What is your favorite sword?

[Kenji]

My favorite sword is the katana. To me it is the perfect sword. It has great balance, durability, power, its easy to wield, it has a perfect length, an intresting history, and it looks nice.

Anyway enough about my favorite sword. Which sword do you martial artists prefer and why?

[ky_]

the katana is a fine sword but i have a great love for the wakisashi, it has real close up killing power and is alot better for impaling people.
p.s does the tanto count as a sword?

[williamson]

Yes, tanto counts as a sword.

Tan= short

To= sword

[ky_]

thank you

[Jeff Burger]

no question.....light saber



Jeff

[rpnp]

I like the double tiger hook swords....

[Kenji]

Watch out rpnp, if Jay Bell hears you like hook swords he'll say that you have no business saying that, if you haven't attended an official hook sword school. :laugh:

[Jay Bell]

Kenji,

I'm sorry...does me calling you out on the basis that you have no kenjutsu experiance bother you?

Then don't talk about what you don't know.

[Kenji]

Why yes Jay I do study kenjutsu, so nice of you to point that out. :D

And I'd appreciate it if you stayed on subject, and stop trashing up this forum with your anger.

Has anyone heard of a buster sword?

[RA Miller]

I have a Spanish Police officer's dress sword which has some of the finest steel I've ever seen. When I was asking around to find out what I had, a swordsmith took it, bent the tip to touch the handle (nearly causing me to both have a heart attack and commit murder) and it sprang back perfectly true. I was young and stupid, so I played with the blade a little. It parried other steel blades without a nick.

I also have "Unimpeded" a gift from my wife. Single edged, 41" long and it goes through bone like it isn't there. Literally- I use it to butcher livestock. (Sorry, PETA) As much as eighteen inches of bone lengthwise, not from a strike but just letting the weight of the blade come down from the shoulder.

There was a blade I was too poor to buy. A very talented smith had carefully recreated some old english battle swords. The first thing was that the feel was completely different. Since the advent of fencing, the idea of blade balance has changed a lot, with the expectation that the blade should be used for defense. You picked up this weapon and it wanted to leap out of your hand in a driving slash. You could hear it whisper "Hit and hit hard, you will never need to defend with me!"

I guess blades are too individual for me to name a type that I prefer.

Rory

[Kenji]

Well Rory, you're definitely lucky to come across such unique swords.

I've never heard of anyone using a sword to butcher livestock :laugh: I should give this idea to my uncle in Montana. It sounds like a great way to test your blade and not have to kill anyone in the process.

I'd like to visit Ireland and see the products of the swordsmiths there. I heard they are some of the best in the world.

I also like my two-handed sword. Its not an antique or anything. But it is sure powerful. About a week ago, I was stupidly swinging it around my room when I accidently hit my sword stand, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that one of the hooked pieces of wood, that holds a sword, was cut clean off. And the blade wasn't damaged at all. Don't underestimate the strength of 440 stainless steel!

[ky_]

isnt a buster sword like 7 feet long? and 1 foot surface?.

[Kenji]

I'm not sure about the length, but I know they are at least 1 foot wide. An example of this would be a listerian sword. I have never found anyone who sells them, having one custom made is probably the only way to get one.

[ky_]

very big,
did anyone actually use one?

[Kenji]

Yes, and even on horse back! I have read that knights of old Europe had swords reaching up to 9 ft long with a similar width as described above. I've always thought that would tip a horse over, ( all that weight being shifted from side to side while the guy is trying to kill enemies around the horse).

[saikumono]

hi konichiwa"

site he youkosso
we allow ourselves to write to you, to show you our webpages.
there are pages with japanese items. different items and kimonos.
we also propose kusakura aikido and iaido kimono and supplies.
http://art.japon.free.fr/katanas-artisanaux.htm
to present tohshin manufacture, - traditional authentic blades- by master craftsmen in Japan.

all the website is only in french for the moment.
but if you have some questions, do not hesitate to ask us.

best regards,
harumi et jérôme



http://art.japon.free.fr

[dpeters420]

I personally like a nice single handed European straight sword, with good taper and mass distribution to make for superb balance. Specifically Oakeshott type XIIIb. I like type XVIII too but I believe it's more of a thrusting sword than the former. Longswords and hand and a half swords are pretty cool too.

About buster swords, last place I saw one was Final Fantasy 7, and I'm no historian but I'd be surprised if any culture actually used one.

[Jason H]

Welcome to BUdoseek, dpeters420...

(sigh, why does no one ever actually read the rules when they sign up?)

oops, thinking out loud again...

