How many weapons have you broken?

lklawson

Grandmaster
Joined
Feb 3, 2005
Messages
5,036
Reaction score
1,680
Location
Huber Heights, OH
Ha, "assaulting", I like that...
Yeah, me too. It's a traditional term and there are a few Fencing Maestros who get a little prickly when others use the term "sparring." That's a boxing term, not fencing. To them, it's a little like hearing someone talk about "numb-chucks" or "bo staff." :)

there's an issue in Japan these days where the best woods are ones that have been taken from older forest growths, maturing the wood, tightening the grain, and so on. This has resulted in some bokuto manufacturers changing the design of some weapons... I have a Katori Shinto Ryu bokuto that I've had since the early 2000's, and it's fantactic... all of the ones my guys have been getting (and I've been sourcing for them) over the last 5 odd years, though, are lighter, thicker, a bit harder to grip, and just... not the same. I asked about getting one made based on my older one, and was told that with the inferior wood these days, one at my original shape would be far too light, so the decision was made to start making them thicker to help them survive the impact in Shinto Ryu training.

Schools such as Hozoin-ryu (a sojutsu, or spear school) have actually started planting their own forest of oak so that they have a continued supply of wood suitable to make the long spears they use out of, as they noticed the problems with availability going forward.
Very interesting. I recall reading of a period in Europe where many forests were denuded to fuel the charcoal furnaces used for making armor and weapons during a part of the medieval period. There were apparently similar complaints about getting suitable quality wood for housing, tools, and weapons; or sometimes even coming up with sufficient wood for heating and cooking. I guess there's a reason that a Woodcutter is prominent in Little Red Riding Hood and other fables. :)

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk
 

lklawson

Grandmaster
Joined
Feb 3, 2005
Messages
5,036
Reaction score
1,680
Location
Huber Heights, OH
No, I like them too much to abuse them that way. I reserve that for cheap crappy swords.
I have a heavy redwood walking stick. A friend sent the unfinished stick to me to finish out and then do destructive tests on. It ended up looking so neat that I couldn't bring myself to destroy it. It's now sitting in my over-stuffed basket of walkingsticks and canes. The "daily use" basket, not the "bash about for practice" basket out in the salle nor the "too beautiful/antique/special to actually use" basket.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk
 

Blindside

Grandmaster
Founding Member
Joined
Oct 29, 2001
Messages
5,175
Reaction score
849
Location
Kennewick, WA
I have broken many weapons but most of them are rattan and designed to be used up. According to Sharkee knives my group is the only group to have ever broken their training knives and we have done it twice. I broke a polymer training sword through repeated spine hits that delaminated the HDPE. Fortunately I haven't broken any steel training weapons, they are expensive and that would suck. :D
 

Attachments

  • rick lamont stick break.jpg
    rick lamont stick break.jpg
    98.9 KB · Views: 166

isshinryuronin

Master of Arts
Joined
Feb 28, 2019
Messages
1,871
Reaction score
2,032
During my mid twenties I was studying fencing with a friend (privately from an ex-Olympic coach) but we would practice (foil) on our own without any protective gear (luckily we both still have two working eyes). Our arms would get sliced up a bit as we worked more on ferocity and fun than form. We decided to join our community college fencing team just for extra practice. Of course, the instruction there was very proper and nice - they were not ready for two brawlers to enter their midst.

It was the first or second day when my friend had his first match. He lunged and promptly broke his foil in half from the impact on the other guy's chest. The "snap" of the broken metal was loud and crisp. The entire gym suddenly went still. Many mouths hung open - mine was in a smile. It seemed our "style" was not appreciated in formal fencing society.
 

Flying Crane

Sr. Grandmaster
Joined
Sep 21, 2005
Messages
15,230
Reaction score
4,920
Location
San Francisco
During my mid twenties I was studying fencing with a friend (privately from an ex-Olympic coach) but we would practice (foil) on our own without any protective gear (luckily we both still have two working eyes). Our arms would get sliced up a bit as we worked more on ferocity and fun than form. We decided to join our community college fencing team just for extra practice. Of course, the instruction there was very proper and nice - they were not ready for two brawlers to enter their midst.

It was the first or second day when my friend had his first match. He lunged and promptly broke his foil in half from the impact on the other guy's chest. The "snap" of the broken metal was loud and crisp. The entire gym suddenly went still. Many mouths hung open - mine was in a smile. It seemed our "style" was not appreciated in formal fencing society.
Ive broken a couple foil blades when I was taking a fencing class in college. Could very easily skewer a training partner when that happens.
 

Monkey Turned Wolf

MT Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jan 4, 2012
Messages
12,212
Reaction score
6,308
Location
New York
Interesting story that you guys reminded me of-I've probably shared it on here in the past. Back in college I fenced, primarily epee. On one particular day, myself and another fencer were having a friendly epee bout, after practice ended. we wore masks and gloves, but I believe on this day we didn't have any of the other protective gear (no plastron or jacket, and epee doesn't require a lamee). I might be wrong on this, but like I said pretty sure that was a day where we just were in tshirt/shorts/mask after official practice.

My practice mask was also not safe, and at least I (I think him too) tended to use less flexible blades during practice. Somehow throughout all of college none of us really got hurt.

