# Communities > Antique Arms & Armour Community > Chinese, South-East Asia (CSEA) >  Like to know maker of jian and possible age

## James Rouse

I am interested in learning the maker of this jian and more details about it, including age and worth. Would appreciate any information.

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## Jay Chang

开光镇宅宝剑

It looks like those $20 - $100 Jian which is meant as decorative ornamental piece.
that mostly is used to "ward off evil spirits" for the household with the "killing aura" of the sword itself.

Basically in the weight zone of 1.4 - 1.5kg for the Jian alone that is excluding the scabbard 
the Jian itself has about 98 - 100cm overall length, and balances about 8 - 10 inches from the guard into the blade
(that is an indicator that the jian is poorly balanced and is more intended as decorative piece)

do not perform wushu thrust with this beast, that blade might be impossible to create a "clank" sound, you might ends up hurting your shoulder... Which i stupidly tried before.

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## James Rouse

> I am interested in learning the maker of this jian and more details about it, including age and worth. Would appreciate any information.


Appreciate your reply, Jay. It has been sharpened many times and does have a forge marking. It seems balanced to me when I practiced with it. Does anyone have information of where made? Don't think it's ornamental.

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## Jay Chang

It states China - Longquan on the carving on the blade (the square seal with the dragon looking thing)

Longquan is very popular with Jian, just so it is nearly impossible to trace back to the maker and date

The production ranges from 20 buck ornamental sword to 2000 buck treasure

but from the stamping of 镇宅宝剑 it is originally designed as an ornamental sword 
which might have been sharpened and rebalanced for practice 

ornamental Jian are typically not balanced for "factory finishing"

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## Timo Nieminen

开光镇宅宝剑 = "open light town house treasure sword" or similar. Which suggests it's ornamental, made for feng shui or similar. Which doesn't mean that it can't be functional.

Looks like a typical Longquan jian. Modern. Quality can vary a lot, but probably a somewhat bottom-end sword. Is there a rivet or wooden pin through the grip (your photos don't show the whole grip, so I can't tell)? If not, you should be able to remove the grip and see what you have. Unscrew the small nut holding the pommel on, and take the pommel off. There may or may not be a second, larger, nut holding the grip on. If there is, unscrew, and you should be able to remove the grip and guard. Post a photo of the tang, and it might be possible to say more about the quality. The guard and pommel look like zinc-aluminium alloy, rather than brass, but it's hard to tell from the photos. Is the blade stainless steel?

Here are a couple of similar swords:
http://2011.zhiforge.com/index.php?m...roducts_id=548
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Hand-Forg...-/161680788767
Lots of manufacturers do swords like this, so it's hard to try to ID the actual maker.

How heavy is your sword, and where is the point of balance?

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## James Rouse

Thanks to all for the information. I have discovered that you are correct in your analysis and learned as well.

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