Per forum rules you are required to include your real full name in all of your posts. If you have any questions or problems witht this, feel free to send me an email or private message...

[sadist]

I think my favorite sword would be anything that delivers puncture wounds because they are much more difficult to treat. Napoleon won many wars because of this. This also spawned the saying that the French don’t fight fair. Then again when you thrust you are very vulnerable and most would knock the sword out of your hand or grab your wrist..... Maybe cut it. I think I would have to choose a sword based on what situation I was walking into and take the one with the biggest advantage. I guess I'll have to agree with lightsaber, but those have no weight and will cause more damage to me then my enemy. So it would be Katana since thats what im trained with.



Brian Shaw

[Bugeisha]

Hah! Oh, sorry guys... Just laughing at Jason's frustration concerning the names....

[GarethB]

Yes, and even on horse back! I have read that knights of old Europe had swords reaching up to 9 ft long with a similar width as described above. I've always thought that would tip a horse over, ( all that weight being shifted from side to side while the guy is trying to kill enemies around the horse).

Ummm, no. The only European swords that came anywhere near 9 feet long were cerimonial parade swords used for display during official cerimonies, and they definately weren't anywhere near 1 foot wide. These were called "bearing swords" and were made purely for symbolic purposes. There are a few Japanese swords of similar length, called "Nodachi", which were made by smiths to show off their sword making skills. Think of an 8 foot long katana and you'll have a nodachi. There were shorter nodachi (5 - 6 feet long) made for actual use in combat, but those were quite rare.

A European sword suitable for use on horseback would be a "hand and a half" sword from the 1400's, approximately 40 to 44 inches long from blade tip to pommel, approx 1 & 3/4 inches wide blade and weighing around 4.5 to 5 pounds. Two handed European swords varied in size depending on the preferences of the country. English two handers were normally smaller than German two handers. The German two handers of the early 1500's were the largest made for use in combat in Europe, and they were made for foot soldiers, not for horse riders. A German "zweihander" (zwei=two, hander=hands) made for combat was typically 65 to 70 inches long from blade tip to pommel, up to 2 inches wide and between 6.5 to 8 pounds in weight. They were normally used by the elite members of German mercinary regiments and often used to break the wooden shafts of pikes (really long spears) when they were facing massed groups of pike soldiers.

While I like the style and graceful shape of the katana very much, the zweihander is my favourite type of sword.

[dpeters420]

Hey Gareth. Good info there. I'd pretty much forgotten about this thread, and it reminded me of my old foolish post. Type XIIIb? What was I smoking? I thought I liked single handers! Oh well I guess Type XVIII still fits in, but now my favourites are type XII and XIV. Sword and shield just seems like the most vicious style of swordsmanship, and I love single handed cutters. Of course if I had a full suit of plate armor I would grab a hand and a half sword or zweihander.

You sure about the sword weight for hand and a half swords though? I don't have any references to real swords, so I have no idea, but the weights displayed on A&A and Albion would seem to show it's weight being more around 3.5-4.5 lbs or so.

[GarethB]

Swords weren't all made to the same exact standards of size and weight, so there is variation even among swords of the same style. I've heard that A&A make very good swords, and base their models closely on actual museum pieces, so I'd expect them to be realistic representations of historical swords, but it's a bit like getting the dimensions of one cabbage grown 400 years ago and then thinking that all cabbages grown 400 years ago were the same size/weight. Some will have been bigger and heavier, others will have been smaller and lighter. My weight range for a hand and a half is possibly a little on the heavy side, but not unrealisticly so.

[dpeters420]

Right on that makes sense. Come to think of it I guess a swords use would be more determined by pob, but yeah 5.5lbs sounded a little heavy to me. Indeed I pretty much use reputable production sword makers to get an idea of their statistics. I've seen a couple of online museum deals, but the ones I've come across don't show the vital statistics like weight and pob.

By the way, I recently heard of european two-handed and hand and a half sabers. I wonder if maybe kenji's source was thinking of a distorted version of these or something, seeing how they're single edged and hand and a half swords were used from horseback? I mean I know medieval bearing swords were quite heavy, but would they ever approach the dimensions of such a monstrosity(sp?)? I guess it's possible since size always makes an impression. Really the only place I've seen such swords are in games and anime though.

EDIT: I'd also like to include my favorite katana type would probably be either kogarasu-maru, or shobo-zukuri.

[mantisman]

When my grandfather returned from WW2 he had bought back a japanese officers sword.When i was little i used to draw it and marvel at the blood stains that were on the blade(IT was quite sad).After my grandfather passed away we were requested by the japanese government to return the sword to the family of the officer that owned it.To honour their wishes it was returned to them as a mark of mutual respect.But my other favorite sword would have to be the tai chi straight sword.It is a buetifull peice of equipment.


