Help on Buying Kamas Please

[Sotes]

Hi, I'm a martial arts instructor and I recently bought my first pair of kamas from century. However, they are incredibly flimsy. I was practicing some flips and dropping the kama onto a mat from just a couple feet bent the blade.

I'm fairly certain they are not balanced properly either. Because the blades are so thin and flimsy, the balance point is at the very top of the handle.

Can I get suggestions for durable kamas? If there is anyone here who has a pair that has lasted a couple years or more, I would love to know where you got them.

Thanks.

 

[Andrew Green]

Which kama did you buy from century? Durable and flipping seem to imply different uses for the kama.

 

[Sotes]

Here's a link: Demo Kamas

I want to be able to do tricks with the weapons, which means they will be dropped when I'm practicing something new. So I don't need something heavy duty. But the kamas I purchased are unable to withstand a drop from two feet, which is laughably flimsy in my opinion.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

I bought the wooden kama from Century. they're quite nice and you don't cut yourself on them. But I am leaning mohagama kata, not tricks.

 

[Flying Crane]

Here in San Francisco, there is a garden and hardware store in Japantown that sells Kama with sharp, steel blades. Apparently they are still used as a gardening and farming tool.

I don't know how rugged they are, I doubt their original intention and design prepared them for use in blocking a Bo or katana in full swing, for example. But as sharp implements, I am sure they could be very effective weapons, when used with that purpose in mind. As can any sharp implement with a smallish blade, when used in a manner that makes sense and takes advantage of the tool's strengths while avoiding its weaknesses.

I don't know where tricking might land in there.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

The kata I am learning involves an imagined defense against a thrown or entangling net. Sharp garden blades would be ideal, I'd think. I don't think I would use kama to defend against a bo or katana but I'm no expert.

 

[Flying Crane]

The kata I am learning involves an imagined defense against a thrown or entangling net. Sharp garden blades would be ideal, I'd think. I don't think I would use kama to defend against a bo or katana but I'm no expert.

If I was attacked by someone with a bo or katana and kama was all I had, I would use them. But I would not seek out that encounter. I would rather have the bo.

But of course it depends on the circumstances. If I was in an elevator, I might choose the Kama.

 

[Flying Crane]

Here is a thought: if you block a full-swing blow with a bo, and use the unsharpened top of the blade in making the block, the force of the blow could break the blade free of the handle and shear the sharp edge down on your fingers that are wrapped around the handle.