Something a Little Different

I like this on a lot of different levels, form, function, and the tie to your family. I hope it gets years of regular use.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

Nice job, Dan. At the health club I used to belong to they offered a Tai-Chi with swords class. Never tried it, but it looked pretty cool.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Nice!

I have made quite a few wooden practice and presentation swords for HaiDong Gumdo practitioners (Katana style). Originally I just made one for myself and before I knew it I was asked to make a few more for gifts at a training retreat. Since these swords do come in contact during practice, I used hardwood like Hickory, etc. and I ran into the opposite problem and needed to design laminated pieces to reduce the weight.

Any plan to wrap the handles?

fascinating, lovely, and – I like your photos!

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Great job. Nice design and form

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

I got into karate while in the service. Got up to yellow belt and that just about suited me. I was pretty scared going up against other Karate clans from different Kaserns or Posts in Germany. A guy can really get busted up. When I broke some ribs, I quit. My system was Go-Ju-Rye Japanese karate, the master was Goganyamaguchi. It was fun and It got me in the best shape of my life. I remember on guard duty at Fort knox they gave us night sticks to carry while on guard duty but the Sargent of the Guard told us not to use them on anyone cause it would just piss them off. I always felt the same way about what I learned in Karate. I never used it, I did’nt want to piss anyone off. LOL. Beautiful sword. jockmike

-- Mike. mwurm13@yahoo.com

Good rule of life, Mike. Try not to deliberately piss anyone off. That’s a nice sword!

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

Interesting piece, really different from what we are used to see here Dan.

Regarding the taichi dance it’s widely practiced in Vietnam. There is a video about it in the feed of this podcast. It’s from an american living in Japan. Even though the women performing doesn’t use the sword, you still can see other people in the background carrying them.

Enjoy your relaxation time.

-- Jojo, shopless in Kyoto · http://www.japanese-woodworking-tools.com/ · http://twitter.com/japanesetools

Thanks for all the kind comments.

I agree, Mike. I don’t go out of my way to piss anyone off, or spit into the wind either : ) Although Tai-Chi is a martial art it is usually practiced for health and relaxation. I’ve also heard of it referred to as slow motion Kung-Fu.

Jojo, Thanks for that video link. I recognise the form that the lady is doing in the video as the Yang – Simplified Form. We learned it and the Yang – Long Form as prerequisites for the Yang – Sword Form we are learning know.

-- Dan, West Virginia, http://www.danpleskaCreations.com

That is great – the craftsmanship of the sword, and that it gets practical use! What a great project.

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://blanchardcreative.etsy.com -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

Very cool, nice to practice with a crafted piece of nature. When not in use, a subtle reminder and an art piece.

-- mtnwild (Jack), It's not what you see, it's how you see it.

I really like this. I would love to know what you used to make this (method / tools etc)

-- John, Ontario, Canada

Hi John,

I traced the basic shape on a single piece of cherry, then used a band saw to cut it out. The rest was done with a rasp, carving chisels, riffler files, and sandpaper. I cut the slit in the blade (that goes all the way through) with a dado blade on the table saw. The table saw work was done before I band sawed the shape. Glad you liked it.

-- Dan, West Virginia, http://www.danpleskaCreations.com

Very cool job

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon