Practical plus wakisashi

[Geordie Ross]

Just arrived today, it's typical Chen quality and is amazingly light, seriously I thought the box was empty lol, very impressed by it, hc steel, clay tempered, leather Ito all the bells and whistles, and the menuki are tiny versions of the ppk, deffinatly need this if you have the practical series

[Moon]

Sweet.

[liquidator96]

Very nice mate,

[Mellony]

Looks good!

I was debating that myself but never ended up getting it are you going to grab the tanto too?

[Geordie Ross]

Yea its a cracking little wak, and I think it would be worth getting the tanto just to complete the set, the tanto is cheap enough to be worth it.

[the blade master]

nice addition geordie very nice

[Maynar]

Always liked that "empire wheel" style of tsuba. Very attractive.

[Geordie Ross]

Yea, the beauty is in the simplicity the blade is incredibly narrow and light, its like swinging bamboo.

[the blade master]

actually geordie the tsuba is based on the japanese crysanthimum
in spite of its other names like a wagon wheel the sun amongst others

[Geordie Ross]

Yea, I think the chrysanthemum are the flowers on the kashira and fuchi?

[Big Lazy]

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiice

[Geordie Ross]

Yea the practical series are like the workhorse of the low end Chen range, they make great display pieces too. And yes, the blade on the ppw is light and narrow, great handling but not as strong as the raptor series.
The synthetic leather is good, but its not as good as the more fibrous leather into on the tori katana.

[Geordie Ross]

Lol I've not had any problems with the leather on the tori, although I'd never ever use it for cutting lol, wouldn't want to damage it

[Dotanuki2K]

actually geordie the tsuba is based on the japanese crysanthimum
in spite of its other names like a wagon wheel the sun amongst others

Very good Mick, if memory serves me right, the 16 petaled one was the symbol of the Japanese Imperial court.
The chrysanthemum was a symbol of enlightenment. You will often see Oriental dieties seated on one, in their depictions in eastern art.
Edit: The dieties were seated on the 16 petaled lotus. The first sentence is still true. Easy to get confused when you're old.

[the blade master]

see i can get some things right