will warn you in advance it will be call the Mini Katana of Mini.Katana.

These are one of the nicest mainline blades I have seen on Jensen's channel. The Ito is neat enough, the fittings are modest, the Blades and the Saya are pretty. If I did get one of these swords -for value sake I would prefer the Shadow Dancer if it had a copper habaki. As is I would take the Kaizen if I had the money.

It would be cool if you made a video reviewing and giving your input on the fidestisan longswords.

@Matthew_Jensen

5 ай бұрын

Working in it. The have pros and cons.

@extremekiwi1311

5 ай бұрын

​@@Matthew_Jensenoh I didn' know you were already ontop of it. Ok I will be looking forward to the video whem you are done with it. Thanks for the reply.

it’s really tricky comparing a forge straight to customer and re seller it’s just kind of how it goes. i’ve seen ryan swords on kult of athena at a double mark up too.

Is the Shadow Dancer a Dotanuki blade (extra Niku maybe)? JKOO/Sinoswords has a great return policy in place.

What a pleasant surprise. Thank you, Matt. I have since discovered that I get a 20% first time buyer discount with Shadow Dancer. Which means I can purchase the 1095 for £260. How they make any money on that I do not know. Much love to you and yours.

@Matthew_Jensen

5 ай бұрын

I have thought about doing that but it seems done to death. Not sure what I could add. I appreciate the suggestion.

@Trickshot72

5 ай бұрын

@@Matthew_Jensen I didn't make one, but thanks all the same.

Should we take another look a cold steel kats? Since they sold and Lynn no longer owns them also they have changed steels from 1050 to 1060... I'd like to see if they've improved...thinking about an okatana...

@joske2838

5 ай бұрын

Cold steel is one of the worst choices for a katana in my opinion - many other better options out there for the price (especially for a basic 1060)

@notanotherswordreviewchann4901

5 ай бұрын

While this has been true in the past, recent reviews and stirrings have them in a new perspective. I'm just wondering if since they've been sold and heard their QC has improved also the quality of steel improved I was wondering if they'd overall improved. Also they are one of the only sellers on Amazon that sells an okatana/nodachi that's of decent quality and Amazon is the only place I can buy swords for financial reasons (no bank account). I'll most likely buy one and find out for myself before anything of validity is offered...

@samthai818

4 ай бұрын

Coldsteel makes great knives, especially their CPM-3V fixed blades and their S35VN folders. I got their Warior Katana and was disappointed with fit and finish, and feel of the heavy blade. Amazon is great! I found out they were selling the Dragon King Summer Lotus for $295 with a 20% discount! So with taxes I picked it up for less than $255. KOA has it for $379.

As nice as copper habaki and seppa are (honestly, brass is bit boring and way overused) I would not pay 400 bucks from them. As for the other differences, I cannot really tell from the video so as it stands now I would probably pick the Shadow Dancer if I was in a market for a new sword and these if were my top choices.

Both lovely swords , BUT! One thing that really annoys me more so than ripples on the blade is a wavy Mune , especially when looking down the blade to see if it’s straight , so to the untrained eye the cheaper blade would be more than sufficient, but you could only see this if you had them in hand rather than looking at pictures , I would say the 1,000 sword should be more like 700 or 750 as it has a better polish

How does the quality of the Kaizen compare to the Dragon King Sea Wave?

@Matthew_Jensen

5 ай бұрын

Kizen has better polish, cleaner lines, and a saya that has a little taper to it. The sea wave has folded steel, bohi, better shape, nicer and more unique fittings. Both have pretty tight ito, the dk is a little tighter and the kizen has a little better shaped diamonds.

@hellboy1976

5 ай бұрын

Thank you! Seems like a pretty close pairing depending on what you want.

Matt, hate to bring this up again, but your microphone / recording SW combo has some major issue - i can't immediately tell what is causing it; your voice has a very strong "popping" to it, it sounds as if a Compressor plug-in was set far too high. If you record some audio and then open it in Audacity, you should see red spikes on all the "P's" and "T's".

@Matthew_Jensen

5 ай бұрын

My wireless mike is poopie. I am doing what I can to make it not sound like trash. A better wireless mic will need to be in the future but at the moment is is not in the budget. Some unexpected stuff came up and things are tight at the moment. When I can, it looks like the Rode wireless go is a good option.

For 2 times the price I would rather go with the Shadow Dancer. Because the difference is minor cosmetic quality. For such a price difference, I would prefer it in pure performance, and an upgrade in steel.