Great River Taoist Center Forums

Here's the full catalog desciption of this jian - Tuanlian Jian Militia Sword 28” Blade, 34” Overall The blade inlaid with seven brass dots, representing the seven star constellation that points to the pole star, of sanmai construction with a wavely pattern welded body mounted in solid iron fittings...

For comparison, I thought everyone might like to see this jian . This is the largest example of the these "village" or "militia" jian I have ever encountered. Though these jian lack much finish, that is they are just barely polished to shape & have very rudimentary fittings, the steel of the blades ...

Follow through of the pi cut. Note how quickly the blade straightens.

I had to clear some bamboo in my garden, so what better way than to get out my Cutting Jian... A high speed camera catch just how resilient these blades are & the shock any blade has to be able to deal with when impacting he target...

Examples of Qing clips or hooks used to hang swords or archery tackle from belts-

... have a royal peony jian, and it has some kind of straps on the scabbard but I have never figured out how it is supposed to work. Any hints would be appreciated. BTW: Are those straps a modern invention or did they use the same system historically? There are a number of historical images in this...

I was practicing in my garden this morning with my Cutting Jian. As I turned to deliver a pi cut, I spontaneously decided to cut an oak leaf on at the end of a nearby branch. My blade sliced cleanly thru it, leaving the leaf on the branch. That action brought to mind those words above, written so lo...

The Final Match between Defending Champion, Ian Glazer, in the Yellow Gambeson opposite 2009 Champion, Greg Wolfon, in the Red Gambeson:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4ad8nUAaz4

Sorry to be commenting so late in the game... Concerning the duanjian in the above photos, these are not good examples of what we might call combat jian . A fair number of these have turned up with similar or the same fittings. And though that often have fairly good blades, they lack sufficient weig...

Very nice work Kevin, I'd love to see some of you work in person some day, maybe even do some cutting... The only thing I can add to the above conversation is to keep in mind that the whole idea behind the yanmaodao is that it straight enough that one can employ techniques from jianfa as well as dao...

I'm really looking forward to the Tourney! I'm flying over to to my part as Referee. Looking forward to seeing everyone again & meet new players...

I have a question.. How does one hold the miao dao properly and which hand is leading? From the japanese disciplines... the left hand is the lower hand and that it is the actual hand wealding the weapon. The right hand stears. Is this common for the miaodao ? I am not familiar with any miaodao teac...

Just a quick note to let everyone know this year's European Chinese Swordplay Tournament will be held on June 2nd in Netherlands...

Thanks for your answer. I have your book (good one!) Thanks, always happy to hear it has been of use. ...and I know how your work with the basic cuts. I guess that most (all?) of the basic cuts would be possible to launch from other guards too... That is certainly, generally true & the last thing y...

I have one serious question for practitioners on taijiquan. Are we going to continue to allow those who lack any real martial skill continue to define our art? Absolutely not, though they are so prominent that it is no easy task.. Well said brother... you summed up the problems & situation quite we...