Question on Topic Posting

It sounds like you went to the right place. In all likeliness, probably no one has a response yet. You could try to post it here as well.

More or less. Most people have these rather boring things called 'lives', you see, that get in the way of SBG. :lol: The people who have the answers to your questions may not be online very often.

I did. I read it several times and couldn't figure out what to say tactfully.

We're supposed to be the friendliest sword forum on the 'net, but okay; your funeral...

To put it quite bluntly, all three sound somewhat insane and, truthfully, more than a little impractical, from what I could puzzle out about them; I really couldn't get a decent picture in my head of what you had in mind, but what I could imagine didn't make any sense whatsoever.

The first sword catcher sounds like a bladed jutte of sorts, which makes no sense since jutte were rarely employed as sword catchers. Your concepts of leverage regarding the forward curve is, honestly, a little weird. I've never heard of anything like that, even though my own experience with sharp swords is rather limited. Also, given what I'm picturing, it sounds like it'd be incapable of serving its purpose without catching the opposing weapon at just the right angle.

The second is even more confusing. It sounds like a farmer's hand sickle or an extremely short Chinese hook sword. Frankly, I'd drive myself further into insanity's clutches trying to figure it out. From your description, it sounds like the top of a hook sword put on a hand saw's D-handle so it could be used like a push knife, but that can't be right because something like that would be nearly impossible to use without precise timing and, due to the limited cutting surface, be almost pointless outside that purpose.

As to the handcuff staff, well, no offense, but it sounds like something you pulled out of a cartoon. The mechanism needed to open and close the locks would essentially make the staff little more than a half-hollow tube, particularly since it would need to split apart. Plus, even if that didn't weaken it severely, the handcuffs on the end would completely defeat the staff as a striking weapon since you'd be striking with the cuffs, which would then bend under any kind of blow. As for the cuffs themselves, unless you had a quick release mechanism, once you had someone cuffed, they would stay cuffed until you released them, but if you've got more than one or two opponents, that's just raising the white flag as far as I'm concerned. It'd be like a knife thrower having two knives, but three targets. Plus, wood is a lot smoother than skin, particularly when sanded (and usually treated) for use in martial arts. All it would really take is one good tug from someone stronger than yourself and you could find you're the one being tossed to the ground.

See why I didn't say anything earlier? There's just no way I could put it tactfully.

A jutte was actually used as a small club by police, similar to modern day knight sticks, as well as something to poke pressure points, tangle clothes, and otherwise help the officer deal with a suspect. It would have only been used as a sword catcher in the most extreme of instances because of how small it was, and especially how small the tines were, and how fast a sword would have been going. It just would have been almost impossible to catch; if you missed, it's likely it would have taken your arm off. That's why the quillions on a butterfly knife in CMA can be used for such, but generally aren't.

Well, it would depend on how you do it, to tell the truth. If you took my envisioning of it, a very short hook sword, you could use it as a parrying dagger, taking advantage of the small amount of space between the bladed guard and the blade of the hook to catch a sword and then jerk it to the side or in a circle or up and to the side and you could create an opening for your own attack or even disarm the opponent. And because it has several blades, including a short dagger in place of a pommel, it's still weapon enough to be used as one.

Metal will bend and break if hit hard enough, particularly metal thin enough to be adjustable.

Yeah. I originally thought that, too, since I couldn't figure out any other purpose given its small size (average is 18"; this is also the modern standard). In juttejutsu, you learn to use it as a sword catcher, but I imagine you would have to block the sword at an angle so that it slid into the gap between the tine and then disarm the swordsman. But mainly it's a striking implement used to aim at the soft points on the body.

Ah, well, that's the main part that was confusing me because you mentioned an Aikidoka being able to make great use of it, but everything I've seen of Aikijo has led me to believe it is used primarily in quick striking blows.

The blade catcher concept sounds a great deal like a weapon the samurai used called a hachiwara. It was (to my limited knowledge) used in the "off-hand" as a defensive weapon when facing multiple apponents. It could be used to block or catch an opponents sword and some examples were sharpened to have some offensive applications as well. Also sometimes referred to as a helmet breaker, even though not really likely to be used for that purpose.

This is a thread from to old forum that contains some pretty good links as well as some photos of some different examples. Some purely designed for defense, some sharpened to be used as weapons as well.

sbgswordforum.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=otherweapons&action=display&thread=17859

Hope this helps you with your design.

MT