[geeks] Swords

[nimitz at ns1.nimitzbrood.com]

> On Mon, Oct 20, 2003 at 11:42:52AM -0500, nimitz at ns1.nimitzbrood.com wrote:
> > If you're going to practice then order the bamboo practice sword.  
> > You'll be much better off and you'll have less risk of cutting something 
> > *cough* appendage *cough* by accident.
> 
> That's also what I'm going to do. 8-)  The $10 sword is just the "ooh,
> yeah!, I'm grown up now and can have a real sword instead of a metal
> pole wrapped w/electric tape" revenge on my childhood. 8-)
> 

Understand completely.  My current sword is the (now) $19 Viking Sword form Bud K.  It's actually quite durable.

If I can dig up the link I'll post the one with the guy making Katana out of braided steel cable.  Expensive but worth it.

Myself, I'd like to start with small blades first.  Daggers are actually quite easy to make.  The biggets problem is getting the heat right on the steel while forging the blade.  The second problem is balance - number of strikes on each side of the blade.  The final time-consumer is grinding.  Blech - eating sparks.  Not fun but necessary.

Mike Hebel