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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2010 8:06:45 GMT
What are your experiences with one handed sparring swords (jian)?
In terms of safety and feel, how do the WJL poly swords compare with the RSW padded jian, and how do those compare with wooden blunts, and the handling of a good real jian?
Are there any other specific varieties that people have found to be good?
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 22, 2010 8:28:21 GMT
That's a difficult question, Keshi, so first, welcome to SBG! As for your question, I think it's going to be somewhat subjective and depend on person to person. I'd never heard of the WJL swords until just now, but they sound, in principle, to be almost exactly the same as Cold Steel's polypropylene swords and what I've heard of those varies greatly depending on who you ask, but the general consensus seems to be that, yes, they are nearly indestructible, but many people I've heard talking about them say they feel dead in the hand, for whatever reason.
The RSW swords, I believe, were meant to mimic the look of the sword they were based upon while taking maximum safety into consideration, which I believe would probably greatly affect the balance and handling of them; I've never handled one, so I can only speculate on that.
Personally, I prefer solid hardwood when dealing with training weapons. To me, they best replicate the heft, feel, and balance of a real sword, meaning that they are hands down top in my books. I've used several wooden swords, as well as shinai, and while the shinai would be safer to use than hardwood (the main reason it was invented), I hate the weight and balance of it; it's too quick in hand, it's too light, and feels absolutely nothing like a real sword. And I know many will disagree with me for saying this, but my opinion is that, plain and simple, nothing teaches you to duck and dodge like the solid crack of a wooden sword against your thumb or your skull or your shoulder or wherever you get hit. You get hit a few times, you learn not to be there anymore. You don't get that with any of the safer alternatives.
However, that's deviating from the point. The gist is, it'll deviate from person to person, as with anything. If it's wood you're wanting, I think Raven Studios would be best; other than that, I'd say RSW or WJL would be good since they seem to be intended for full contact sparring without any potentially nasty side effects.
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Post by Taiwandeutscher on Oct 23, 2010 0:17:13 GMT
www.black-dragon-swords.de/schwert.htmSorry, the link is to a German site, but one can see the palstic swords, close to the outer shape of a metal blade. But haven't used them personally, only wielded in my hand, a bit on the heavy side, but still ok. And that's the point: The more the training weapon and the real blade differ in weight, pob, thickness etc., the more does ist hamper abilities with real swords. It is an unsolvable problem. In Zhuangzi, we read that hundreds of swords men injured each other with cuts and worse during training under a noble sponsor. That is out of the question for us nowadays, nobody goes live with real blades, or do you? So, I personally have 3 kinds of swords in my arsenal: There is a steal blunt, covered in chrome, totally easy to handle, no cleaning ever needed, which I use for soloform training and very soft 2-men-stes (fixed choreography), for some 25 years allready. I have 2 high end carbon swords (also 3 sabres of different style), I use for cutting sessions, which are quite seldomly done, even bamboo, dry and green, is abundant near my house. But the swords take time to clean, rub warm and oil, before going back into the sheath. On a normal workday, I feel happy if I can train an hr or two in the morning or evening, no time to clean another hr. And the blades are so sharp that I rather be concentrated 100%. Lately, I saw someone cutting his calf, being too casual. So, always be fit and alert, working with such real blades. And remember, a sword is not a sabre, no haking or too strong cutting. Thirdly, I use wooden stuff for application training. We have redwood wasters, which waste very quickly, so we changed to one bamboo shinai against one redwood weapon. Lots of fun and bruises, but as shapes, weights and pob are very different, we are aware of the realtive strong divergence to application with real blades. I know, many people say you only can train with one sword, all training. But my daily training reality is just different!
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Post by Lancelot Chan on Oct 27, 2010 7:27:05 GMT
Just to add that besides trying to simulate the look with consideration on safety, we also simulate the exact weight and balance of a real jian (not the wushu ones) with RSW. This has an effect on the speed and power one can execute with his techniques.
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 27, 2010 7:30:13 GMT
Thanks for clearing that up, Lancelot; I've honestly been wondering about that and, my preference for wooden swords aside, was one of the main things that was preventing me from considering them. Now that I know that, I may have to reconsider them seeing as you're one of the few people who have spears as well as swords.
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Post by Lancelot Chan on Oct 27, 2010 13:25:57 GMT
I know most sparring swords available in the market were usually of lighter weight than their real counterparts. Sometimes it's for the reason of safety, and the other time for the ease of use on the users. However, many years ago, I and my friends have started practicing with real swords and test cut with them as well, thus we wanted to be able to spar with something that felt exactly like our real swords. That was why we chose to replicate actual weight and balance. At the end it meant a big difference during some sparring matches. For example, when a guy with jian was sparring with someone with a cut and thrust European sword, the difference could be quite significant. While both swords could be considered as the same class, a civilian dueling sword, the jian could generate a more powerful attacks due to its further out balance, and still moving around fast in a unique manner because of its overall lightweight as well. The cut and thrust sword, while heavier in overall weight, felt lighter in the tip due to the complex hilt configuration. It would move around quickly in another manner. These factors would make an interesting match, not to mention being more accurate to their respective style.
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