Aikido Technique Videos and Self Defense Training

Last night I was unexpectedly promoted in my Ken-jutsu class. Sensei taught a great class, Aaron (my kohai) and I had a good workout with some very good lessons learned. Now that our ken-jutsu class has changed to Fridays at 5:00 I am very hopeful for paired practice and larger classes.

At the end of class sensei lit some incense and called me to the front of the dojo with him. At that point sensei signed my sensu with my new rank and appologized for the burden (I now have another rock to carry). All in all it was a great day!

Last week I received a Tanto from HandmadeSword .com and I would like to share my review of it with all of my visitors. First I'd like to say that the website over at Handmade Swords looks great, they definitely thought out the layout and set it up right.

But...
Fancy websites aren't really what practitioners are looking for in a company that sells user blades. We're (practitioners) looking for blades that use traditional, solid construction methods. Blades that can stand up to kata and even cutting, without having to worry about the reliability of all to components. Let's face it, no one wants to cut with a time bomb.

The Verdict :

First and foremost I have to say that the price was right. I paid, in total $65 on my new tanto. Handmade Sword sells on their website and on eBay, I checked out eBay and got this piece for twenty bucks under retail. The service was extremely fast as was the shipping.


Now on to the quality. This blade arrived as stated, it does show layers in the steel, but I'm sure they're acid etched and the finish was rough. The inside of the saya was extremely rough, I can see wood putty or glue all over the inside of the koiguchi and from the way it feels during a draw I'm sure theres more within the saya. As for the fittings, the ito was low quality, the habaki has a bit of play in it, and I'm pretty sure the saya lacked any horn reinforcement where it should be.

Now, don't get me wrong, I understand that for the price I paid I can't really expect much more than I got, but I do want to give an honest opinion. Here are a few images that you might enjoy!

Here's an interesting tameshigiri video showing cutting practice. The cut in the video does look a little awkward but the iaidoka pulls it off fairly well. Nice video with classical technique. The dojo that offers instruction on the Japanese sword has a whole line of these videos on youtube.

On one of the forums I regularly visit there is a bit of controversy about the practicality of a reverse grip sword cut (not that swords are very practical in this day & age anyhow). Quite a few of the forumites claim that reversing your grip on a sword is only appropriate for knives or Zatoichi :)

And along comes Renfield Kuroda, a JSA practitioner from Japan to prove that if you think a reverse grip sword cut doesn't work you're totally wrong. Check out that set and feel free to share your thoughts.

Last week, Sensei sent us home with a bit of homework. All the members of the dojo were required to make an oshigata of their blade. In addition, everyone also had to label the part of the blade on the oshigata in order to become more familiar with all the assembly.

Wait, what's an oshigata you ask? An oshigata is a tracing of your blades outline. Then the small details are filed in to the tracing. This is not an easy task, if you try one give yourself a couple years to complete it :)

Very cool kendo clip of a kendoka being disarmed.