Great River Taoist Center Forums

I can attest to the quality of your workmanship. It felt quite solid, although it balanced a tad tip-heavy (the stoutness factor?) but I liked the way it handled. That may have been one of the older protoypes. The latest model balances quite comfortably.... though balance does depend somewhat on th...

.........Graham's jians........I wonder how to purchase one?] I will be setting up a website in due course. However, at the moment I'm rather restricted in the amount of swords I can make because most of my time is being spent researching and designing.........I just wish there were more hours in t...

........I have seen a couple of dao with silver fittings and they look great ......... If these were antiques, then the fittings could possibly have been made of pak tung ( bai Tong )......an alloy that was traditionally used for fittings on Chinese furniture. Known in English as nickel silver or G...

The swords that I have imported into the UK have all been delivered by Parcelforce, and since the amendment of the Criminal Justice Act in 2008 I have only had one dao detained by HM Customs. First method: declare it with the toll code for antiques, not weapons, and ship it together with the papers ...

Hi everyone, and thanks for the comments...they are much appreciated. Very nice jian Peter, .......... Mine will be a bit simpler, however, as I will be using it for free-play. I sincerely hope that Peter will be using this one for sparring! It is indeed a fully functional wooden sword and not inten...

A corrosion remover used by museums and conservation professionals is Renaissance Metal De-Corroder . If you don't want to protect the steel with an oil, then an alternative would be Renaissance wax . This has virtually no odour. Another useful conservation product is Vulpex Liquid Soap . This is a ...

Is this the one?


Here's a slightly more ornate one from my Myspace profile - photo courtesy of Alex Huangfu :

Another photograph of a wide bladed jian used for executions : http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa106/grahamcave/Cantonexecutioner.jpg The whole of this image may be seen at Beheaded Art . Please note that this site contains graphic images of public executions and is definitely not for the squeami...

Here are a few pics of wooden jian that I've designed and made: http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa106/grahamcave/jianr.jpg Solid oak from tip to pommel with a tung oil finish. The overall weight and balance is achieved by internal lead weighting - and that's not as simple as it sounds! It's easy ...

I wouldn't worry about that. Any sword will get scratched during cutting. You don't worry about your hammer getting nicked when you drive a nail, don't fret scratches on your swords, imagine what any sword got in even one encounter in the old days... That's good...... I'll just carry on using it an...

Just wondering what the edge geometry is like? Have you cut with it yet? It's a more of a 'clamshell' than my Huanuo mono steel but the blade also flattens out towards the tip so there is correspondingly less of a 'clamshell' at the end - still more than the Huanuo though. I've done a little bit of...

The san mei blade for this project was made to order for me by Kenneth's Qing Zhong Knife and Sword Company http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa106/grahamcave/qzjian21a.jpg Blade length : 25" / 63.5 cm Overall length : 33 7/8" / 86 cm Grip length : 6 1/4" / 16 cm Weight : 870g Pob : 4" / 10 cm - th...

There is some good news here in the UK. The Home Office has been listening to the cries of the sword enthusiasts and has decided to amend the Criminal justice act accordingly. It will now be a defence if: "the weapon in question was made before 1954 or was made at any other time according to traditi...

Hi Linda. That's excellent work! I'm really enjoying seeing your progress pics. I was wondering, how are the studs attached? Have you any pics of the studs on their own?

We now have a bit more information from the Government: Explanatory Memorandum Perhaps Chinese swords will be unaffected after all: 4.2 This instrument adds swords with a curved blade of 50 centimetres or over in length to the 1988 Order. These swords are commonly known as “samurai swords”. The Gove...