hanwei adam hsu jian

Well technically you can but I recommend against it. Adam Hsu jian weighs about 1/2 a normal sword and part of reason is because has a small blade. If you sharpen it it will not be an effective tool. I personally would not cut with it

If you want a sharp jian at that price range, I will go with practical tai chi by Hanwei. Practical tai chi is okay for the price; same construction as Adam Hsu but only plastic. I personally would not own one because it is design for practice and not really for cutting (none of Hanwei jian is recommended for cutting actually).

If you would want to get a "functional" as in real cutting sword, I would recommend contacting Garett from jin-shi trading at www.jin-shi.com

You can get a functional but plain jian (very limited stock) at around $200 a piece without shipping. Don't forget to ask for SBG 5 percent discount from him.

Edit: I forgot, if you want another option for decent production jian you can get a cold steel gim from trueswords.com at around $250. Maybe a tad heavy but a great cutting sword. Paul did a review on it too.

As usual, just my $.02

You're welcome.

Actually Adam Hsu sword is great for beginners practicing tai chi IMO because it is light (too light for me) and it is study in construction, unlike $30 sword like object from Chinatown. However it is not a good representation of a true antique jian because it is not built for cutting at all. If you want the "real deal" only for performing you can ask Garrett to make you a custom unsharpened jian.

In that case I would not recommend that you buy a hanwei jian, even the high end dynasty jian are not suitable for cutting. Of course that is just my 2 cents.

Cold steel gim ($250 from trueswords.com), Garrett jin-shi plain jian (closeout ~$200, not sure if there are still available) and Kris Cutlery latest jian III ($275, no reviews on latest KC jian...yet) are all within SBG $300 price range. Functional swords to my knowledge.

is that garrett's.com?