On the opposite side of the fence I was Karambit shopping at Christmas, there were loads of very nice live blades but I made sure I spent the extra time and found a decent training blade. I'm not daft enough to go and use a sharp when I'm a complete n00b at FMA, although the blunt aluminium blade looks great for Jujutsu. Roll on the knife seminar I'm off to in April!
I like aluminium blades, but they can burr and rip the skin. My preferred option now is the Nok Knife. http://noktrainingknives.webs.com/apps/webstore/ http://noktrainingknives.webs.com/yourlocalretailer.htm Safe and won't break when thrown again the hall floor, not as pointy as the horrible wooden ones and stronger than the rubber alternative. They do swords too.
After reading that post i am completely traumatized right now . Please OP take the advices found on this thread. Besides just curious and I'm sure we all are here, what makes you think, that a beginner such as yourself,requires a real katana to train with. Do the math sir, Newbie+katana=(what do you think you'll get? it's common sense) besides I think you should train your swordsmanship first sir, and i mean in the most respectable manner, besides which is cooler, to be able to turn a katana into a deadly weapon(newbies will most likely pick this option) or to be able to turn anything into a weapon(us martial artist will definitely pick this one )
I'll bookmark that, cheers. I went with this. http://www.eskrimador-supplies.com/Metal_Training_Weapons.html
Just to expand: as others have said, you should always begin by asking your teacher. Partly this is because different schools have different opinions on the characteristics of an ideal sword. When I purchased my first sword, my teacher gave me quite a long list of ideal properties, many of which are comparatively uncommon, and some are considered quite undesirable by practitioners of other schools. Far more practically, of the important properties of a sword, you only named one. The steel matters. So do questions like: does the nakago fit the tsuka snugly? Are the mekugi shaped correctly, in good condition, and a good fit? Is the same complete, or are they torn or simple ornamental patches? Is the tsukaito tightly tied or is it prone to loosening? Is the tsuba loose? What type of wood was used to make the tsuka and the says, and is it in good condition? These are the aspects that determine whether a sword is safe to use. The wrong answer makes the sword dangerous to you and to everyone around you. If you are buying a second-hand sword, then you need to inspect it in person and verify these things. If you are buying it new, you should still inspect it if you can. If you are buying online, then you should be asking for feedback from trustworthy people with direct experience of that make. And since you are quite literally staking life and limb on the matter, I personally would be quite hesitant to put enough trust in anyone with whom I have only an Internet relationship.
The only way to know if this will work out for you is if you provide us with more information about what system you study, under whom, and what level of practice you are at. What are the requirements of the school/ system at what level of study? That being said, you are asking a bunch of (experts who are) strangers without any real information of your art and level of study about a technical tool which would be only answered by providing us with information about your art, your teacher, and your level of study.
Hey! We're pretty protective too, you know! Like we always tell people to study the whole system. Like we never teach knife to total noobs. But we do like our bright and shiny pointy things, don't we?
The swan and the peregrine and the mini peregrine seem to be more weapons than training knives. Me likey!
Others have already answered a lot of things, all of which I agree with. However, I would like to take the time to point out that you cannot judge quality from a simple description. In particular, the heat treatment of the steel is something that you cannot judge from a picture or even a description. the whole premise of answering without knowing anything about the maker or the price point is flawed. The specs say it is 1060. It might be. Or it may not. I've seen enough ads for swords that simply cannot be true for that price. While 1060 is good / perfect steel for a sword, that does not mean that it actually is 1060. But suppose it is 1060 for a moment. The real and most important reason for using 1060 is that you can use differential heat treatment to give the blade its characteristic shape, and to end up with an edge that is 60 HRc and a spine that is 40 HRc. For that, it is perfect. Your specs say 52 HRc. That is mightly low. It tells me 2 things. First, it was not differentially heat treated, which makes he choice for 1060 pointless. There are better steels in that case, which can be treated to be harder and tougher. The second thing it tells me is that the blade is soft. I would call it defective. In fact, while such a blade can be used for solo practice, I would hesitate to actually cut anything with it, because I would fear that bad stuff is going to happen. And if you don't actually want to cut things, you don't need a sharp sword. In short, even without knowing more, the specs listed are either inaccurate, incomplete, or just made up, and worrisome enough that I would tell you to steer clear. When it comes to swords, you can choose to either have a bad sword or an expensive sword. Reputation is a very important consideration, and whatever the specs you may find on any website, if it is not a reputable brand / cheap, it is going to be dangerous crap no matter what the website says. As shocking as it may seem, just because it is on a website, it does not mean it is true. My friend calls most of these things 'sword shaped objects'
