Trueswords.com?

Sorry. Bad habit of mine.

Maai. http://www.koryu.com/library/dskoss2.html

Te no uchi. http://classicbudoka.wordpress.com/2012/10/16/75-te-no-uchi-skill-at-arms/

 

I really don't know why I bother any more. :cry:

 

Thanks guys, I'll point out again (to stop you worrying) that I'm not planning on actually cutting anything without proper tuition from a suitably trained instructor - for now I'm happy muddling my way through my kata and doing a bit of homework on the side here ^_^

 

Sorry Fusen, thanks.

Are you familiar with that brand? What would you recommend if I were to buy an actual katana that I could actually use to cut some things? Not that I plan on cutting anything (or anyone ) in particular, but it would still be nice to have a real sword in my collection. Also, something comparably cost effective as well. If possible, I'd like to avoid having to spend $800. My wife would kill me.

 

Wrong posting

 

I'm sorry if I say asian movies, I was rather thinking about weastern movies about "Ninjas", and "samurais" (with intentional "S" )

The asian movies I've seen (and I've not seen that many), have impressed me quite a lot, artistic fantasy with a historical flavour, where they convey nicely that asian mytos is exactly that; mytos.

I've actually dreamed about having some asian director making a viking-movie; I think they could produce a very nice script based on the icelandic sagas, and perhaps we could for the first time have a viking-movie that was OK
-but that's a different subject.

 

I'm not advocating cutting without a teacher, but if you ever do try cutting rolled up newspaper in the future, I just wanted to caution against soaking newspaper targets like is traditionally done with tatami omote. The ink can start to wear away the blade.

A sword thread, how exciting! :love:

 

Check dis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valhalla_Rising_%28film%29

It's a Viking film that is more than OK but also VERY weird.

 

I know I'm late to the discussion.

However, I just wanted to reiterate that you should not be training with a live blade period.

I remember someone going to the ER to get lots of nice stitches in their hand when they were using one during a seminar. The person injured themselves while drawing the sword and didn't notice it until people pointed out that they were bleeding.

BTW - people were told not to use (or bring) them.

 

Sage advice.

My sifu requires us to tape over the edges of our Baat Jaam Dao even though they are not sharp (though mine can hold an edge). And we especially tape over the tips.

 

For anyone else that hasn't read this thread, here's another reminder of why one can never be too careful with a sword:

http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53303

 

Ian I agree with what Peter has said.

There's a place for live blade work but that place isn't with someone who doesn't even know the roots of their waza, background of the teachers of even if what they are doing is actually connected to JSA.

Not being funny there but them things is sharp!

 

I am not much a one for lengthy Chris-like posts, but there are several things that I feel should be addressed here.
I agree with your points 1 and 2, but removing the handle on a Chinese made sword can be quite difficult. The tsuka is not generally fitted properly to the tang, and is usually installed with a rubber hammer. The hole for the pin is then drilled through the handle and the tang simultaneously. This means you have a tight fit combined with a burr on the far side of the tang where the drill bit went through. Be very careful if you don't know what you're doing as it often takes a vise and a hammer to get it off.

Point 3 is good, but for points 4 and 5, there are several lower end Chinese made swords that are through hardened rather than differentially hardened. While this means they won't hold an edge as well, it also means that they will bend less easily. It is far easier to successfully spring harden than it is to successfully differentially harden a sword sized length of steel. The vast majority of European style swords are through hardened, so you can't eliminate a sword just because it has an artificial hamon.

In regards the Hanwei Practical Katana, some are decent, some are garbage. This is the problem with every Chinese sword making outfit. They are factories, designed to produce swords for a profit. Japanese swords, due to the labor intensive way it is built, do not lend themselves well to a factory setting. It takes one person to shape the blade, another to grind it to final shape, a third to polish it, a fourth to carve the wooden parts of the handle and sheath, and a fifth to do the handle wrap. The quality of the end sword depends on just how good these folks are at their job, and just how good of a job they feel like doing at the time. I've seen higher end Chinese made swords that were total crap and couldn't even be swung around safely. I've also seen low end swords that were very well made and would hold up to years of dojo use. Unless someone has the experience to know which is which, simply buying a Chinese made sword is a crap shoot. Granted the higher priced swords are more likely to be decently made, but it is far from a guarantee. By far the problem that I've seen most is that the handle tends to not be properly aligned with the blade.

There's my two cents worth.

 

That is also a reminder of why it is important to have an instructor that knows what he's doing.

 

I'm talking about a single sheet cut into 2 inch wide and maybe 8 long, not a whole paper rolled up.

Also, you could just drop a silk scarf on the sword and call it a day.

 

Oh! My mistake, obviously, I misunderstood what you were saying. What do you mean by drop a silk scarf on it? Do you mean to clean the sword with it?

 

What were you meaning, Paul....? "Long, Chris-like posting" indeed.... I've been virtually silent recently! Ha!

One thing I will say, though, is that you're probably thinking in a very low scale here.... a "real sword" (shinken, taken here to literally mean "true sword", rather than just a sharp one) will typically start at around $5,000 for a decent one, so if you don't want to spend $800, well, you sure ain't getting a "real sword"! You can get some low-end "antiques" for cheap pricing, but most are going to be mass-produced WWII blades, and shouldn't be used for training or cutting... what you're really after is a relatively inexpensive cutter, from the sounds of things. That's fine (I'm going to pick one up myself in a few months), but don't make the mistake of thinking it's a real sword.... it ain't.

 

Wow that's pricey as heck. Thakns for the head's up though, I'll keep that in mind.

 

I'm afraid that I have to disagree on this point. You can get a decent cutting blade for $200 (likely on sale, not w/S&H) to $600. I'm not saying that they will cut like a high quality blade that are typically in the thousands, but there are decent blades in the hundreds of dollars price range.

I do have a question for you Chris, I've grown to understand shinken is known as a blade with a sharp edge. What you describe sounds similar to a nihonto (Japanese made sword) to me, but I know that you don't mean that since you didn't outright say that. You mentioned using "shinken" in the literal sense with "true sword" being the meaning, would you mind elaborating more on that?

 

Sure.

Yeah, that is pretty much what I was meaning. Bear in mind that "nihonto" just means "Japanese sword/blade", and can again, run the gamut from machine-made, oil-cooled slabs of metal (barely swords) that were mass-produced for WWII, through to the properly forged, traditionally made weapons. It was this latter (the properly forged) that I was meaning when I referred to shinken meaning it's literal translation of "true sword". Cheap cutters, sure. But a genuine, true katana? For $200-$800? Nope.

The fact that I didn't use the same terminology with the same nuance you implied didn't mean it wasn't what I was referring to....