Martial Arts & Crafts...

[global village idiot]

This "waster" training dao belongs to a student of mine at the class I share with my colleague. She is the lady who takes care of our paperwork and finances. She just got it a couple weeks ago, and when I told her I'd "gussy it up" for her, she gave it to me for the week.

I used a bit less than 20 feet of gutted 550 cord.

In addition to this, I'm going to put an eye bolt at the back to act as a ring pommel, to move the center of balance a tiny bit closer to the grip. Trouble is, the eye bolt I bought is too big for the grip, and drilling out the pilot hole will weaken it, so I have to get a smaller bolt.

My own waster is shaped like hers but looks like it was made of ugly pallet wood and has baseball bat grip tape. That's what Joy thinks I'm putting on her waster - I think she'll be pleasantly surprised.

gvi

[DPasek]

GVI,

I cannot see the image, but I am guessing that you have wrapped the handle with the gutted (to make the sheath flatten rather than being round) 550 paracord? I would think that nylon material would be more slippery in sweaty hands than cotton or silk cords, but perhaps it will work well when the grip texture is taken into account. It would be nice to see the image.

I guess that you are adding the “ring pommel” to replicate the Yang (and Wu) preferred style of dao. Is the handle also of sufficient length for that version (~ 1 and ½ to two hand)? Where is the POB? I stated my thoughts on POB for jian in the following article, and stand by my comments as being appropriate for both jian and dao, despite the disagreements voiced by some of the commentators on the article.
http://slantedflying.com/taiji-sword-jian/

[global village idiot]

Dpasek,

Thanks for the response! Not sure why you can't see the image unless perhaps you're looking at it on a smartphone. I'm looking at it on a desktop or laptop and it comes up for me. Shoot me a pm with your email address and I'd be glad to send you this and a picture of the "finished product."

Perhaps you can see the image in this link, which I posted once I'd finished. https://bushcraftusa.com/forum/threads/ ... st-4803978

If that doesn't help and you're forced to use your mind's eye, picture a nicely stained and varnished version of the Plain-Jane wooden practice "Kung-Fu" oxtail dao you can pick up practically anywhere. Now picture it with an eye bolt stuck in its pommel and with its grip wrapped following the instructions at this link:
https://www.mandarinmansion.com/restor ... p-wrapping

Since I used gutted 550 cord, it doesn't look as nice as the ones the author did; then again, the lady who bought this thought it was a big deal to pay $25 for the thing so in my defense I was sort of keeping with the "spirit of frugality." It'd be slippery compared to cotton, sure. But compared to varnished pallet wood, it's not so bad. And she's unlikely to put so much use into it that it'd get soiled from overuse.

As for the balance...it's a wood waster, just like all of 'em - cheap as chips and uglier than a mud fence. The balance is about 6" from the guard which is oddly right about where it should be for proper use. Then again, the owner is in her 70s and any thoughts of "proper use" are out the window.

I'm of the same mind as you regarding swords, weight, balance and function; on the other hand (the yin hand?), I think it's no exaggeration to say that the overwhelming majority of people the world over couldn't tell a proper sword from a stage prop and - more importantly - don't much care about the difference OR their own ignorance.

And really - there may be a deal of sense in that. Historically, wasters are properly made of wood. Ash and hickory were used in singlesticks, which are lighter than their sabre counterparts. And the balance is only close to where it should be by accident. We see German "Federschwerten," French "Épées de Combat" and British "gymnasium sabres" and the like, which are steel and made for sparring, but are still lighter than their fighting cousins. Perhaps the choice was made in order to extend the time before the student became unreasonably fatigued.

At any rate, the lady's "sword-like object" is done, it's hers now, and she's happy with it. And as I'm nearly certain she's never going to put herself in a position to need sword skills "out in the world," I consider this sufficient.

Cheers!
gvi

[DPasek]

The wrap looks good. The ring pommel looks odd to me combined with the style of pommel (which would have had a peened over tang holding everything together and no attachment place for a cloth on the pommel) that came with the waster, but if they want to attach a saber cloth then I guess it helps. The other option would have been adding a hole in the handle like what was used for lanyards, or tying the cloth through the grip wrap, or some other option. I am used to the ring pommel on dao with handles much longer (I have not seen them on handles this short, although they are common on longer handles, from about two hands to those where the handle is longer than the blade).

[global village idiot]

Yeah, it's kludgy as all heck; then again, it's not meant to be pretty, historically accurate or elegant.

No matter what, our class is going out to dinner tomorrow night and the sabre's owner insists on paying for mine - right or wrong, the "customer" is happy and that's all that matters!

gvi