For People who have Practise swords I have a question

[Treebranch]

Learn to use a bokken and get some instruction before you buy a live blade. They are very sharp and if you don't know how to handle a blade you could seriously hurt yourself or someone else. Paul Chen Practical is a good starter sword, but the balance is a little front heavy and the tsuka is glued on, which sucks. The Practical Plus is excellent and if someone broke one they don't know what they're doing, but this sword is a little more expensive and worth it. Be careful.

[Jian]

You have to be careful when looking for a sword. I find that most are unbalanced, just made for demonstration or they are made to break if you hit something too hard (make sure people don't go crazy with them). Oh and generally stay away from any of them that have fancy anything on them.

[Treebranch]

Check out the New Line of Last Legend Katanas they're pretty sweet. Thinking of buying one very soon.

 

https://www.shadowofleaves.com

[Grenadier]

In terms of using a Paul Chen Practical Plus Katana (aka the PPK), there are a good number of folks who use it for tameshigiri work, but limit their strokes to softer targets, such as soaked straw tatami.

The PPK is a step up from the Paul Chen Practical Katana (aka the PK). I simply wouldn't recommend someone using a PK for tameshigiri purposes, although using the PPK seems fine, given that they are a good bit more stable.

A bit of warning, regarding the Paul Chen production blades... The quality of such production blades has been somewhat inconsistent as of lately. Given the shortages of the steels they use (the Chinese have been buying up lots of steel these days, driving up prices), a larger amount of their blades have had some defects. An honest retailer of their products, though, will carefully inspect each blade before selling them, but a blade bought on eBay might not be as carefully scrutinized.

Getting a sword for cutting purposes isn't going to be cheap. At the very least, something like a PPK, a Last Legend Mark I (or their new equivalent), or a Kris Cutlery katana, is about as low as you would want to go. At the same time, though, unless the original poster has a good bit of $$$ to burn, a Bugei / Trim / Howard Clark katana is overkill, and might not be the best choice at this time.

The experience of the swordsman is the most important factor here. I've seen experienced practitioners do just fine with a 250 dollar Kris Cutlery katana, compared with the inexperienced cutter using a Bugei (you probably know of whom I am speaking) that couldn't cut a single soaked tatami (and ended up hacking the thick dowel rod several times).

The most important factor here, is that you get some training in sword use. You need to learn the proper mechanics, as well as techniques, when it comes to handling and swinging that piece of steel. It's simply too dangerous for an inexperienced person to start training with a shinken (sharpened sword).

If you cannot afford / find any place to train in such things, please (we beg you!) go to http://forums.swordforum.com and post a notice in the "Practice Partner" forum. You'd be surprised at who's in your area. Those forums are also a great source of sword knowledge of all types.

If you still can't find anything, then start out with a bokken (wooden sword), or, if you are adamant about training with steel, get an iaito (unsharpened sword). There are many high quality iaito available constructed of the same steels as the high quality shinken.

[Samurai Shotokan]

ok thanks but can you tell me the different levels of cuttings ?? So i know limits

like

Light

Meduim

Heavy Cutting

[Grenadier]

ok thanks but can you tell me the different levels of cuttings ?? So i know limits

like

Light

Meduim

Heavy Cutting

I strongly suggest signing up over at http://forums.swordforum.com

Even if you don't sign up, there are all sorts of good threads regarding sword training, that you would find very useful, even if just to browse.

A hasty summary of soft vs hard cutting:

Soft targets are easier to cut, and easier on the sword. Targets such as rolled tatami (mats made out of rice straw, soaked in water hours before cutting), are quite common, and single mats rolled up make great targets for the inexperienced (but please do this under trained supervision!). As you get more and more experience, you can roll up two mats at a time, and try cutting them.

Harder targets are ones such as piles of bamboo lashed together, known as goza. Doing consistent cutting of bamboo piles will be a lot tougher on your sword's edge.

Some swords are better for cutting softer targets, while others will be better at cutting harder targets. You really don't want to cut things harder than bamboo goza, unless you really don't care about the sword (and if that's the case, shame on you!). You also want a high quality sword for cutting purposes, not some cheap sub-100 dollar mail order fascimilie.

Again, I urge you to check out the sword forums. Lots of very knowledgeable people, and a good number of sword makers are there to help.

[yamesu]

Grenadier, your posts are quite accurately unquestionable.

May i ask, do you belong to any ''specific'' sword school?

[Grenadier]

May i ask, do you belong to any ''specific'' sword school?

Thanks for the kind words.

At this time, I don't belong to a specific kendo / kenjutsu dojo. I haven't attended such a school in over a decade, after Sensei moved out of the country.

At the current Karate dojo, though, we do have a kobudo class on Saturdays, that at least gives me a chance to swing a bokken (or katana in some cases), or a bo. While it's not the same thing as a dojo specific to kendo / kenjutsu, at least there are a couple of sword-owning folks (who have also had sword training) that are more than happy to mix it up with some bamboo shinai.

I'm trying to see if I can get enough people in the kobudo class, that have swords appropriate for cutting drills, together to hold a tameshigiri class, as I do have about 15 rice straw tatami left, and a target stand that I just finished building...