By This Sign.... Change Shall Come
May 20, 2009 22:53:48 GMT
Post by Marc Ridgeway on May 20, 2009 22:53:48 GMT
By This Sign... Change Shall Come
And ye shall know it by this sign.... thy swords shalt be split asunder , and cast down, even unto the Earth. Thy swords shalt be broken , even as thy old ways art broken, and if a man would be made whole again, he must arise, verily .and lift a new sword to the sky... the old shalt be no more , and the new shalt be born, in spirit and in steel....
My Shift in Focus ... and a good case for custom swords:
I've been contemplating a change for a while. I have long had a love of the sword... from earliest childhood it was European Cruciform swords that spoke to my spirit.
When I became old enough to study the sword though, in the early 90s , there was no way to learn the ways of European Sword Traditions, except perhaps sport fencing... even more so , there was almost no source for decent, affordable swords, of any type... in this pre-internet world, Cutlery World , at the mall , with their rat- tail , stainless fantasy swords were all you could find...
JSA was a tad bit more availiable, and antique Japanese swords, (shin-gunto, showato, shinshinto) were available to train with.
That is the path I chose , and I began a love affair with the Japanese Sword.
I guess it was 3.5 - 4 years ago, when I first got online... and discovered the newly blossoming world of the Production Katana... Sensei told me to purchase a Citadel Yoshi, and gave me a web address to find it... and slowly I discovered all the choices that were really developing at that time...
Well 4 years , and well over 100 kats later, I've heard a whispering in my soul to get back to my heritage , and study the sword arts of Europe, the home of my ancestors....
I've had more than a few Euros over the years, but never really connected with them... until recently when I got my first longsword... an ATrim 1508.
That sword , along with the new releases from VA/Trim and Cas/Tinker realy made me feel that th etime may have come to shift my focus.... to turn the corner .
Then, I stepped out with my favorite production katana, and got the sign I needed that the time had come...
This was a relatively new sword... almost unused.... its not the first of this model I've owned... matter of fact , I own two now... all in all I've had 5 or 6 of these pass through my hands.
This was the last new one in existence... the model was discontinued a year ago. The maker knew this was my favorite production kat, and shipped me the last one... I really liked it... it was a bit beefier than the model as whole was, and very sharp, and great geometry , with an exceptional saya...
The sword: Oni Forge Ryu:
So I took it out to do a bit of cutting, and on the Seventh Swing, came...
the Sign....
Now I hesitated hesitated to publicize this, because I hate to put the manufacturer in a negative light... as it is my favorite source of katana... but I have done my share of speaking out about other manufacturers whose swords failed, so in the interest of fairness, I share this.
Now there is nothing wrong with Oni Forge swords... hell, I've owned a BUNCH of them... pushed them pretty hard... and abused them too... never had a problem out of them.
This is instead a case of an individual sword, that the heat treat wasn't quite up to snuff on...
Which makes a good case for custom swords. The level of attention the smith gives to the creation of a custom sword can't be matched , even by the BEST of production sword manufacturers.
Don't get me wrong here... it didn't break dry handling it... and it didn't break on a water bottle... I did strike my stand with it... it would likely have lived a long life if all it had touched was waterbottles... but i would eventually have cut bamboo with it...
By the way this is ANOTHER good example of why to keep spectators CLEAR OF THE AREA
It DID NOT helicopter of death... but it COULD have.
Anyway, I took it as an omen that the time of change was indeed at hand... I still love katana, but my focus will be shifting to European Sword Collecting and Use for the foreseeable future.
I will begin my purchasing some of the new VA/TRIM and Cas/Tinker collaberations , to learn what I like... and then will shift entirely to ATrims and full customs , from Tinker and Lundemo.
Why am I making this public announcement?
I have no idea !!!!
Sorry to bore you all to tears....
Cheers,
Marc
And ye shall know it by this sign.... thy swords shalt be split asunder , and cast down, even unto the Earth. Thy swords shalt be broken , even as thy old ways art broken, and if a man would be made whole again, he must arise, verily .and lift a new sword to the sky... the old shalt be no more , and the new shalt be born, in spirit and in steel....
My Shift in Focus ... and a good case for custom swords:
I've been contemplating a change for a while. I have long had a love of the sword... from earliest childhood it was European Cruciform swords that spoke to my spirit.
When I became old enough to study the sword though, in the early 90s , there was no way to learn the ways of European Sword Traditions, except perhaps sport fencing... even more so , there was almost no source for decent, affordable swords, of any type... in this pre-internet world, Cutlery World , at the mall , with their rat- tail , stainless fantasy swords were all you could find...
JSA was a tad bit more availiable, and antique Japanese swords, (shin-gunto, showato, shinshinto) were available to train with.
That is the path I chose , and I began a love affair with the Japanese Sword.
I guess it was 3.5 - 4 years ago, when I first got online... and discovered the newly blossoming world of the Production Katana... Sensei told me to purchase a Citadel Yoshi, and gave me a web address to find it... and slowly I discovered all the choices that were really developing at that time...
Well 4 years , and well over 100 kats later, I've heard a whispering in my soul to get back to my heritage , and study the sword arts of Europe, the home of my ancestors....
I've had more than a few Euros over the years, but never really connected with them... until recently when I got my first longsword... an ATrim 1508.
That sword , along with the new releases from VA/Trim and Cas/Tinker realy made me feel that th etime may have come to shift my focus.... to turn the corner .
Then, I stepped out with my favorite production katana, and got the sign I needed that the time had come...
This was a relatively new sword... almost unused.... its not the first of this model I've owned... matter of fact , I own two now... all in all I've had 5 or 6 of these pass through my hands.
This was the last new one in existence... the model was discontinued a year ago. The maker knew this was my favorite production kat, and shipped me the last one... I really liked it... it was a bit beefier than the model as whole was, and very sharp, and great geometry , with an exceptional saya...
The sword: Oni Forge Ryu:
So I took it out to do a bit of cutting, and on the Seventh Swing, came...
the Sign....
Now I hesitated hesitated to publicize this, because I hate to put the manufacturer in a negative light... as it is my favorite source of katana... but I have done my share of speaking out about other manufacturers whose swords failed, so in the interest of fairness, I share this.
Now there is nothing wrong with Oni Forge swords... hell, I've owned a BUNCH of them... pushed them pretty hard... and abused them too... never had a problem out of them.
This is instead a case of an individual sword, that the heat treat wasn't quite up to snuff on...
Which makes a good case for custom swords. The level of attention the smith gives to the creation of a custom sword can't be matched , even by the BEST of production sword manufacturers.
Don't get me wrong here... it didn't break dry handling it... and it didn't break on a water bottle... I did strike my stand with it... it would likely have lived a long life if all it had touched was waterbottles... but i would eventually have cut bamboo with it...
By the way this is ANOTHER good example of why to keep spectators CLEAR OF THE AREA
It DID NOT helicopter of death... but it COULD have.
Anyway, I took it as an omen that the time of change was indeed at hand... I still love katana, but my focus will be shifting to European Sword Collecting and Use for the foreseeable future.
I will begin my purchasing some of the new VA/TRIM and Cas/Tinker collaberations , to learn what I like... and then will shift entirely to ATrims and full customs , from Tinker and Lundemo.
Why am I making this public announcement?
I have no idea !!!!
Sorry to bore you all to tears....
Cheers,
Marc