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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2007 6:34:37 GMT
Hi everyone, My name is Garrett and I am in the process of researching/setting up an online retail front that will focus mainly on Chinese swords. My mission is to raise awareness and interest in Chinese swords especially for collectors and martial art practitioners. Prices will be under $300. Just for the record I am not a retailer yet. Just trying to see if anyone would be interested. (Japanese might be a possibility as a side offering, but honestly katanas don't really need my help.) Feedback from the sword enthusiast community would really help me with startup! So I thank you all for reading this! Here are some pics/details on the swords I can provide: Blade: 1095, through hardened, oil quenched, HRC 56/57 Furniture: will be pretty much exact replicas of existing antiques in lost wax/brass, only difference will be that scabbards will not have shark/ray skin on it...obviously to cut cost. Structural: tangs will be threaded and secured with a bolt. Pics: One difference is that my offerings won't be folded/laminated like the ones pictured. Some jian... PLEASE DISREGARD THESE JIAN THEY ARE OLD PRODUCTION AND WON"T BE PRODUCED. SCROLL DOWN TO SEE CURRENT LINEUP![](http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc4/gic102/0282.jpg) ![](http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc4/gic102/0207.jpg) ![](http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc4/gic102/0301.jpg) and an antique dao that will be reproduced...I'll get an actual pic later... ![](http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc4/gic102/dao001a.jpg) Please feel free to make suggestions and/or comment! edit: going to keep all the pics together...da dao![](http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc4/gic102/dadaob001.jpg) ![](http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc4/gic102/dadaob002.jpg) ![](http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc4/gic102/dadaob003.jpg) size reference: ![](http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc4/gic102/xxdadao2_175.jpg) CURRENT JIAN ![](http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc4/gic102/jian/dragon%20jian/dragon1.jpg) ![](http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc4/gic102/jian/flowery%20jian/flowery1.jpg) TESTING VIDEO:
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2007 8:51:36 GMT
Sounds like you're on to something. Katanas don't need any help, they have a big enough market as it is. Can't go anywhere and not see one. I personally would like to see you get setup. I have an interest in all swords, but can never find any good chinese blades. I personally, rather like third jian, the black and silver. Where are you or will you be based? how will you ship your products? I would like to hear more from you about this. I always have an interest in new companies. Hope things go well, and all the best.
--Niv
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2007 17:33:25 GMT
Ive always been interested in Chinese swords, though ironically the country that produces most swords has very few offerings of their own. I would be very interested in a new sub 300 line.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2007 18:52:30 GMT
Sounds like you're on to something. Katanas don't need any help, they have a big enough market as it is. Can't go anywhere and not see one. I personally would like to see you get setup. I have an interest in all swords, but can never find any good chinese blades. I personally, rather like third jian, the black and silver. Where are you or will you be based? how will you ship your products? I would like to hear more from you about this. I always have an interest in new companies. Hope things go well, and all the best. --Niv Hi Niv and lukebailey! thx for commenting! As for Niv's questions: I will be based in Canada. As our dollar is so high right now it's a really good time to import for us. However, America won't be left out! My prices and such will be market dictated and since there are many more Americans, of course I will bend over a little for the sake of the Chinese sword. Shipping will also be consumer dictated. If you prefer couriers like UPS I will do that. If post is preferred I will do that.
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Post by ShooterMike on Oct 13, 2007 19:38:57 GMT
Garrett,
Put me down for one Dao like the one in the picture, one that looks like a saber, not a willow leaf. If I like it and it works out well for me and they are available, I will likely want a willow leaf single-hander and a larger two-hand willow leaf as well.
Thanks, Mike
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2007 20:52:37 GMT
sounds good Mike.
just an fyi: dao that have straight blades and then curve at the center of percussion are called goose quill sabers. I'll probably have both willow leaf and goose quill at some point. As for two handers I will look into carrying historically accurate horse chopping sabers and/or miao dao although competition from katanas will likely be fierce as that is their domain. lol
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2007 21:28:06 GMT
No question, I'd like to see a greater number of Chinese swords in our range. I'd like to see a dadao at some point too. Something a little heavier duty than my Hanwei version, but more historical looking than Cold Steel's offering.
