I have a 3 1/2 foot long sharp stainless tanto sword, a carbon steel 3 foot long ninjato, a seki steel combat knife, a chinese 4 inch tanto hunting knife(most reliable for the cost), and arrowtip throwing knives. All of these are part of my survival kit.

I hate to bust up things but harking after a katana for close combat is blundersome.
They are massively over-rated. They are more for dueling with another swordsman and not for survival in the wilderness etc.
They are pretty things but somehow would be too delicate for use in the wild.
I don't doubt they can cut and are quick weapons, but unless you've a lifetime of training they are a bit of a white elephant.
The sword was developed with an isolated island mentality and it shows. Very fine and art-like but not exactly utilitarian or handy.
Something like a ninja-sword would be more suitable for survival. They tend to be slightly shorter, straight and being blunter and be usually good for things like using as a foot-boost to climb walls and grabbing hold of to climb with etc etc.

For me it'll be a xbow and knife. Save the sword play for if civilisation reverts back to a pre-firearms infra-structure.

My boyfriend has a katana. I think he would use that against someone before he would ever draw a gun on someone.

A katana in trained hands is a formiddable weapon, for sure. I've seen people do amazing things with them. That being said, in untrained hands it's as likely that you'll injure yourself before wounding your opponant. A sword is not like a baseball bat which nearly anyone can use effectively. Mucho training is required to use a katana effectively. Get some training, or hang it on a wall and get a Louisville Slugger.

Cool, I'm a fellow sword collector, love everything to do with blades. A foot away from me on my computer desk is a 3 piece katana set, snakeskin colored.One's large, other medium and last small(about a 14 inch blade or so). Then I have a pair of wooden nun-chucks, and have 4 daggers(7 inches to 12), then I have a separate medium size regular black katana, and a wooden box filled with pocket knives and switchblades(30 or so) along with the 6 inch belt clip switch blade I carry with me every day.


Always good to be prepared, always.

Personally I got a longsword & shortsword.

Then a katana, wakizashi & tanto & Katar.

The longsword & shortsword are fantasy blades (as such, they aren't suitable for sword-fighting but they can still inflict pain, not so useful against zombies though).

The katana / wakizashi / tanto are all High-Carbon Surgical Stainless steel, potential tree cutters.

The katar I don't know what it is made of, but it is magnetic for some reason (and I can thrust it through walls )

Those 4xx HC Stainless steel blades can technically cut through trees though, so that's all good.

OP, You completely made the correct choice...

I agree with those that say a better katana would do

and that you lack a bow and maybe some other items.

But I 100% agree when the dust settles, guns might last awhile but not really, in the event of the event, given disease, lack of food supplies, panic

a Good set of modern top of the line traditional weapons, might be passed down to your kids and your kids kids with hardly a chance in the world anyone around you or them will be able to match the quality and use.

I go off on this topic every time the gun enthusiasts open up

You DO NOT want to Fight the first weeks, it's time to run and hide and survive, everyone will be shooting, it will be maniacal, Luck at best will be the only reason a person going out shooting would survive

When the dust settles... in time, real tools, TOOLS, Metals , Plastics that can't be made, even modern bow string...

it will all be out of production...

Most fire arms can't take water much, the ones that can, have ammo that will be difficult to come by... they make noise, draw attention

and frankly

the person back there that says you can't take a Bear with a Katana is right

But wait till you have been in the forest a few months

might not be the same story

as ferocious as a Bear is they tend to back down when injured to survive like anything else... biggest problem is bulk, hard to nail the brain stem or heart with an edged weapon

but our ancestors managed with sticks and stones with nothing to do all day but run around outside...

We are after all (some of us) smarter than your average Bear



I remember a story from ww2 about a Pilot from Japan caught in China who was thrown in a cage with a tiger and knew martial arts very well

He managed to kill the tiger with his bare hands, let alone a katana

Got on it's back somehow and broke the vertebrae in it's neck...

nothings impossible

3 years after sit x, guy with the best sword and bow that knows how to use it rules his neighborhood

Originally posted by downtown436


I have a machete. I have a ball peen hammer. I have a big ass crescent wrench. I have a sledge hammer. I have a mini sledge hammer. I have a baseball bat. I think the 59.99 stainless steel budk sword will be pretty good for my collection. Don't worry, I won't put my own eye out.

I have the same collection.... You made a good buy, it's better than my $19 ninja sword. Though, that Musashi Katana is worth every penny, I would put it against a $1000 Katana, it's been my fav sword for over a year now....

[edit on 15-5-2009 by imitator]

Please don't try to use that for self defense. Think of all the people who would be sad to see you go?

You asked earlier what could go wrong with cheap swords. Imagine taking a swing at an intruder/attacker/zombie/etc, and you miss. You smack the blade off a hard metal streetlamp or concrete wall.

At 59 bucks, your sword is probably made out of cheap metal and is unlikely to be able to withstand that. The blade could break, sending a big piece of sharp metal flying unpredictably through the air.

Or, a far more likely scenario, after a couple minutes of play, testing, or combat your blade will be so dull that just when you're counting on it to stop a life-threatening attack it will prove incapable of doing so.

I have a cheapo sword. I bought it as a toy. It's never been used on anything but boxes and thin air. Despite how solid and sharp it felt to begin with, it's very apparent now that it was never intended to be used as a tool or a weapon. Fortunately I was never under the impression that it was one.

Yours will reach that point, and if you put a real work load on it, it will reach it quickly.

Good call, but for those that cant afford a 1000 dollar sword , Cabela's has nice thin blade machetes or 40 bucks that will cut of body parts of your local Zombie. I have 2 of them. As for the Zombie threat.....like one post said, its very possible, or just lets say I would not be surprised to see some event like that.