Question regarding hanwei damascus tai chi sword

Thanks. So did the handle get smashed up by the nut or did the guard thing got squished up because you say you have to keep tightening the nut up again and again,... so that mean the sword must be either loose on the guard or pommel.. will that tightening break the handle or crack the wood? did you try using locktite or anything to lock the nut in place?

Wow, lighter than the jade lion sword, that is very light. From photos, I thought it was heavy or about the weight of the jade lion sword. Tricky outlook.. and can you bend the blade with ease? like the normal regular dragonwell swords kinda semi-flexy?

Not so sharp meaning the edge can or cannot cut paper with ease?

I'm with blackthorn on this one, the blade was a bit to thin to cut, and the tang on mine was way to thin for the handle so it moved around, that is why I had to keep tightening the nut, eventually I wrapped electrical tape around the tang just so it would hold better in the handle. I would say if you want a light sword for forms get it, but if you want something more durable there are better options.

They make a lot of good swords from other cultures, unfortunately only some of their Chinese swords are really made for cutting. Their Japanese and European swords are very good. A shame really considering they are made in China, the Chinese swords get the least attention...

I'm learning about my Chinese history now that I'm also learning taiji. What I find amzing is that for a nation that was "once considered the wealthiest, most inventive and most technologically advanced in the world" (China Condensed: 5000 Years of History & Culture By Siew Chey Ong) had declined so far - the blind focus on the 12 century old outdated civil service examinations that focussed only on literature (ignoring sciemce/technology) and corrupt examination officials wasted the talents of many brilliant minds, the complacency of the Ming dynasty, thinking it was so far ahead it ceased forward progress, and closed itself off from learning from any other nation, and the final nail in the coffin was the corrupt Qing dynasty's concubine of Emperor Xianfeng, the empress dowager Cixi, who became leader and sent China so much faster to its total decline.

So different from the Three Kingdoms period I've been learning about with the Battle of Red Cliffs, General Guan Yu...

To be fair I think almost every culture and their history is like that, their are the fictional stories that make people from history glorified heroes, but if you research the real history it's far from the truth. I believe the William Wallace story from Scotland is much like that if i remember correctly. Truth is Society likes to have heroes to look up to and glorify, and later many of these heroes from stories become "gods" that are respected and worshiped.

Shame though I like the three kingdoms novel.

Hi Mak, yes I do know "The Romance of The Three Kindgdoms" story is fictional, it's classic Chinese literature, its a great story and fun to read. :lol:

I'm actually learning the real history of how the three kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu really fought each other, the real battle of Red Cliffs and Cao Cao and his attempts to unite China. It's really fascinating history.

With Guan Yu, yes, like all cultures, they mythologise the person and make them legendary,bigger than real life! it's been said that historically Guan Yu probably didn't use ayan yue dao ("reclining moon blade") at all. Historically he played a major role in the civil war that brought down the Han dynasty and led to the creation of the state of Shu Han which had Liu Bei as its first emperor. We was a historically important militart leader, and yes they did make him a god!

As Nox said, every culture does the same, they create ideals to which people look up to and aspire to be like. William Wallace in the stories is portrayed as a poor man, he was in fact an aristocrat. Look at the stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, the real history is lost in myth. The Japanese, their whole history is one big myth and so is a lot of their culture, and it's all copied from China! :shock:

Oh, when it comes to fiction from movies and books, all the BS about katanas is the worst in my opinion! The whole 'cult of the katana', the fictional virtuous samurai warrior, and the whole Code of Bushido was all drawn from fictional stories by the Japanese governemnt to create a national identity because Japan had an identity crisis when they became modernised in the Meiji restoration period. Katanas chopping through machine gun barrels, the most powerful swords in the world, It's all a load of rubbish and many kids obsessed with anime/manga believe it all!

Such is life...

I too really like the historically accurate Chinese films that show the military weapons they really did use at the time.

Hahaha.. well yes I do agree, a sword / jian / gim is harder to master for any beginners because basically people can go straight into katana and learn it from zero-knowledge on any martial art form. Like you can learn nothing but just katana and you can get good at it too.

Chinese sword is different, you MUST start from a form of kungfu, or I should say a style or lineage of kungfu and let the lineage teach you their sword art and styles. There are many what we call foundational training before you even can touch a sword and call yourself a swordsman. These include the wrist , arm and body conditioning. Just like in many kungfu styles, just learning the techniques is useless because you are just doing your flowery moves but with no real power in it and so they can't be applied in real life, even you get it right, it's not going to work. Same to jian as well, you MUSt possess a different kind of power in your body in order to even use that weapon for real. That is why Chinese sword is not easy to learn. Especially if you are in taichi styles sword, you are basically really just doing your "dance' instead of learning what real sword art is about. Seriously most tai chi master don't even know how to fight with a blade, it's a truth that many don't want to accept. Yeah you do tai chi sword form, now how to use them in combat? Let all BS begins..I was a victim before and that is why I shatter my own fantasizing crap later on and get into the real thing. hahaha!

It's hard! I do agree! In the past, there is a saying...

You start with the fist and practice it everyday for the rest of your life.. then you can master the art of a single blade broadsword (dao) in 100 days, you can master the spears in 1000 days and the sword for 10000 days... it's a metaphor, but you get the idea of which one is hardest to master and learn. That's why to Chinese martial artist, a single edge weapon like a katana is really not hard to learn, we can pickup a katana and use it with ease too, even with a single hand, but with spears and jian, it's totally different world.

I do respect that art of katana though, not saying it's rubbish or anything, just that as a Chinese martial artist, I favor jian more for personal preference. Btw, did you see that guy chopping airsoft BBs on youtube? That guy with the katana is insane man, haha! I don't doubt that kind of alien exist in jian too! (not me!)

But coming from Euro styles, the Jian isn't so bad. Much like a later period Roman or a Viking blade. The more elegant stuff takes more work, but coming at it from that angle, even the difficult stuff becomes quite functional somewhat easily. It's making it Look as good as it works that takes forever.

The worst part was adjusting to the different grip. Amazing how much difference thumb position makes.

On people knowing history: This isn't a purely modern problem. What is sad is that easy access to that history has not had an impact on how widespread the knoledge of that history is.