First timer saying hello.

Joined
May 19, 2002
Messages
353
Hello fellow blade aficionados, my name is Erin but you may call me what you what you wish. This is my first time posting but not my first time to the site. By the way I really like the design, the color and attitude of this place it's just so bright and welcoming. And the navigation is great never got lost of had trouble finding anything. But thats not the only reason I'm posting. I have a question regarding swords. Now you may have already been asked this question before but I couldn't find any info on the subject so I must ask.

But first some backgroung on my current predicament. As you know if you've read my profile I hail from the imprisoned state of California. Here it is almost illegal to walk outside now. I wish to be able to defend my self and those around me, Ifthe need should present itself. However since our government will not agknowledge the existence of the Constitution or The Second Ammendment, I being only sixteen years of age cannot carry a firearm in California. So I thought of carrying a sword. It would be carried openly so as not to break any consealed weapons laws but I can't decide what I want to use.

In Wesley Snipes movie BLADE he used a sword that looked to be perfect for my needs. The blade wasn't to long so that it would be cubbersum but still long enough to reach all vital organs and vessels of even a large human body. At a not so recent firearms exibition I was able to hold a replica of the movie sword at a knife vendors both. the handal was to round and slippery to be useful but thats easy to fix. My question is about blade materials. In the movie Steven Dorff in describing BLADEs' sword said it was made of titanium. Is it possible to make a combat capable sword out of or using titanium. The reason I ask is that I need a sword that is very strong but light weight so as to give my power and speed.

If any of you could help me I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you so much for your time and consideration.


MAY WE LIVE FREE OR DIE TRYING.
 
Welcome Erin! Great to have you along for the ride.
 
Originally posted by ERINT
I being only sixteen years of age cannot carry a firearm in California. So I thought of carrying a sword. It would be carried openly so as not to break any consealed weapons laws but I can't decide what I want to use.

Ummmm, yeah, hmmm, like that won't draw much attention. I'm trying really hard not to think "TROLL" , so I will give you the benefit of the doubt and say welcome. And I guarantee you will get your lunch money stolen if you walk around like Zorro.
 
Erin, since you are 16, instead of getting a sword to carry for self-defense I suggest that you take up martial arts. It doesn't matter which variety just spend some time at a number of martial arts schools in your area. Try them all and select one where you are comfortable with the staff and facilities. Try it for a year or two. The skills, confidence, and self-discipline you will gain from good martial arts training will serve you well in your life. After a couple of years you will then have the maturity and discipline to revisit your idea of carrying a sword for self-defense.
 
Welcome to the Forums! :)
Hmmm, i'm thinking that maybe we need to get some perspective on reality here. If you go around wearing a sword you will look like an @ss, you will draw attention to yourself and when your blunt POS 'Blade' movie replica sword bounces off an attacker (who's probably attacking you because you look like an @ss), he will become angry and hurt you.
If you're serious about self-defense i recommend that you learn about it, take up martial arts, and train in defense specifically. Watch the videos, take the classes, do whatever you can, train hard. Carrying a sword won't make you capable of defending yourself, it will make people laugh at you, and your family embarassed to be seen outside with a guy who's watched too many action movies.
So, my sincere advise to you is to dismiss all thoughts of carrying swords, read up on self defense, ask reasonable questions to those in-the-know, then make informed choices about which road you want to go down in terms of self-defense.

PS Agreed on the format of this website, very easy to use.
 
First of all welcome to the forums. Second good luck being able to carry a sword anywhere. Even if it was legal a cop would probably arrest you for breach of peace or some other BS charge. In my opinion you should try something like the city stick as mentioned above. Or a stinger, witch is a small plastic knuckle duster sort of thing. Also don't forget a can of mace, I know it sounds kinda p*ssy
but it is very effective on everyone. The fact is at the age of 16 there are probably alot of guys who could easyly take a club or stick away from you. The mace would be hard to take away and easy to use. I know first hand because I was attacked with a crowbar and the guy suckered me with it when I wasn't looking. All this did was give me one hell of a shiner and I took it away from him and beat the sh*t out of him with my fists. If he suckered me with a can of mace I would not have been able to do anything. Also if I had some mace I would not have had to take the weapon away from him I could of just sprayed him with it. Also not to mention mace does not cause any long term effects. if you defend yourself effectivly with a sword you will probably kill the attacker, then you go to jail. Try to explain to the judge why you were carrying a sword if you weren't looking for a fight. I know the laws suck, in this day and age it seems like the criminals get all the rights. Wait till you turn 21 and get a pistol permit. Also join the NRA they are the only group that fights for our contitutional rights.
 
Don't carry a sword. Lots of good reasons listed above.
If you *must* carry a blade, perhaps you can carry a small folder & keep it on the QT. Chances are, if you keep out of trouble, it won't come looking for you.
 
So I thought of carrying a sword. It would be carried openly so as not to break any consealed weapons laws

Welcome . . .(er, I guess) Anyway, after the day I've had, I needed a good laugh. So, thanks. LOL!
 
ROTFLMAO!!!!

Remember how the Native Americans in all the old movies would not go near or attack a person who was loco?

