- Freestyle fencing with the historical arsenal
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Simon Choi Wai Ho
Simon Choi Wai Ho
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 Simon was using a Pudao (Chinese Polearms similar to the famous Kwan Dao) prototype in Realistic Sparring Weapons combat.
Simon and Lancelot engaged into lightless night battle. The photo was taken with the camera's nightvision function. Both of them were virtually blind fighting each other and had to rely on experience and feeling. |
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Simon's collection
These are the three swords I have acquired recently, a fully steel short Jian and two Dao. The short Jian might be dated to Ming dynasty while the two Dao are a bit suspicious.
Left: This is the fully steel short Jian with the blade length 26 inches and the hilt length 4 inches only. It weighs 870 gram and the balance is located at 40% of the whole length.
Right: The guard and the pommel were all made of steel without any decoration. The design was purely functional and the sword was a combat sword. Since it lacks of decoration, it has a low value in collection, thus not many modern-made aged swords were made after this style. As a result, it is easier to judge whether the sword is genuine or not.
Left: The close-up shot of the blade. 26" blade seems to be very short, but it was a popular dimension during Ming and Ching Dynasty and swords with this blade length were regarded as a long sword. It was because the society had grown dense and the sword length was convenient for drawing out during ambush in narrow space.
Right: The close-up shot of the tip. There is a obvious ding on the tip. In fact, there are many dings along the edge. One could imagine how its original owner went through many combats with this sword. However, there is no critical crack developed, showing the good metallurgy involved in forging the sword.
Left: This is one of the Dao. Its profile is similar to the Dao of civilian.
Right: The photo when the Dao was unsheathed. Blade length 30 inches, hilt length 6 inches with 1220 gram weight. It was not heavy for a Dao.
Left: There are several semi-circular cuts on the forte. Because of these decorations, I was not so sure in judging the date of this piece. On the other hand, the length, weight and balance are very close to the real antiques. Due to the fact that modern-made Dao are mostly machine-made with a few exceptions in the higher end, they do not possess the handling characteristics of the antiques. However, the shape of this piece was quite unusual in the antiques, so I estimated that it might be made during the China republic time.
Edit to add: This piece is confirmed fake.
Right: The close-up shot of the foible.
The thickness at base exceeds 6mm.
Left: This is the last Dao. From its style it was similar to the officer's Dao in Ching dynasty.
Right: This blade profile is called Yan Mao.
Left: The open end of the sheath. It was not smooth when unsheathing the blade. In addition, the fittings seem to be new, so it could be an old blade refitted.
Right: The close-up shot of the guard.
Left: The close-up shot of the forte.
Right: The close-up shot of the foible.
The thickness at blade is about 6mm.
Left: The thickness compare of the three swords.
Right: Despite that the Dao seem to be thicker than the Jian in the photo, in fact the Jian was the thickest among the lot, being 7mm at the base.
Left: The thickness compare at the middle of the blades.
Right: The thickness compare at the tip of the blades. The thickness at the tip of the Dao are much thinner than the ones at the guard.