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"Dagger Dan" Heinecke Katana
purchased in 2004
This was my second "Dagger Dan" piece. Dan Heinecke is primarily
a knife and dagger maker who, as far as I know, only sells his
finely crafted wares through his booth at the Maryland Renaissance
Festival. His work has become well respected amongst the patrons
at this renfest.
Light and agile, sharp as a razor, and a mirror finish make this
piece a beauty to behold. The blade has multi-zone tempering, and the
hilt consists of exotic hardwood (Cocobolo I think) and brass
fittings cast directly onto the tang.
The balance is remarkable, being one of the most lively and agile
feeling of my two-handed swords. And it performs very well. At the
cutting party I had taken it to, I managed to cleanly slice through
a water jug just one inch at a time, with great ease compared to
the other swords I tried. It was like slicing air.
While not designed from a traditional Japanese standpoint (and clearly
would not appeal to Nihon-To purists), this sword is definitely built
to be beautiful, deadly, and resilient.
As a follow-up, I did some test-cutting with it using targets from
swordfodder.com, and recorded
some of it. The following video is from my first session, so my
form could be better (most notably the telegraphing):
| Overall Length |
41 ¾ inches (106.05 cm) |
| Blade Length |
28 ¾ inches (73.03 cm) |
| Hilt Length |
13 inches (33.02 cm) |
| Blade Width at base |
1 ¼ inches (3.17 cm) |
| Guard Width |
3 ¾ inches (9.53 cm) |
| Center of Gravity |
0 ½ inches from guard (1.27 cm) |
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