My first katana and first real cutting test:
Mar 21, 2007 15:42:24 GMT
Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2007 15:42:24 GMT
Hello all,
Not long ago I bought my first katana from MRL. It is not a Windless sword, but a katana made by Master Cutlery (out of China). It was called the Practical Katana or something. It cost me $169.00 before taxes.
After nearly 40 years of handling sabres and such that katana felt so different in a great sort of way. Just so light and well balanced and fast. Man is it a well balanced, light and fast sword!
Anyway, it came very sharp so I decided to do a true cutting test. I bought a couple of those official rolled up cutting mats and a little stand to stand them up in. It stood about 5' tall.
I have been owning and handling swords since I was 16 years old (I am now 51). But that was basically just owning them, handling and practicing moves, etc., with a couple of Viking swords but mainly sabres.
I was in a CW cav reenacting unit for a few years and we studied Cooke's Cav Tactics and practiced the sabre drill in it, both on foot and mounted. We used to gallop our horses along between twin rows of posts with fruit, etc, on top of them and practice our sabre cuts that way. We would also ride along and practice our thrusts on stuff croker sacks suspended for that reason or our coordination by putting the point through small rings suspended from something as we rode by (that was hard!).
But this is my first Katana and first test using a true cutting mat rather than some pumpkin or something.
I thought it would be hard to cut as it appears to me to be a tough mat material like would be unrolled on a floor. So I took a couple of pratice swings with both hands, based on what I could remember of seeing it done on documentaries, my one Kendo class, friends who were into Martial Arts had shown me, etc., etc.. I then swung that katana and stepped through as I did so with a sort of pull to cut as I swung it at the same time. I felt absolutely no resistance! I thought for a second that I had missed it somehow until I saw a four inch section of the mat rolling around on the floor. I had cut through it so cleanly and quickly I had felt no resistance and actually thought I had missed it! What a great feeling that was!
I then took it outside and tried it one handed, both forward and backhanded horizontally with a slight diagonal angle. Those cuts too were clean cuts, although I felt it a bit more than when I used two hands and made the mat and its stand fall over one time.
I am saving the other mat to use with a saber one of these days.
Well I reckon I had better close for now.
Take care,
Freebooter
Alabama
Not long ago I bought my first katana from MRL. It is not a Windless sword, but a katana made by Master Cutlery (out of China). It was called the Practical Katana or something. It cost me $169.00 before taxes.
After nearly 40 years of handling sabres and such that katana felt so different in a great sort of way. Just so light and well balanced and fast. Man is it a well balanced, light and fast sword!
Anyway, it came very sharp so I decided to do a true cutting test. I bought a couple of those official rolled up cutting mats and a little stand to stand them up in. It stood about 5' tall.
I have been owning and handling swords since I was 16 years old (I am now 51). But that was basically just owning them, handling and practicing moves, etc., with a couple of Viking swords but mainly sabres.
I was in a CW cav reenacting unit for a few years and we studied Cooke's Cav Tactics and practiced the sabre drill in it, both on foot and mounted. We used to gallop our horses along between twin rows of posts with fruit, etc, on top of them and practice our sabre cuts that way. We would also ride along and practice our thrusts on stuff croker sacks suspended for that reason or our coordination by putting the point through small rings suspended from something as we rode by (that was hard!).
But this is my first Katana and first test using a true cutting mat rather than some pumpkin or something.
I thought it would be hard to cut as it appears to me to be a tough mat material like would be unrolled on a floor. So I took a couple of pratice swings with both hands, based on what I could remember of seeing it done on documentaries, my one Kendo class, friends who were into Martial Arts had shown me, etc., etc.. I then swung that katana and stepped through as I did so with a sort of pull to cut as I swung it at the same time. I felt absolutely no resistance! I thought for a second that I had missed it somehow until I saw a four inch section of the mat rolling around on the floor. I had cut through it so cleanly and quickly I had felt no resistance and actually thought I had missed it! What a great feeling that was!
I then took it outside and tried it one handed, both forward and backhanded horizontally with a slight diagonal angle. Those cuts too were clean cuts, although I felt it a bit more than when I used two hands and made the mat and its stand fall over one time.
I am saving the other mat to use with a saber one of these days.
Well I reckon I had better close for now.
Take care,
Freebooter
Alabama