Hanwei Chinese Qi Jian

Iv sent hanwei an e mail asking about just how sharp the qi jian is .I should imagine strength wise it should be pretty strong as its all forged out of one billet of steel ,from the tip all the way down .

Thanks for the info,would it still stand up to some light cutting without being sharpened?Any chance of you posting some pics ?It would be appreciated as I am considering getting one from KOA myself as I see they have come down in price.

Ure any specific areas you would like pics of? I think the blade would bat bottles across the yard with its stock sharpness, but it seems well designed and tempered I think with a propped edge it would be a lightsabre. Thing feels weightless almost. Balance is almost at the guard.

Not very whippy at all, actually. I'll take the pictures when I get home from work tonight.

Hey. I forgot to take those pics for you last night, but I got them this morning. I don't have a card reader here at work though, so I'll upload them when I get home this evening.

Thank you ,as they say "a picture is worth a thousand words".It looks great and iv now just put my order in at KOA for my very own Qi-jian . Iv decided to also order the CS Gim to use for cutting ,so iv gone from being strictly a katana guy to now having 2 chinese swords ,ha ha .

Don't waste your money with Zheng Wu swords. Some come out nice but they have problems with consistency of quality. Also their blades are just flattened diamond shape.

This concept of buying cheap and upgrading later is a fallacy that only costs you more money in the end. If you do want to save, then the first sword you should get is a quality wooden one so you can practice drills and freeplay which is vital to developing true swordsmanship skills. Then save up for a sword which is designed/rated for cutting. (I give this advice after doing it myself. I came into this interest over 10 years ago, when their wasn't many Chinese Swords available. I bought the Lung Chuan wushu crap sword, then Kris Cutlery Gim, Hanwei Practical Tai Chi sword, a Daryl Guertin Bat jian). They all had something lacking and by then I'd spent enough to buy an antique.

With the Rodell Cutting jian now available for very low prices, don't even bother with stuff like the Qi jian and others not designed for cutting. You'll only waste your money and potentially injure your self or others if it breaks.

Currently with the Rodell Jian and Jin-Shi, you have quality swords with appearance/handling based on antiques. With Jin-shi, Garrett has access to my collection of over 10 antiques to study and continuously improve the historical accuracy. With the Rodell jian a world renowned expert helped design it. Unfortunately, many of the Chinese forges have NOT handled seen many antiques and their pieces always lack that certain quality of handling you only learn after you handle a few antiques. In that regard, the latest Jin-shi pieces surpass even Huanuo in terms of balance and handling.

I envy the situation today where there are modern affordable jian that are historically accurate. When I started, there was nothing. Unfortunately the less robust/accurate swords are out there. With the ones not rated for cutting, you risk serious injury, it's just not worth it, especially since some of them cost MORE than the Hanwei cutting jian.

From my talks with Garret he can make nearly anything Zheng Wu can as most of the sword furniture is prefab. He just doesn't have the resources to pull off the San Mai welding so if you see something at Zheng email Garret the picture, chances are he can make it. Case in point: I wanted the Han ring jian from Zheng and Garret had the same sword but as a single edge. He told me he could forge a folded double edged jian blade for it and now I'm just waiting for my sword