Budd claims he got rid of his Hattori Hanzo sword, but the film shows that he kept it. The deal he negotiates with Elle concerns a different katana: the one he took from Beatrix.
The sword Budd says he pawned
When Bill visits his brother, the conversation turns to the Hattori Hanzo sword that belonged to Budd. He says he pawned it and mentions a very low amount compared with the value Bill assigns to it. The exchange contrasts two ways of talking about the object: for Bill, it is an exceptional work; in Budd's account, it has been reduced to money gained in an ordinary transaction.
This claim should not be accepted as the final word on the story. Later, Beatrix finds the sword in the caravan. Its presence proves that Budd had not disposed of it in the way he said he had. The film uses a physical object to correct the version a character had given in words.
The difference between saying and keeping opens up a reading of the brothers' relationship. Budd may want to show distance from the past and yet keep a piece tied to that same past. The lie may be designed to wound Bill's pride or to reject the identity Bill still assigns him. These are possible readings of the gesture, not a confession Budd later makes.
The price mentioned does not establish a real valuation. It belongs to a fictional conversation and to a story that is deceptive. It cannot be used to calculate what a historic sword, a film prop or a replica would be worth. Those markets require different information from that offered by the characters.
Beatrix's katana and the deal with Elle
The sword Budd offers to Elle Driver after neutralising Beatrix is the protagonist's. It is a second Hanzo weapon, different from the one Budd had already kept. This separation makes it possible to follow the scene without imagining that the same object was sold, recovered and sold again off screen.
Budd tries to turn a victory over Beatrix into an economic opportunity. Elle is interested in obtaining the sword and agrees to a deal. The negotiation belongs to the confrontation between individuals who know the maker's prestige. It does not demonstrate the existence of a stable katana-smuggling organisation or a black market with rules developed by the film.
Money functions as bait in another act of aggression. Elle arrives with her own plan and uses the exchange to get closer to Budd. The object that seemed to be the centre of the business ends up tied to a struggle for control of the situation. Hanzo's prestige lends credibility to the deal, but it does not make those involved trustworthy.
During the later confrontation between the women, the existence of the sword kept by Budd becomes practically important again. The weapon stops being merely proof of his lie and enters the action. The narrative thus connects an earlier dialogue with an object that the viewer can recognise by its origin.
This distribution requires keeping two separate tracks: the katana Hanzo made for Beatrix and that Budd took from her, and Budd's personal katana, which had never disappeared from the caravan. The fact that both share a maker does not make them the same piece. Clear follow-through depends on remembering who possessed each one before the fight.
The dedication and what Budd had not left behind
The personal sword contains a dedication from Bill to his brother. That inscription adds an emotional dimension to an object that the pawn-shop conversation had treated as merchandise. Its origin matters because of the relationship between the two men, as well as the reputation of Hattori Hanzo.
The discovery does not force us to conclude that the brothers were secretly reconciled. Keeping a gift can express attachment, ambivalence or difficulty in letting go of a phase of life. The film does not settle on a single explanation through a later scene with Budd. What it establishes is a contradiction: his claim of indifference does not match what he kept.
That contradiction suits Budd as a character. His present life is far removed from the prestige of his former trade, but some bonds and abilities remain. The sword acts as a material trace of that continuity. There is no need to imagine further adventures in order to understand that the break with the past is less complete than he claims.
For Bill, the supposed sale had the value of a rejection. For Beatrix, finding the piece provides information and the chance to act. The same object changes function depending on who looks at it and when it appears. That narrative mobility explains why Budd's katana deserves to be distinguished from the protagonist's sword, even in a film where both are surrounded by the same craftsmanship prestige.
The answer is fixed by what is shown: Budd kept his sword, lied about pawning it and negotiated with Elle over the katana taken from Beatrix. The dedication confirms a personal link with Bill; it does not authenticate a real object or offer a complete history of every sword Hanzo made.
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