I really don't think this guy needs a sword, he just needs to open his mouth and no one will want to touch him.....

on the other hand...

Maybe this was supposed to be funny?...

guess I'm just tired...

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Mongrel
 
Originally posted by Ruzster


Welcome . . .(er, I guess) Anyway, after the day I've had, I needed a good laugh. So, thanks. LOL!

Same here. I hate days like this. :)

Seriously, Erint, anytime you show a weapon in a group of people, a good percentage of them are going to break for the exit, most of them will cringe and hope you don't hurt them, and a very very small percentage of them will try to take it away from you and stuff it up your nose, for various reasons.

Good luck.
 
Question: are you female? just asking because of the name spelling.

For SD purposes i would suggest first leaving CA, and second not moving to anywhere like CA.

Ti makes a bad blade.

Blade makes a bad movie
 
Thanks for the ribbing guys, I'm glad I could chear you all up. No you don't have to worry about me carrying a sword any time soon, first of all I would hope I have to much sense to try and carry any kind of weapon in this LOONY state, well other than my Cold Steel recon 1 tanto plain edge. It should keep me safe from any violent situations. I only wish I could find a edged weapons defense class that admits minors. Every one I've looked into had an eighteen year age limit. I can understand why they have the limit it's just a little inconvenient for me. I do believe I can still obtain enough information to be able to fend of the average lethally intent mugger or street thug.

However I was still curious about the use of titanium in knives, swords ,and other tools of self defense. Can it be done or is the metal to brittle to construct a blade or cane from? It seems like it would provide the best of both worlds. Being both lightweight and strong, and if it were to brittl would the titaninum/damascus mixture in an earlier thread I saw be a better choice it seems like it would give it a little more flex to the titanium.

Oh well just a thought but thanks for the warm welcome. I look foward to hearing from you again.

P.S. the whole LIVE FREE OR DIE TRYING thing it's not a political statement or anything like that. I heard it a long time ago and I thougt it fitting to honor our brave service men in Afganistan that gave their lives fighting for our freedoms.

MAY WE LIVE FREE OR DIE TRYING
 
OH I apologize Lizard King I forgot to answer your question. No I'm male, the spelling of my name is in the Irish style my, parents didn't like the Aaron spelling so they spelled it Erin. You have no idea how many people aks me that same question! LOL

MAY WE LIVE FREE OR DIE TRYING.
 
Welcome to the forums, Dude...

Originally posted by ERINT
I only wish I could find a edged weapons defense class that admits minors. Every one I've looked into had an eighteen year age limit. I can understand why they have the limit it's just a little inconvenient for me. I do believe I can still obtain enough information to be able to fend of the average lethally intent mugger or street thug.
The weapons training might not let minors in, but there are a lot of martial arts out there that include weapons training within their system. And you should probably experience "empty-hand" fighting as well.

As for the whole sword thing--I hear that California is pretty tolerant of blade length on folders so you could carry one of them "folding swords" (long bladed folder). Cuda Maxx comes to mind.

No I'm male, the spelling of my name is in the Irish style my, parents didn't like the Aaron spelling so they spelled it Erin. You have no idea how many people aks me that same question! LOL
I'm glad there are others out there like me...I grew up hearing "did your parents want a girl?" and "isn't that a girl's name?" That's why I rarely use my real name...
 
Out of curiousity, do you know how to actually use a blade for SD? Not trying to be an ass, but if I was a BG and someone pulled a knife on me I would have no problems trying to kill them. I would figure it was them or me since they were presenting lethal force. Now if you know how to use it I fully support the use of weapons. However, I cannot support the use of weapons without training in their proper use.

BTW, for most situations you can find yourself presented with a good, solid folder is a fine SD tool (firearm is better given a proficiency with both, but good luck getting a permit in Cali, or my home state). Your skill is the most important factor. I am no master by any stretch, but I am confident defending myself with whatever is availible, even if it is only my hands. That does not mean I do not carry SD weapons (I carry several). It just means that you have to be the weapon, the tools are just there to be used by the weapon. Hope this makes sense.

My suggestion, like others would be to train in martial arts or combatives of some sort. Mix in some weapons training, but only after you have fundamentals of unarmed down. I draw an analogy to motorcycles because I have experience with them.

Sure you can learn on the newest liter sportbike. Maybe you will even survive and end up a good rider. However, you would end up a better rider faster by starting on a bike appropriate for a beginner and moving up to bigger bikes in stages. This allows you to better explore each bikes potential, rather than holding back constantly in order to stay alive. having 150hp on your bike is no good if you can't use it anyway. At the early stages in your career, you cannot even utilize 75 hp to its potential. All that extra power can do is hurt you. Starting off on a smaller bike might hurt the ego, but it boosts the learning curve and teaches the fundamentals which ultimately make you a better rider.

In the same vein, don't go directly into learning all about double knife fighting. Start learning the basics of whatever art is attractive to you. After you master the basics you will have a solid foundation to build advanced skills on. This approach also lowers the chances of quitting due to frustration in not being able to perform advanced techniques if you start at that level.

WOW, this was longer than I intended. Hope it helps.

;)
 
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