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Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2009 4:00:00 GMT
So, I got my shiny new swords and had a whack at some noodles and cups today. I have a lot to learn but I think I did ok. The cups are VERY hard to cut. But here are some pics: This is my makeshift stand (5 gallon bucket filled with sand and a PVC pipe to hold noodles and wooden dowels to sit cups/bottles on. The carnage from my first real battle against the foam and plastic horde I was particularly proud of this cut (not sure if I should be..lol) I wish I could slice the whole noodle like this, it would last longer! Got a long way to go and need to figure out how to put a razor edge on my katanas for those pesky cups. All of these cuts were made with the Musashi katana I purchased form Msmalik off this forum..) Can't wait to try out the Practical Plus XL...but gonna hold off for a bit more practice. My wooden dowel did suffer one gash today..( Let me know what you guys think. P.S. No, I'm not good enough to leave the cup sitting on the dowel after a cut...lol. I just placed it back there to show the setup, but ..yes..it definately fell off after the cut.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2009 5:28:02 GMT
Great job dnacomp. Looks like you survived the onslaught from the attacking hoard quite well.
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Post by YlliwCir on Feb 21, 2009 9:55:04 GMT
Nicely done, Dna, looks like your off to a great start.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2009 14:09:17 GMT
Thanks guys! The tips and info on this site are a great help and you guys are inspiring!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2009 8:42:25 GMT
plastic cups, that's cool, never thought of that or have seen that. I imagine they would be hard to cut since they have no weight practically. When I first started, here are a few things that really helped me out. Use a sword with bo hi like those musashis, and see if you can get the whistle sound when you swing it. That high pitched whistling sound is there when your blade alignment is good and you have decent speed. another thing that I used to do was over power my swings, don't use too much power, your sword should stop just a few inches after your target. See below for a good explanation. These videos are highly recommended! Here is one on noto (or reseathing the sword) And here is an example of the "whistling" sound. This video amazes me, you have no idea how hard it is to cut 4 mugen dachi omote rolled together like that. I usually cut half mats. This video is not to tell you to try to emulate what he is doing, but just to show you the perfect form, hear the sound, look at where he stops his blade, and how fluid the swing is. When you feel like you are ready to test cut tatami, order some from www.tameshigiri.com (or nihonzashi.com if you're on the east cost). Try cutting half mats, and you will get a good feel of your form. Cutting bottles, etc etc is a lot easier than cutting tatami because they are a lot more forgiving on form. These two websites I mentioned are the only real source of tatami omote. The rest of the places have goza or a beach mats, which are a lot easier to cut than the green tatami omote you see in that video. As a general rule, I have found that cutting a half mat from mugen dachi gives me the same resistance as 3-4 beach mats...so one mat is around 8ish beach mats from my experience.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 25, 2009 6:21:58 GMT
Thanks Malik! Very helpful videos +1 ;D
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2009 3:21:46 GMT
congrats on your first time cutting
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2009 14:16:14 GMT
Thanks crazy. Some of you guys should try the cups and let me know what you think. If they are close to or harder than water bottles as far as skill goes then they will be a good substitute for cheap sword fodder
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Post by Tom K. (ianflaer) on Feb 26, 2009 15:54:20 GMT
I am fairly sure that empty cups are close to the same difficulty as empty water bottles, meaning pretty hard. as stated above they will have very little weight thus they'll want to fly away instead of cut. if you edge alignment is right on and you generate lots of blade speed you could even get a cut that leave the bottom standing, and that's quite a feat. take a look in the coolest cuts gallery and you'll se several really good cuts including one I did on an empty bottle that I'm quite proud of.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2009 17:25:18 GMT
Congrats on your first cutting dnacomp! I just recently did my first cutting too. Lots of fun - isn't it? I really like your pool noodle stand +1 Cutting empties is harder (but certainly not as messy ). Hanging paper is also a good indoor target option. You can make stand with a dowel across the top to hold the paper. I like paper because it gives me very nice visual feedback on the direction and follow through of my cut (is it where I was aiming? - or not ). Debbie
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Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2009 13:22:52 GMT
Thanks Tom: I saw some of your vids...AWESOME! I particularly like your work with the shield/buckler. I love the way you keep yourself protected at all times. Great disciplined swordsmanship! I'm still working on my technique to get the speed to leave the bottom of the cup on the dowel, that's gonna be quite the feat with that little circle of wood as a base Thanks Debbie! I think I need to devise a paper hanger I really like that idea! I use that same tactic with students for board breaking. If they can break paper it shows them and area they hit and the angle they are hitting as well as confirming the speed of the technique...don't know why I hadn't thought to do that with the swords. Also, do you study gumdo? Thought I saw somewhere that you did. If so I'd love to discuss it with you sometime. Jim
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Post by Tom K. (ianflaer) on Feb 27, 2009 14:51:12 GMT
Thanks Jim, yeah if you can leave the bottom of an empty cup standing that will be a great cut and I will want to have it for the Cool Cuts Archive. I'm already impressed that you are cutting them empty at all. it's hard. you're doing very well keep at it, you'll blow past me soon enough. ;D
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2009 4:58:18 GMT
Cutting plastic cups is hard from a technique point of view not the density of the material. My sensei used to cut plastic cups, the hardest cuts to make on plastic cups are kesa style cuts because the cup has a tendency to want to "scrunch" on you if your edge is not perfectly aligned. The guy in those videos -whilst I cringe at the fact that he wasn't wearing an obi with his katana- was making some impressive cuts. From the photos it looks like you are "scooping" the cut, so instead of cutting straight through you are "curving" the blade and pulling it off line leaving long spikes attached to the foam; not every cut does this but much like open handed martial arts technique is everything.
Apologies for the ramble, I do go on a bit.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2009 17:36:39 GMT
Thanks Blood! That's exactly the kind of feedback I need. I'll be posting some vids soon, nothing great but maybe enough to get some advice from.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2009 18:21:55 GMT
pastics cups must be hard to cut, they have NO weight. I usually like something that gives feedback, like milk jugs filled with water, beach mats, or tatami.
That cutting free standing paper is also fun, you should try that!
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