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INTEREST: Laid-Back Camp Hatchet Gets Faithful Recreation




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AkumaChef



Joined: 10 Jan 2019
Posts: 821
PostPosted: Tue Nov 26, 2019 11:48 am Reply with quote
Eh, I'm not sure how I feel about this.

On the one hand, I love Yurucamp, and it's neat to see merch that's actually quite practical. That looks like a nata you could actually take out and use.

On the other hand, I don't think they did that great of a job.
-If this is supposed to look like Rin's nata from the manga or anime they got several pretty basic things wrong.
1)Rin's doesn't have the pronounced palm swell at the back of the handle.
2)Rin's also has a blade longer than its handle, while this new one has the proportions backward and the handle is longer than the blade.
3) Rin's has no rivets holding the blade, rather it's a traditional spike tang secured with a ring, sort of like a Japanese woodworking chisel. This one looks like a more modern design with a flat tang, rivets, and a normal collar instead of the locking ring whose name escapes me right now.
It doesn't look right. In fact, generic ones I see from garden tool websites actually look like a better match. I think it is a big stretch to call this a "faithful recreation".

-It's really expensive! You can buy a well made Nata for the equivalent of $30 here in the states (probably cheaper in Japan), it just doesn't have Rin's face stamped in it. And for the sort of price they are asking for this one you could have one custom made from premium steel, by hand, by any of a number of skilled Japanese blacksmiths.

This looks like a mass-produced Nata with a premium handmade price simply because it has Rin's face on it, but in the end it's not much like Rin's at all?
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Spastic Minnow
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Joined: 02 May 2006
Posts: 4595
Location: Gainesville, FL
PostPosted: Wed Nov 27, 2019 8:28 am Reply with quote
I only looked at this when I said to myself "There was a hatchet?"

I'm no expert on quality of the blade but that case looks like the sheath you'd get with a plastic knife for a kid in the gift shop at some historical attraction.
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AkumaChef



Joined: 10 Jan 2019
Posts: 821
PostPosted: Wed Nov 27, 2019 9:22 am Reply with quote
Spastic Minnow wrote:
I only looked at this when I said to myself "There was a hatchet?"

I'm no expert on quality of the blade but that case looks like the sheath you'd get with a plastic knife for a kid in the gift shop at some historical attraction.


The sheath does indeed look like garbage. But it is fairly standard on Japanese tools. I have a few Japanese gardening tools and they all came with sheaths like that, even if the tool itself was of above-average workmanship. A friend of mine is into woodworking and he buys a lot of expensive Japanese woodworking tools, and they sometimes come the same way. It's very odd to see a $400 handmade chisel that came with a sheath that would look cheap even on a $5 pocketknife, but that's the way it is, I suppose.

As for blade quality, it's hard to tell anything from a photo, and this doesn't look bad at all so I don't want to give the impression that I'm saying the workmanship is poor. But it does seem disproportionately expensive for what you are getting. It looks like a premium price for a standard nata. Perhaps it is made with premium materials and the article left that out? But as it stands it looks like you're paying a $100+ premium for Rin's face on it.
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