Wooden training khukri

I have taken a couple of solid shots with wooden trainers over the years and they do have some authority.
 
hehe, yep JW. I have had a couple of instructors whap me with Shinai and once with Bokken even. Not a feeling I recommend to anyone wishing to keep practicing. Shinai are significantly different than Bokken. Bokken are like western sword wasters (wooden trainers) while a Shinai is split bamboo meant to be used when striking the sparring partner is common. Bokken are more used for Kata where no striking of another is involved. I have seen people who didn't know better use Bokken for sparring and break ribs and arms.
 
I have a friend who teaches western hand and 1/2 sword, and they do spar with wasters. They also use pretty solid armor. (I used a saber headgear, lacrosse gloves and elbow pads)
My silat instructor back in the 90's ran stickfights where we wore racquetball glasses and field hockey goalie gloves for gear.
Glad it was rattan and not hardwood. Somewhere on youtube there's a clip of the chinese sword tournament in Montana-arnis headgear (kendo faceplate, padded hat) and wooden swords. The prize was a $7000 custom damascus steel sword.
No thanks...
 
There is a story of Myamoto Musashi killing one of the greatest swords men of his time with a carved down wooden oar. The opponent had a traditional Japanese metal sword.
 
Yes Kendo Bogu is awesome, BUT it is very specific, and it also does not cover all. The thing about Kendo is that during sparring you are allowed to strike only certain spots and the padding is based on that. So sparring with someone who doesn't know the rules it is still very easy to get seriously hurt. And blunt force can actually be far worse than cutting injuries.

I have heard it argued that it might be better to practice with a live blade as then there would be more caution used and probably then less actual injury. Sort of the same things that some people say when they talk about how cars now are so safe for the driver that accidents are actually worse now because people aren't as cautious. Even that one way to cut down on bad traffic accidents with multiple cars and fatalities is to remove the airbag and replace it with a spike in the middle of the steering wheel. Then you will know the driver is being as cautious as possible and paying attention to their driving. I like the idea in one sick sense having ridden with too many people who spend 90% of their time doing everything behind the wheel EXCEPT paying attention to their driving.
 
If you inexperienced train yourself from some library book I can see how a dummy can develop bad habits which will make you pay with a live blade. If however you know what you are doing or have teacher who does then the dummy is a good tool to develop good habits so you get hurt less with the real thing.

Must be a reason they don't let new recruits shoot live rounds and grenades at first. First total duds, then training ammo which makes a bang and burns some skin in the worst case and then the real deal.

Ps library book was me. Only knew Judo and learned karate from a book when I was small. Once it wasn't illegal anymore (east Germany) and I could join a club I had some inner lols on my interpretation of some techniques. Luckily no sharp edges involved and easy to correct. Wasn't like I did 10 years of wrong stuff and developed any bad habbits.
 
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I hae done a LOT of solo live training-not a problem and definately focuses your mind.
I've done a reasonable amount of live partner shortblade training, with only one through-and-through arm injury as payment...longblade live training has two possible fatal flaws: one, if you or your partner get distracted or tired, someone dies, or is ruined for life (especially in a preindustrial level of medical tech), and if those veeerrry expensive swords happen to connect with each other hard, somebody's out a lot of $$$$$$. Edge to edge or edge to spine hard contact is usually the end of a Japanese sword unless it's awfully good. I have an old chisa katana from the 1600's with a parrying nick in the spine-and it's been polished back so many times that the hamon is only 1-3mm wide in spots, which tells me it got badly chipped quite regularly (the only reason I could afford it, even back in '88). Bokken are an excellent solution-still lethal enough to focus the mind, not likely to cripple at an accidental touch, and relatively cheap.( for example, a Viking sword cost the modern equivalent to a brand new Toyota pickup)
Really enjoying this thread
 
I think any of the swords we think of as "viking swords"-double edged, with the classic lobed pommel and short quillions-were very expensive;
hence the reliance on the spear, axe, and seax (even though a lot of seax were sword length)
 
Edge on edge contact created damage (Ha-giri) are not repaired as that actually damages the blade worse. They are left until the sharpening "catches up" to the damage. Remember that Japanese blades went in cycles. The most antique blades were very tough with thin hamons. Then a cycle of wide Hamon became popular because they were considered more beautiful. however when war cycled back these showed to be too brittle and splintered so a new cycle of smaller Hamon blades was started again. Your blade might have always had a thin hamon depending on when it was smithed. LOL the Ancient blades, became the new blades which became the new new blades which LOL confusing isn't it.
 
I've seen and owned some narrow hamons-this one was "gunome" and is now "gone-nome"...all the lines are blurred, the kissaki is vestigial, and my japanese friends can only read about half of the tang lol-this ones worn out. Shown with a wak I rescued.image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg
The healthy wak is old-the tired chisakatana i think was cut down from something older.
Sorry for the photobombing run...:p
 
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