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hanzo steel vs dojo pro

by Aaron Waltz
(Waldoboro, Maine, USA)

Are the Ronin Hanzo Steel katanas virtually a black coated differentially tempered version of Ronins Dojo Pro? At some point I want to buy both a Hanzo bride and a Dojo pro. And probably one of the longer models or O-Katana or the 1" plus sori versions, where I have few light cutters in both 1045 & 1060 all with bo-hi's already I just figure if I'm gonna have heavy cutter in my arsenal it minaswell be a big bad a** HEAVY cutter... But where I also want to get a "brides" hanzo steel sword over the zombie version where it has the 1" more sori like one of the dojo pros models , (IMO the extra curvature looks really sinister) but where the standard Dojo Pro already has an aggressive curve does the 1" extra sori version increase the cutting ability or just similar performance as the standard dotanuki but just a different feel? Thanks, Aaron. You guys are awesome!

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Basically, yes..!
by: Paul

Hi Aaron,

Thanks for your kind words on our site. To answer your question, yes - basically you are correct. The Hanzo steel swords are made by the same forge that produces the Dojo Pro line and the main differences are that they are differentially hardened with a real hamon and also coated with a black titanium finish.

Like the dojo pro, the fittings are iron, but unlike the dojo pro they use cotton ito instead of silk and are not Dotanuki style.

With regards to extra sori/curvature - there is some evidence to suggest that blades with a little extra curvature do indeed cut a little better because they draw more surface area over the target. However, the difference is pretty subtle and does not make a huge difference - but does look quite mean..

Hope this helps!

- Paul

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