What is the difference between these two tai chi swords??

One has a stainless steel blade (yick!)

The other has a Damascus blade. (Very cool if done right!)
 
oh....so the cheap one is just stainless steel with ethching?? Not a true damascus

would there be a noticable difference??
 
Maybe not if you never actually tried to cut anything with either of them.

As discussed elsewhere in the forum, stainless is really not a good choice for sword steels. (There are exceptions, like CPM3V, very expensive though.)

It's not really that a given steel is "bad." It's more a case that some are easier to get a correct temper on than others.

Sword blades must take an incredible amount of punishment. They must be able to flex without bending and return to "true" after flexing. Not just once, but many thousands of times. That's a tall order for any steel and even steels that make great knives (Like ATS-34) aren't always a good choice for a sword because of the tempering issues.

Unfortunately, there's no guarantee that the Damascus blade (or it's temper) offered in that ad is any better than the stainless. There's no mention of the steel(s) used, and Damascus is very easy to screw up. Even Master Bladesmiths occasionally get one "wrong."
Sometimes that "wrongness" doesn't show up right away. The blade can look fine and have a serious flaw inside.

I'm not saying that's the case here by any means, I'm just saying that it's an unknown.

My advice is to check with them about their return policy before buying either one.
 
one more question...I don't know if u had experience with these but I held the more expensive one today and it felt really well balanced.

In your opinion do you think the SS blade will feel more blade heavy?
I don't want something that is blade heavy.
 
I've owned a few cheapy katanas that had SS blades and they were always very blade heavy. I would bet that the tai chi sword with a SS blade is also blade heavy. If you can, handle the sword before purchase or make sure the company you order from has a good return policy.

Ryan
 
The CAS damascus of the two swords is by far the better.The others
list the Southern Chinese or Luang Chuan.I do know the manufacture
but will not list it so as not to start a bout of flaming.Shop around
for better prices if you really want the damascus because that is
the msrp full retail price.
 
I found it for $275 plus $10 shipping...
I'll probably pick one up soon.
 
Hello everyone,
I was thinking about having myself a damascus tai chi from P. Chen, so I have a single doubt that you could probably answer (I never had a damascus before) : the good damascus blades also need to be cleaned and oiled (with oils like choji) like the high carbon steels ones?
Greetings!!!
 
DHB,
Yes they need proper care like any of the others maybe more so
depending on the mix of the steels.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top