[MarkScottShow.US]

Seeking Bladesmith for a Katanna type blade...thanks!

[CWL]

Have you tried www.bladeforums.com? You will find many famous and not so famous smiths hanging out and generally shootin the breeze.

[hso]

Let's try to narrow the field a little.

What do you want to use the katana for? Cutting, Aesthetic, Collecting, Weapon?

Do you want a "tradional" maker (asian or western) or will you accept a non-traditional maker. There are good stock reduced pieces, good forged pieces, and good folded pieces out there. Which do you require.

Do you want a bare blade or a full sword?

Surprisingly Paul Chen's Hanwei Forge blades from CAS Iberia do very well at cutting, are well made and attractive, but can not be considered truely traditional. The application of the furniture is adequate, but not great. If I were building a katana I would consider a bare blade from CAS that I would have built as the starting point and work my way up the "food chain" of makers from there.

[MarkScottShow.US]

Katana, - Iadio style fencing - cutting/slicing the basics, a weapon.

Interested in Traditional UNLESS, non-traditional technique has an interesting technology application....

Full, finnished sword., not a wall hanger, see above.

[hso]

You can buy a CAS Iberia Hanwei Forge katana and use it. Look at swordforums.com for reviews on cutting swords. ~$300-1,500

You can buy a bare Hanwei Forge blade http://casiberia.com/cas_website/product_details.asp?id=SH1231
and contact the Fred Lohman Company http://www.japanese-swords.com/pages/hndl.htmabout having it built into a sword. ~ $1,500-3,000

Kris Cutlery makes a using 5160 katana as well. http://www.kriscutlery.com/Kris/japanese/Japanese.html ~$250

You can go to any number of American makers and have them build a sword for you. See what they're saying in the Sword Forum at bladeforums.com. http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=733

[MarkScottShow.US]

Domo, Thank you

[hso]

My pleasure, just post an image when you get it.

http://swordforum.com/links/customswordmakers.php offers a concise set of links to custom makers.

[Zedicus]

Here is the site of a Master Bladesmith who I know.
www.mvforge.com

His name is Howard Clark, and can make anything to your specifications.
as one option he has a type of steel he makes himsellf that is about as close as you could get to adamantium (IE: practicaly indestructable) he calles it Bainite.

Although a you could nearly buy a car for the same price as one of his Bainite Katana's the quality level is worth every penny.
(I don't own one mysellf, but I plan to in about 2 years)

he does Katanas prity much Exclusively through the sword shop of www.bugei.com

Also Swordforum.com has a review on one of his Bainite katana's (see link below).
http://swordforum.com/summer99/howardclark.html

Look him up!