Steyr when will you get some LOTR swords hung on there. LOL, love that Blue hobbit sword. Cheers! Great collection, nice investment, too bad economy is in the toilet.
Instant access to swords! SWEET!
You are probably thinking of Howard Clark out of Iowa.
If so he makes decent blades, but more of the modern school using a single tool grade steel. And they really don’t have many of the properties of a differentially tempered blade.
Could also be thinking of Fred Lohman but he mostly does restoration only.
Correct instruction in classical fencing can be very hard to find. Even in Japan most of what you find is “sport” Kendo which has almost nothing to do with classical fencing. Even most Iaido schools train with a very detached sense of reality and focus primarily on the zen aspects of the exercise.
DVDs and books can give you some insight (Japanese Swordsmanship: Technique And Practice by Donn F. Draeger probably being the best) but such things cannot correct your mistakes and errors, especially the ones you don’t know you are making.
Cool. I’ve always wanted a damascus katana & wakizashi set, but I never knew enough about blades to lay down the coin.
Cool. I’ve always wanted a damascus katana & wakizashi set, but I never knew enough about blades to lay down the coin.
- That’d be very tricky to find, Damascus is not an east Asian steelcrafting method (It’s arabic, hence the name.) so none of the serious Japanese swordmakers would use damascus. All the major Katana/Wazikashi/Tanto smiths today that I know use the time-honored folded steel method.
- Damascus is VERY expensive.
- Damascus, by it’s nature, is a fundamentally inconsistent alloy (it’s not actually an alloy at all, but a very tenuous mix of alloys). Being able to produce a 20-30" Damascus blade that would actually be usable would be insanely difficult, multiplying the already high expense of damascus many-fold.
They are out there. As you noted it would not be correct for a Japanese sword, and the modern commercial Damascus blades aren’t quite the real deal. But I have seen Damascus pattern katana before.
But I have seen Damascus pattern katana before.
Interesting. I have a hard time imagining a damascus katana that wouldn’t be either extremely brittle or extremely soft.
Oh well, most swords made today are ornamental anyway, but I like to know my ornaments have practical use should I elect to put them to work, I suspect you are the same, based on your collection.
They aren’t the most practical thing. They exist only because enough people wanted one.
And you are correct, I own swords because I practice Japanese fencing, not because it they look cool on the wall.