Hanwei is a company manufacturing sword

Sword

A sword is a bladed weapon used primarily for cutting or thrusting. The precise definition of the term varies with the historical epoch or the geographical region under consideration...

s, operated by Chen Chao-Po, better known by his pseudonym Paul Chen.

Chen is a Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

ese sword collector who in ca. 1997 opened a factory in Dalian

Dalian

Dalian is a major city and seaport in the south of Liaoning province, Northeast China. It faces Shandong to the south, the Yellow Sea to the east and the Bohai Sea to the west and south. Holding sub-provincial administrative status, Dalian is the southernmost city of Northeast China and China's...

 manufacturing inexpensive replicas of Edo period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

 Japanese swords. The manufacturing process imitates methods of traditional Japanese swordsmiths, for a fraction of the price. Hanwei enjoys considerable success among hobbyists (e.g. practitioners of Iaido

Iaido

is a modern Japanese martial art associated with the smooth, controlled movements of drawing the sword from its scabbard, striking or cutting an opponent, removing blood from the blade, and then replacing the sword in the scabbard...

) due to the prohibitive pricetag of "real" Japanese shinken

Shinken

is a Japanese term used to describe a Japanese sword that is sharp and used for real cutting or combat, as opposed to those that are blunted for other types of practice. Today, they are primarily used for high level iaido and/or tameshigiri practice. Unlike an iaito or mogito , a shinken has a...

 and has moved into manufacturing models of Chinese and European swords as well, including typical specimens of a Viking sword

Viking sword

The Viking sword is a form of spatha, evolving out of the Migration Period sword in the 8th century, and evolving into the classical knightly sword in the 11th century with the emergence of larger crossguards...

, a knightly sword and a hand-and-a-half sword.

Distribution

Hanwei swords are distributed in the United States by C.A.S. Iberia, Inc. and utilizes a number of authorized dealers to reach consumers.