John Lee - Katsumoto Katana (Premium Line)

  

Hand forged Blade in Shinogi-Zukuri-Style with fuller (Bo-Hi).
Blade construction in Hon-Sanmei-Style (see pic)
Wooden handle with real ray skin and silk wrap in Katate-Maki-Style (War-Wrap).
Black glossy lacquered scabbard (Kuroro-Style)
Blade 77 cm, Overall 109,5 cm, Handle length 32 cm.

Premium Line:
In the Premium Line the high-quality swords of John Lee are summarized.
The blade construction with several steels differently hardened cares for optimal balance between solidity and flexibility. For the sharp cutting edge a 1095 Carbon steel is used. It is always differentiated hardened to 60 HRC onthe cutting edge and 40 HRC on the bladeback. This hardness difference is visible on the fine working out polished Hamon-Line.
The elaborate designed decoration are handmade and gives each sword the personal touch. For both the Handle wrap (Ito) and the wrap on the scabbard (Sageo) exquisite silk is used. The end cap (Kojiri), scabbard mouth (Koiguchi) and the eyelet (Kurigata) are made of noble buffalo horn.

Katsumoto Katana:
Hosokawa Katsumoto (1430 - 1473) was a major governor of the Shogun in the 15th century and a key man in japans Ônin-War. He fought with more then 80.000 men in the former capital Kyôto against his father in law Yamana Sôzen. Kyôto was destroyed after 10 years of war and neither one of the two counterparties could claim the victory.

Hand forged in the Hon-Sanmei-Style, one of the most elaborate forging procedures generally. The blade has 3 different tough areas. The cutting edge is made of hard 1095 carbon steel, on the flanks is middle hard 1065 carbon steel and the core is made of softer, low-carbon steel.