CHEAP vs EXPENSIVE katana, Which one is better?

As someone who has worked with 2x4's for over 10 years of my life I can tell you just by the color difference of that second 2x4 that you cut with the thousand dollar katana with, that 2x4 is much harder than the lighter fresh wood colored one. It was a difference in wood, not blade there. That grey-ish discoloration on the second 2x4 is sun hardened/seasoned wood. Trust me guys- if you really want to do a fair test, you have to use 2 of the same 2x4's from the same lot.

Can we just appreciate how great the item respawn animations were in this video? So seamless. I for one, am in awe and appreciate their efforts. That was amazing to watch.

To be fair, Shad has consistently expressed his respect and fondness for katanas. The only weapon he's put an almost wholly negative light on is the nunchaku... Ive never seen any of his content where he's not strived to be completely objective in his reviews.

As a recommendation I would like to see the wood cutting "station" be fully braced so that cutting/chopping performance is not impacted by different placement of wood and stand

Man these three guys on screen really make my day man... Really dont stop with this amazing content you all have been giving us

According to people like*Let's ask shogo" from Japan, a well crafted katana will usually be at minimum 5000$. There's different sizes of katana as well.

As a practical student of Japanese martial arts I really like modern stainless steel blades, aluminium and plastic sayas. My wooden sayas I reinforce with shrink-tube because they are a bit delicate. Epoxy to bed the tang into the tsuka gives a nice tight fit. Cling wrap stops it all sticking together. Ancient arts, modern materials.

I think when you're looking at price differences, you really need to consider why one of the swords is more expensive in the first place. The $1000 katana is more expensive because it's made with more labor intensive traditional methods, of which knowledge and experience is also pretty rare. Price is sometimes a measure of "prestige" rather than quality.

I got this real cheap chinese made "katana" that costs 160€, is made from folded stainless (idk why xD). Being the wrong steel, its not really hardened properly, but they tried a differential hardening on it anyway, the very edge is hard enough to hold an edge a little bit. It has a full beefy tang tho, and thats the most important thing. I've absolutely abused the crap out of it, mainly by removing small trees that had to go from my mothers garden. So far i was able to bend it back into shape every time, and once i managed to cut through a ~12cm small tree in one swing ;D

Excluding extremes, it really doesn't matter too much what shape a blade is. But the difference between homogeneous spring steel and deferentially tempered folded steel matters a great deal. Homogeneous spring steel blades are very forgiving, without giving up any performance.

I’ve dealt with 2x4s for a while. The one you used for the $1000 sword was definitely harder. Also if you look at where the 300 cut through the wood the plank was already about as structurally sound as a homemade submarine.

I always chose quality over expensive. A Katana is a work of Art, if you're looking for something to display, then go for one that is more expensive but if you're looking for practical use? It's better to go middle of the road. My Katana is around $300, T10 Steel and after 3 years, it still in good condition.

There was a lot of variance in the wood used for the tests. It's quite apparent from the appearance of the wood and how it interacted to the impacts. Anyone that's worked with wood before will see the difference immediately. The board used for the $1000 katana test was much harder and stiffer, which might explain the damage. As there's so much variance in wood, it can be a difficult medium to use for scientific testing. Each sword should have been used on the same boards/woods, to eliminate the variables.

Keep up the good works guys! Thanks!

Wow! I haven’t watched this channel in probably 4 or 5 years and I can’t believe how much it’s changed for the better! Shad you’ve really outdone yourself, excellent video and a superb channel.

Perhaps the reason the cheap Katana cut the wood is because the cheap-cheap one is heavier and ads more momentum. And since the cheap one is made of the same metal all the way through, it doesn’t have any “walls” that stop/hold the blade still, forcing the force back into the handle. And if you buy something cheap, it’s easy to fix because you don’t feel like you’ve wasted your money when you put electrical tape on the handle to make a new grip. That’s why I love cheap stuff; functional and easily fixable.

Ok the water bottle transition was coooooool. And the review was really well done. Dialogue was solid, great back and forth with useful info, nice flow. Yall did great with this video!

Seeing Shad first debunk bow myths and now kanana myths and being so thorough with it is very nice to see, I love that you guys are going all the way to debunk these things! Keep at it ♥

I know you guys know this, the wood you were chopping was not equal. When doing a durability test its important to use the same material. If you slam one sword against Balsa and another against Walnut, the sword hitting the Walnut would go through much more punishment. The wetness/dryness of the wood is important as well in this regard. The 2x4 you hit with the 1k sword looked much wetter, was clearly not the same type of wood, and was in much better shape(less cracks, warps and knots). I do agree in general that the cheaper sword is the better go if you want to functionally use it(for cutting practice like you said). But that is more because if you are going to spend a lot on a sword, you would want it for the beauty of it more so than to abuse it. PS. ice block chop is a great way to test, at least where I live, ice is cheaper than wood. If you are able you could even freeze it yourself in coolers in the freezer.

13:56 Looks like you're cutting quite different pieces of wood, that along could explain the difference in feel I think. Like a more comically extreme example would be it feels different to chop into balsawood vs oak, that type of difference. Even if they're the same wood the planks were in very different condition by the look of them