Shinken:

I have teamed up with german masterswordsmith Stefan Roth to develop a Japanese style sword meeting our requirements for a modern training tool for Japanese swordsmanship. What we work on to provide, right now, is a sword that keeps the decisive priciples of the japanese sword, but also incorporates the experience and knowledge of contemporary smithing and metallurgy. 

We have done several interviews with Japanese master-swordsmen on the ideal properties of blades for modern and traditional applications. Stefan and I have also trained japanese swordarts for over two decades, so that we can combine our theoretical and practical experience with traditional and modern swords to come up with a newly develloped shinken based on tradition.

Currently we are forging some prototype blades that will undergo a seies of intense tests, like tameshigiri against different material (not only mats!). A detailed dokumentation will follow, soon.

The swords will be exclusively available through Katsujinken-Ya!

Tameshigiri test of shinken:

Here are some photos taken of a tameshigiri test I did on August 19th 2006. It was to test a Chinese shinken that I got from one supplier. It was robust and performed well against a freshly pressed and almost half a ton heavey bale of straw from the current harvest. The bale was chosen to provide some decent cutting material, rater than the often used light goza makiwara that one can prinzipally cut through with a kitchen-knife. Here are the results of something different:

1. Dotangiri

I quiet like the result of the strait Dotangiri. The cut went deep ito the bale slightly extending over the monouchi area of the sword, going down to almost reaching the middle.

Caution!!!!
I have been training japanese swordsmanship for over 20 years. This kind of sword-test schould definately not be imitated by someone unexperienced or without professional supervision by a qualified instructor!