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Post by randomnobody on Oct 13, 2007 22:19:52 GMT
You've gained my interest. I've been thinking of branching out to explore the Chinese sword world for a while now, this seems like a fine chance.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2007 0:55:32 GMT
The dadao seems like a popular sword. It should be simple to make a historically accurate one as there are many still in existence from WW2. I'll think about adding it to my product line after I do a test run.
thx to everyone who replied so far...I'm really inspired by the feedback so far! ;D
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Razor
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Post by Razor on Oct 14, 2007 1:07:22 GMT
I voted yes . A dadao would be cool. Are you going to have any other daos?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2007 2:16:27 GMT
Ideally, I would like to offer select swords that have appeared throughout China's long history. As far as dao are concerned, some select pieces I'm particularly interested in are:
Sui/Tang dynasty dao (581-618AD/618-907AD) or what was exported to Japan as the chokuto or now infamously known as the ninjato.
and other dao that saw use from the Song dynasty (960-1279 AD) up to modern usage:
goose quill saber aka yan mao dao willow leaf saber aka liu ye dao oxtail saber aka niu wei dao horse chopping saber aka zhan ma dao great saber aka dadao
of course I won't be able to offer all of them right from start up but I'd like to over time. Pole arms might also be a possibilty but I doubt I'd offer the pole itself simply because of shipping costs.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2007 2:49:12 GMT
Have you also considered anything by the koreans? A good blade for gumdo might be well received as well.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2007 3:11:44 GMT
Damnit, i live in the wrong country but still interested, question is how exhorbitant are the shipping fees going to be?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2007 3:37:53 GMT
This is a great idea Garrett, it is very difficult to find good chinese swords for under $300. That Jian in the middle looks really cool I have never seen that style before (for some reason it looks somewhat Han dynastly like) do you have any info on it?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2007 4:51:51 GMT
If you can pull this of, I will worship you. Haha.
I'd totally be a customer though. As musashi pointed out, sub-300 dollar chinese blades are just too hard to find. It'd be a great addition to the market.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2007 6:43:46 GMT
My initial reaction was just change the Japaneses board to Asian but given how active that board is with over 300 topics and over 3000 posts, that would be dead wrong.
The question now is, should the new board be Chinese only, or Asian, to include Indian weapons. There has been some discussion of those in the past too. Asian would also include Chinese, Mongol, Mugal, Tibetan, Russian, Ottoman and many unique cultures from the Steps too.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2007 8:55:41 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2007 20:01:53 GMT
Have you also considered anything by the koreans? A good blade for gumdo might be well received as well. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of gumdo places in Canada. Also I won't pretend to know much about Korean swords so I think it would be better for someone else to handle it. but Korean swords are also definitely under represented. Bloodwraith, I really hope that shipping fees won't deter people from taking an interest so I'm prepared to absorb some of the shipping costs to have a wider spread. I would never dream of making money off shipping charges. I really like that one too Musashi, I believe that one is Qing dynasty albeit an unusual piece. The fittings and the hole through the grip are characteristically Qing. Han dynasty fittings are quite different and really stand out as they are seperated by over 1,400 years. Yes, Scott Rodell is a great guy promoting Chinese swordsmanship and such. I know what you mean krieg, the blade thicknesses of Hanwei's practical gong fu at 0.18" and dadao at 0.2" at the guard are just too thin to do any proper cutting. For comparison, Zheng Wu's thickness for the dadao is 0.3" 1.5 times thicker than Hanwei's which would make sense as it is translated as the great saber. It doesnt make sense to me to have a great saber that is thinner than normal sabers? edit: just wanted to post up a pic of wax model of a jian guard. ![](http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc4/gic102/waxmodel001.jpg)
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Razor
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Post by Razor on Oct 14, 2007 22:56:54 GMT
Kriegschwert could you please post the link to Scott's forum? Awesome guard Garrett !
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2007 23:20:02 GMT
So is Hanwei just saying that their Chinese swords are not suited to more traditional targets like bamboo? THat would make more sense to me, since the swords are very light and have thin blades by Chinese standards, and especially thin edges (as I noted in my Dadao review). When I got my Dadao, I knew immedeately that it wouldn't do well on hard targets due to the above factors, but it cuts bottles, thin newspaper rolls, etc. very well. On a related note, do you have any idea what thickness the blades on your swords will be? Also, it sounds like you're starting from scratch, so you will have more input on how the swords are made. I hope this is the case, so that you can avoid some of the problems that plague so many of the swords in our price range. For example, on the jians and sabers that have threaded tangs, make sure that the threads are an integral part of the tang, rather than welded on rods. Also, make sure that the tang and blade shoulders are radiused into one another, rather than at a sharp square angle, etc. ![8-)](//storage.forums.net/forum/images/smiley/cool.png) Razor, forum.grtc.org/index.php ![:)](//storage.forums.net/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png)
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