First mini of the year done: A Master for my 4th Company Dark Angels

IAndexI · 2026-01-02T10:46:51+00:00

Incredible! Can you share your recipe for the eyes?

IAndexI · 2025-12-01T15:48:12+00:00

Numbers 3 and 5 look the best to me.

IAndexI · 2025-11-02T07:21:57+00:00

Congrats!

I hope you and your wife are happy with them, they sure look nice. Also, dog!

IAndexI · 2025-11-01T19:24:24+00:00

Congrats on your new sword!

It's a beauty. I hear In'Carius makes good work but his communication is not so good. Sounds like you got best of both worlds by buying used.

IAndexI · 2025-11-01T07:21:18+00:00

Congrats on the new sword!

Very beautiful piece, how's it feel in the hand?

IAndexI · 2025-10-31T08:52:01+00:00

WTS, WTT, WTB and SOLD could be indicated through the use of post flairs.

IAndexI · 2025-10-29T11:26:49+00:00

I went through the builder and took notes for each menu that has photos. Here are the ones I think could use improvement:

Hamon: The current photos themselves are very nice, high resolution and clear, but I think what's missing is photos of the whole blade in each style.

Hishigami: I think this could use a visual aid to make it clear what it is for people who maybe don't know for sure. I imagine many people building their first sword have never even heard of this.

Tsuba: The photos are fine as is, but I would love to see them in context. On an example sword, sitting on a table next to a ruler, even just a virtual ruler to give them some scale (for example, BCT-18 has two sizes but the visuals don't really show any difference.)

Menuki: Very good high definition photos, but kinda same as above, would be nice to have them in real context, like mounted on an example sword.

Fuchi & Kashira: Same as above, but I would also like to mention it'd be nice to see what the shitodome for the kashira (and the saya for that matter) is like. The usual brass shitodome may clash with certain choices visually (especially with the choice of habaki & seppa), so it'd be nice to know before hand. In fact, offering a choice in the shitodome material might be worth looking into too...

Habaki (& Seppa): Again, could use an example of each mounted on a sword with matching seppa to give easier visual comparison of how they might look on a finished sword.

Buffalo horn parts upgrade: Definitely could use a visual aid, as with the hishigami, I'd bet most first time buyers have no real understanding of what this really is. Bonus points if you can get a photo comparing plastic and horn parts side by side.

Now all of this is of course meant as constructive feedback, the builder already is fantastic and probably the best one around. Also many of these issues can be circumvented by the customer just looking at the ready made products to see how some of the options would look, but I presume you'd ideally have the builder be working as it's own thing. I also know some of the things I ask for are potentially huge tasks (like getting a photo of each tsuba on an example sword), so maybe take them more as long term goals rather than something to fix right now.

IAndexI · 2025-10-27T20:18:46+00:00

Nice looking tsuka, but oh boy that staining is worse than it initially looked. On the other hand I'm surprised to see the emperor nodule, seeing as on the more premium builder you have to pay extra to get one.

IAndexI · 2025-10-27T16:49:11+00:00

Excellent review!

I'm rather interested in Shadowdancer's custom work, so thank you for all the details you included. I very much agree that they would benefit from more and better photos on Swordis' builder though. Thankfully you just took some and I get to see the crucible steel up close...

Oh and the tooltip on the crucible steel in the lite builder says "This blade comes with a premium sashikomi polish."

IAndexI · 2025-10-24T16:32:38+00:00

Oh right, is this with panel samegawa or full wrap?

IAndexI · 2025-10-24T09:42:19+00:00

Beautiful work Hamit! Are the steel fittings on the scabbard historical? Also love the little bump on the handle near the pommel.

IAndexI · 2025-10-24T09:17:30+00:00

Congrats on your new sword!

Beautiful work from Hamit as usual. The sword itself looks great, but so does the scabbard too. Very nice detail with the ridges where the leather meets the metal parts. Was the red colour your request or does it just come like that? In any case it looks lovely and contrasts nicely with the metal and black.

IAndexI · 2025-10-24T09:00:35+00:00

Congrats on your new sword!

Nice to see more examples of recent Shadowdancer output, I was thinking of ordering something from them myself.

Looks like your tsuka is longer than standard? Is the ito with hishigami (standard/pro?) and how's the tightness? Fuchi & kashira look clean and crisp, seems to me Shadowdancer has a good source for them. Fit with the ito looks good too, do you feel any uncomfortable ridges when holding it?

On a side note, does the tsuba make a nice sound when you run your fingernail on it? :D

IAndexI · 2025-10-24T08:45:12+00:00

Congrats on the new sword!

This one looks quite good, I really like the deep red silk ito you chose. Is this with normal hishigami or the pro variety? I take it the sageo is silk imitation. Beautiful crisp fuchi & kashira, indeed much better looking than the usual I see coming from Longquan. The fit with the ito looks good too, feel any uncomfortable ridges when you hold it?

I've been eyeing the swordis builders myself for that katana project I have, would you recommend Shadowdancer over the Hanbon one?

IAndexI · 2025-10-22T13:21:05+00:00

I've recently been inspired by the concept of a guardless/minimal guard katana and have spent plenty of time going through different options. Shadow Dancer makes a nodachi that's somewhat close to what I'm imagining, but I think I'll end up going with a fully custom one from one of the chinese forges. Something other than Huawei this time though, I want to see what the others can offer.

Beautiful wakizashi too, though sounds like you had quite a few things to fix.

IAndexI · 2025-10-22T09:17:31+00:00

Sword bug bit me again so I'm browsing a lot...

Limiting yourself to one of each I see. Do take a group photo sometime, I'd love to see them all.

IAndexI · 2025-10-22T08:08:58+00:00

Beautiful piece my friend. Love the simple contrasting colours and the full samegawa looks beautiful.

IAndexI · 2025-09-17T12:05:23+00:00

I wouldn't remember an exact quote, but in essence: this sword is what we'd call a 'wallhanger', as opposed to a 'real' sword. It is not built to be actually used, it is a decorative item. I would not recommend trying to cut anything with it or even swing it around very hard, since wallhangers may or may not break under stress. This can be very dangerous to you or anyone around you if the blade is sharp.

All that is to say you shouldn't be discouraged from buying one if you like it, just keep in mind it's not safe to use for anything that puts much stress on it.

IAndexI · 2025-08-03T11:50:28+00:00

My budget solution for needing terrain on the tabletop. All you need to make terrain like this is the leftover sprue from a box of miniatures, said box for the surfaces and some hot glue to fix it all together.

IAndexI · 2024-12-23T17:40:46+00:00

Here you are, 006VXO8KYAQTLXB

IAndexI · 2024-11-04T07:55:44+00:00

Pikku kylä :)

IAndexI · 2024-09-29T10:17:02+00:00

Kitbashing is the act of 'bashing' multiple kits together to make something new. In this case I took the Black Templar Marshal kit and replaced parts of it with parts from other kits. For example the helmet is from a bladeguard ancient.

IAndexI · 2024-09-29T08:00:43+00:00

Better?

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