But there was one instance where we were sparring, and he was 'jabbing' rather than lunging/extending properly, which understandably happened after 3 hours of So he did a 'jab' during his fleche (a very aggressive and IMO the most explosive technique in fencing), and got me right in the neck. As he hit my neck, the blade snapped in half, and pressing against my neck as it did, I made a gargled sound. He froze for a sec, not turning around, while I caught my breathe. When he turned around he got extremely relieved, as he apparently through the combination of his move, the location he hit, the epee breaking, and the sound that I made, thought he had impaled/killed me. He told me later the only word he could think of while he was like that was 'f**k'. After that I started using a better mask, and wore my jacket more often. Still not as often as I should have. I was a class A idiot.
 

isshinryuronin

Master of Arts
Joined
Feb 28, 2019
Messages
1,871
Reaction score
2,032
Interesting story that you guys reminded me of-I've probably shared it on here in the past. Back in college I fenced, primarily epee. On one particular day, myself and another fencer were having a friendly epee bout, after practice ended. we wore masks and gloves, but I believe on this day we didn't have any of the other protective gear (no plastron or jacket, and epee doesn't require a lamee). I might be wrong on this, but like I said pretty sure that was a day where we just were in tshirt/shorts/mask after official practice.

My practice mask was also not safe, and at least I (I think him too) tended to use less flexible blades during practice. Somehow throughout all of college none of us really got hurt.

But there was one instance where we were sparring, and he was 'jabbing' rather than lunging/extending properly, which understandably happened after 3 hours of So he did a 'jab' during his fleche (a very aggressive and IMO the most explosive technique in fencing), and got me right in the neck. As he hit my neck, the blade snapped in half, and pressing against my neck as it did, I made a gargled sound. He froze for a sec, not turning around, while I caught my breathe. When he turned around he got extremely relieved, as he apparently through the combination of his move, the location he hit, the epee breaking, and the sound that I made, thought he had impaled/killed me. He told me later the only word he could think of while he was like that was 'f**k'. After that I started using a better mask, and wore my jacket more often. Still not as often as I should have. I was a class A idiot.[/QUOTE ]

MY REPLY BELOW (don't know why it didn't post properly)
An epee is less flexible than a foil, so you lucked out. Yeah, we were young and aggressive in those years. I count my lucky stars that I survived them. I had hung out with some crazy karate dudes (EPKK) at that time and remember doing staff - sword sparring. As the sword had a sharpened blade, and I was the guy with a wooden bo, getting maimed was a possibility, which we finally realized (none too soon). After that, it was on to another stupid adventure. How I made it to my sixties is still a mystery to me.
 

isshinryuronin

Master of Arts
Joined
Feb 28, 2019
Messages
1,871
Reaction score
2,032
Please hit "Click to expand" to my post above to read reply. My computer is haunted. Thanks.
 

Oni_Kadaki

Green Belt
Joined
Apr 18, 2018
Messages
178
Reaction score
107
I broke a Browning M2 machine gun during familiarization training once!
 

Chris Parker

Grandmaster
Joined
Feb 18, 2008
Messages
6,259
Reaction score
1,104
Location
Melbourne, Australia
Please hit "Click to expand" to my post above to read reply. My computer is haunted. Thanks.

Ha, it's not haunted... you've managed to accidentally put a space between the "E" and "]" in the last quote brackets, so the coding didn't close the quote for you the first time... if it's within a short time, you can go back and edit such things, but it's a bit late now... oh, well, next time, neh?
 

hoshin1600

Senior Master
Joined
May 16, 2014
Messages
3,127
Reaction score
1,644
reading these posts i did a quick search and man are weapons expensive now. the kingfisher woodworks "enhanced" bokken is about $400. and a Japanese made ebony like i had is $1200.
there was a time i enjoyed buying various wood bokken. so beautiful, seems like it would be a very expensive hobby to collect them now.
 

Flying Crane

Sr. Grandmaster
Joined
Sep 21, 2005
Messages
15,230
Reaction score
4,920
Location
San Francisco
reading these posts i did a quick search and man are weapons expensive now. the kingfisher woodworks "enhanced" bokken is about $400. and a Japanese made ebony like i had is $1200.
there was a time i enjoyed buying various wood bokken. so beautiful, seems like it would be a very expensive hobby to collect them now.
Holy crap. I recently sold a hickory bo that I made, for about $60 plus shipping. I think I need to revisit my business model...
 
OP
Christopher Adamchek

Christopher Adamchek

Purple Belt
Joined
Oct 1, 2018
Messages
355
Reaction score
167
Location
CT
Yup, that’ll break it.

Is that from some kind of monkey system? I know little or nothing about Chinese Theater methods, other than it is designed to entertain an audience.

That staff took quite a few of these before it broke lol
This was from a collection of shaolin staff training vids, could be a mokey sub style technique
Techniques are mostly for coordination, timeing, strength etc - looks good for demos/theater but can have some mild practicality
 

Flying Crane

Sr. Grandmaster
Joined
Sep 21, 2005
Messages
15,230
Reaction score
4,920
Location
San Francisco
That staff took quite a few of these before it broke lol
This was from a collection of shaolin staff training vids, could be a mokey sub style technique
Techniques are mostly for coordination, timeing, strength etc - looks good for demos/theater but can have some mild practicality
Oh yeah, a good staff can last for a while. Until it breaks.

When it flexes like that, you know that eventually it will break.
 

Gerry Seymour

MT Moderator
Staff member
Supporting Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2012
Messages
29,973
Reaction score
10,532
Location
Hendersonville, NC
reading these posts i did a quick search and man are weapons expensive now. the kingfisher woodworks "enhanced" bokken is about $400. and a Japanese made ebony like i had is $1200.
there was a time i enjoyed buying various wood bokken. so beautiful, seems like it would be a very expensive hobby to collect them now.
Yeah. I’ve been wanting an exotic bo (perhaps purple heart), and have concluded it’s much less expensive to buy a dowel from a niche woodworking supplier.
 

Latest Discussions

Top