New customized Sword

[Flying Crane]

I just finished rebuilding another sword, and posted three pictures in the Gallery. They are in the Recent Additions section, and also in my picture gallery, on page two of the Members Galleries

The blade is a Lung Chuan import from China. It is a new stock "Combat Grade" blade. It is much heftier than the typical Tai Chi blades and Wushu blades, but not at beefy as the Old Stock blades they made up until the 1980s, when everything began to go the lighter route. I doubt it would really hold up to actual battlefield combat or hard contact drills, but should be a very good piece for Forms practice. It weighs about 2 and 1/3 pounds or so.

The grip and scabbard are carved out of Cocobolo hardwood, a very beautiful Latin American hardwood with a deep reddish color and strong grain patterns.

The guard, pommel and metal fittings on the scabbard are all cast out of bronze.

I'm afraid the pictures don't do it justice, but I wanted to share anyway.

 

[Lisa]

Beautiful sword FC. Do you have a before photo for us to compare? It looks fantastic now.

 

[Flying Crane]

Beautiful sword FC. Do you have a before photo for us to compare? It looks fantastic now.

Unfortunately I don't, but if you look in any martial arts magazine, or online martial arts supply house, and look at the pictures of any of the Lung Chuan kung fu swords, that is a pretty good example. Typically the guard and pommel are made out of wood, with a thin sheet of nasty brass covering it to give the impression that it is solid. They have no strength, and no weight to balance the blade, and it's all sort of jammed onto the Tang with the grip and usually none of it fits together very well.

The original scabbard is also a complete mess, which is typical of the Chinese imports. The metal fittings are made of paper thin brass sheeting that is done up in a nasty way that is supposed to be fancy, but in my opinion is just ugly. This stuff is usually loose and falling off, and in this case I could see that the seem between the two pieces of wood that make up the scabbard was pulling away in a couple places, and never actually fully covered the tip of the blade. They just shoved the brass sheeting over the tip and covered it up.

This is why I started rebuilding these in the first place. I got tired of the junk that was readily available. So if I find a decent (by Chinese import standards, anyway) blade, I will strip off the hilt and completely rebuild it, and recently I started building new scabbards as well when necessary (which is usually). My guards and pommels are solid Bronze, so they are strong and have weight to them, and the metal fittings on the scabbard are a pretty hefty 16 gage bronze.

I can get high quality blades from Angus Trim, but they are definitely more pricey so I have only done one of those. It's been a fun hobby for a few years now, and I've sold a few pieces to some of my classmates and to my Sifu, as well as fixing up my own pieces. More examples of my work are in my Gallery on page two.

 

[Swordlady]

Wow...you do very nice work. I see you refitted an Atrim blade. Which blade did you use? I know this other fellow on SFI refitted an AT1501 with jian fittings.

 

[Flying Crane]

Wow...you do very nice work. I see you refitted an Atrim blade. Which blade did you use? I know this other fellow on SFI refitted an AT1501 with jian fittings.

Thank you!

I used the AT1313, which is pretty hefty. There are some pictures of it in my gallery. It is the one with the guard and pommel done in silver, with a scabbard in bronze. The wood work on the grip and scabbard are in Chechen.

At some point I'd like to make another one, but with a smaller and lighter blade. The 1313 is pretty big for Tai Chi, but I certainly use it.

 

[Swordlady]

Thank you!

I used the AT1313, which is pretty hefty. There are some pictures of it in my gallery. It is the one with the guard and pommel done in silver, with a scabbard in bronze. The wood work on the grip and scabbard are in Chechen.

At some point I'd like to make another one, but with a smaller and lighter blade. The 1313 is pretty big for Tai Chi, but I certainly use it.

The AT1313, eh? I think that was one of the swords I played with at Gus' shop during my recent Seattle trip.

The AT1501 (EKS) would make a great jian blade. I own an EKS; nice and light bastard sword. The Lady Ash is a bit swifter (I actually prefer this sword over the EKS), but I think the 35.7" blade may be a little too long as a jian...

By the way, for those of you unfamiliar with Angus Trim's work, check out these two sites:

http://www.angustrimdirect.com/

http://www.christianfletcher.com/

 

[Flying Crane]

The AT1313, eh? I think that was one of the swords I played with at Gus' shop during my recent Seattle trip.

The AT1501 (EKS) would make a great jian blade. I own an EKS; nice and light bastard sword. The Lady Ash is a bit swifter (I actually prefer this sword over the EKS), but I think the 35.7" blade may be a little too long as a jian...

By the way, for those of you unfamiliar with Angus Trim's work, check out these two sites:

http://www.angustrimdirect.com/

http://www.christianfletcher.com/

I'll keep those in mind. I've never been to his shop so I only know what I see on the website. It can be a little tough to know exactly which one would be the right one from that. I was pretty impressed when mine arrived, tho. This great big razor arrived in a gun case. It was a bit daunting at first. I actually purchased it thru Allsaintsblades.com, which is out of business now, so I have never dealt directly with Angus Trim.

A 35.7 inch blade is pretty long, but I don't think it should be unheard of, esp. if someone is on the tall side (not me, but others). Sometimes people get pretty hung up over things like how long a sword should be, and they tend to think that there is a magic formula that determines the perfect size for them. I personally think that there is a good deal of room for personal preference to come into play. Yes, a sword can be too long or two short for someone, and that can make technique suffer. But I think that the individual ultimately needs to decide what works well for him. The formula can give a guideline, but I don't think it should be taken as gospel.

 

[Swordlady]

It *does* help to be able to play around with a sword to get a feel of it, but unfortunately, we often don't have an opportunity to do so. It's nice to be able to pay Gus' shop a visit, since he always keeps a few swords on hand (I've been to his shop three times so far), but that is not always possible. Local cutting parties are a good opportunity to handle different sword models. I've been able to handle several different Atrims, Tinkerblades, Del Tins (they're a bit too heavy for my taste), Albions, Cold Steel kats (I actually like the feel of the O-katana), and even an Odinblade or two.

I have eight Atrims, including my new AT kat. The only one I got to "test drive" was the Lady Ash during my 2004 Seattle visit. I liked the feel of that particular sword so much, that I snatched up the next available one in the SFI Classifieds a few months later.

I've only ordered two swords from Gus directly: the EKS (which I ordered on the old All Saints website on Gus' recommendation), and the Little Tigress kat. Bought two on eBay, three from fellow SFI'ers, and won one (a AT1571 saber) from Christian Fletcher's photo contest.

The Atlanta Blade Show is coming next month. That would be a good place to "try before you buy".