Hi all, I'm looking to upgrade my old Jian - I've been looking at this: http://www.oriental-weaponry.co.uk/acatalog/hanwei-practical-tai-chi-sword.html#!prettyphoto/2/ Does anyone have any experience with these swords/makers?
I have a few hanwei pieces, and they seem really nice to me. I ordered one like you link to once and the blade was a bit warped - so I sent it back. So watch out for that, but overall their stuff is nice IMHO. The cool think about hanwei is you can get something that is nice AND not sharpened. Cold steel, for example - I think all their swords are sharp - and that maybe isn't so great for practicing forms.
Have a good few Hanwei myself, always found the quality good. Some pieces lack good balance, mostly older Daos. Unsharpened good for application practice / controlled sparring. Sharpened good for intent and great for practicing cuts. Take your form applications and test out movements against water filled bottles. Develops hood blade awareness, especially when you start to string a few together and place your targets on freestanding posts at varying angles and heights. ;-)
My Sifu has one and he loves it - I handled it and it is very nicely balanced and weighted. There is a real sense you could actually fight with it rather than it just being a piece of metal with a handle on it
Their old (brass guard) kung fu Dao os seriously sharp, but balances about 10-15 cm from guard. Excellent for form practice - heavier resistance, but wouldnt like my life to depend on it if i wasnt used to it. Technique for live speed need to be modified, relying on moving handle to arc weapon to deflect as you can forget about washing away attacks leading from the tip as weight and balance makes recovery way too slow. At a total contrast is their new kung fu dao, not a good sheath, opening begins half way down, but the weapon itself is excellent, balance is remarkable, retaining good cutting weight yet the sword is fast! Really feels like an extension of ones arm - totally natural! Damascus Jian. - solid, great metal.can take a belt, but a bit off balance. Jian with castellated nsection on blade- the best jian i ever encountered! Tang Jian, very fast, cuts excellently, even though its balance and lightness makes one doubt at first. A friend has the jian OP you mention, excellent weapon!
