Sai, the Kobudo weapon of choice.

[SteyrAUG]

After 30+ years I have some familiarity with the weapon.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y145/SteyrAUG/K2_zpse971dbb8.jpg

Chatan Yara no Sai circa 1982.

A little sai vs. katana...

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y145/SteyrAUG/K1_zpsee1aed17.jpg

We believed we were incredibly skilled and could thus train like this with live blades. We were very, very, very lucky we got away with it without significant incident. Traded some decent thwacks with the sai that were sore for several days but nothing more than that.

Worst was when we free sparred sai vs. sai. Because there was no sharp katana involved we felt we could go at it with a bit more gusto and speed confident we could arrest any serious strike before impact. And while nobody ended up in the emergency room our fingers were just mashed.

When you stop a sai moving with real intent with another sai and you do it with enough repetition eventually fingers get in the way and it isn't the sai that give way.

Again, really lucky nobody was seriously hurt.