Great River Taoist Center Forums

Hi Ben, Becareful of cutting with the Kris Cutlery sword. I bent mine with a misaligned hit. Even with aligned hit, the blade began to take on a curve like a saber. I suspect heat treatment is an issue. I have 2 differentially treated blades which 'bounce back' even from misaligned hits. Ben Ko

My teacher is currently teaching me some Yang Shao Hao forms. It's a very interesting form (the one I'm learning is 28 moves, he says there's a longer form with over 100 moves). So far it's a very physically demanding form with lower stances, and twisting with weight on rear leg. What struck me is t...

Yup, rolling the edge with insufficient force bounces the bottle without biting into it. With sufficient force...cuts in an angle then bounces bottle off. It is also how I bent my Kris Cutlery Gim.



As I am practicing my form more, the alignment is becoming more consistent.

I've been discussing with Sifu Rodell about possible standardized targets to simulate the organic ones the antiques were designed to do. Some ideas included ballistic gel. One idea that just came to me was if you take a plastic pop bottle with the top cut off...easy for most of us. You could then us...

My own observations must be tempered with the following. I've been practicing Yang Style (Tung lineage) sword form for about 10 months now. I have not received instruction in Fajing in the form. My own spoken Cantonese is not sufficient to take advantage of my teacher's theory and his advice to my r...

Check out my review of a modern jian by John Lundemo on the sword forum in the Chinese Swordsmanship section. Basically it plays similarly to my antique. John is very interested in providing a service to Chinese style swordsmen and he tends to focus on historical accuracy in performance. He offers d...

I do find that sword balance may involve more than just a POB. My antique jian (39.5 inches long) has a POB about 6 inches from where the guard meets the handle. That's about 4" or so from the front of the guard. However the guard is massive and heavy and when I grip the handle that weight is in fro...

I have test cut 2L bottles with a KC Gim and a D.Guertin Bat Jian with 1070 steel with differential heat treatment. The bottles were filled with water. POB for KC Gim about 4" from distal side of guard, 5" for D. Guertin Sword. I have actually bent the KC gim (mind you this was before I learned swor...

Sifu Rodell, I do notice that the heavier swords with a more distal POB tend to almost move themselves through the form effortlessly (as long as I initiate movement with my waist :wink: ) despite the heavier weight. It's almost counterintuitive to what many people think. Regarding antiques...I would...

First sword: KC Gim, second: Paul Chen practical sword, third: Darryl Guertin Bat Jian (this one is heavy and the most lively of them all). Yup, I bought lots and just kept 'upgrading'. I agree with Sifu Rodell's advice. One question there are some highpriced replicas from zhengwutang.com from a smi...

I must explain myself. The body does direct the cut but with a POB too close to the guard the blade lacks the inertia to keep it steady in the tracking of the blade. Also with the POB too close to the guard the lack of inertia makes the power of the cut less effective. I gathered this from posts on ...

Hi Linda, the heavy weight is good...more like the real thing. POB on the RS swords are a little tricky...I don't have a clue how long (from the handle to blade) the GRTC sword guard is. The RS standard Ming guard is 2" long. Most metal swords (factory made ones) have guards from 1" to 1.75" long. S...

On taichiamerica there is a film of my original Sifu, Andy Wong performing the Tung fast set.

In my hand form my teacher has suggested practicing mirror image to 'balance' the muscular and flexibility development of the body. Was there a historical basis in mirror image practice for the sword forms???

I am currently learning the public form from my teacher. It is somewhat different in order of moves from the one in Sifu Rodell's book. After asking my teacher many questions I am almost certain that at least in my corner of my city, few if any know the applications of the sword. Some of this I came...