Jay Kingsun
Australia

[Harutomo]

Shobu-zukuri Katana. built to slash, with a nice thrusting point. a good swordsmith(with reasonable prices for the quality) for Shobu-zukuri Katana is at www.slobodianswords.com

[taozen]

favorite sword...so far....the wind and thunder kat from chen..

lot of blade for the buck... :)

[Harutomo]

favorite sword...so far....the wind and thunder kat from chen..

lot of blade for the buck... :)
a very nice piece indeed

[Tribalweapon]

My favorite sword would have to be.....uh.....I like them all. Just don't know how to use them. anyone know any good beginer training videos?

[ShadowWard]

I think the ultimate sword would be the Hook swords (called Tiger Claw Swords by some). It has the best balance of practicality, damage infliction, and sheer terror inspiration.
Speaking of the swords though, does anyone know where I can get a pair of real ones? By real I mean high carbon steel or such; all I seem to be able to find so far are wushu steel or chrome plate aluminium all paper thin, useless. Many Hook Sword movements are hard, sharp movements, and these swords all shake and twist during those making them look really stupid and not doing the sword their true justice.

[Tribalweapon]

Have you tried martialartssupermarket.com? They have a lot of stuff. Might be worth a shot.

[Seeker]

In response to the buster sword thing...

http://www.weaponmasters.com/index.html?ID=bd8df1e342a3b482915c4ecb4d4ea228&ITEM=SHI001&SORT=PRICE_UP&FDX=1&FMAX=10

A bit heavy, don't you think? Definitely a nice conversation piece, though.

[wab25]

My understanding was that the Scottish Claymore was a huge sword, often over 6 1/2 feet in length. It was carried by foot soldiers and used to chop off the front two legs of a charging horse. I also heard it was the only sword able to cleave a man head to toe.

[dpeters420]

Yep they're pretty big. Though I think the average claymore is about 4.5-5ft long or so. Although I wouldn't be to surprised if there are zweihanders that have been given a Scottish style hilt, but I don't think many(if any) zweihanders exceeded 6ft in length.

[Mist]

I like the katana.

The following contains excerpts from the book, THE JAPANESE SWORD, by Kanzan Sato.

The uniqueness of the Japanese sword lies in the technical innovations devised by the Japanese in an effort to resolve the three conflicting practical requirements of a sword: unbreakability, rigidity, and cutting power. Unbreakability implies a soft but tough metal, such as iron, which will not snap with a sudden blow, while rigidity and cutting power are best achieved by the use of hard steel. The Japanese have combined these features in a number of ways which have given their swords a very distinctive character.

First of all, most Japanese blades are made up of two different metals: a soft and durable iron core is enveloped in a hard outer skin of steel which has been forged and reforged many times in order to produce a complex and close-knit crystalline structure. Seconds, the cross-section, widening from the back to a ridge on both sides, then narrowing to a very acute angle at the edge, combines the virtues of thickness for strength and thinness for cutting power. Third and most important of all, a highly tempered edge is formed by covering the rest of the blade with a special heat-resistant clay and heating and quenching only the part left exposed. The result is a steel which is even harder then the rest of the outer skin and can take a razor-sharp edge. A fourth feature, the distinctive curve away from the edge, owes its origin to another practical demand: the need to draw the sword and strike as quickly as possible and in a continuous motion. Where the sword itself forms part of the approximate circumference of a circle with its center at the wearer's right shoulder and its radius the length of his arm, drawing from a narrow scabbard will naturally be easier and faster than with a straight weapon.

But to the Japanese specialist the beauty of a sword lies in more than just its fulfillment of practical requirements or its almost mechanical perfection of finish and cleanness of profile. The Japanese swordsmith has given his product a number of features which, although they may have a strictly practical origin, have been elaborated far beyond the simple requirement of hard-wearing efficiency in slaughter. One example of this is the forging of the outer skin, a process necessary to produce steel of adequate purity and hardness: this has been done in a multitude of different ways so as to obtain a wide variety of distinct grains in the surface of the blade. But it is the tempering process which has received the most careful attention. The heat-resistant clay is wholly or practically scraped away from the area of the edge in a seemingly inexhaustible range of outlines resulting in an enormous number of patterns of hard crystalline steel which guarantee that no two swords will ever be the same: and yet these outlines have no practical function beyond the simple requirement that the edge must be tempered in one way or another.

The Katana is (in my oppinion) the perfect sword.