Swords!

[Rhys Mayiessen]

[color=navy]I was just wondering if anyone here has swords (that are decorations of course though still can be used as a weapon) or wants one.
Yesterday was my 16th birthday and my parents said they wanted to get me something special. I had always looked at this store in a mall near me which had some of the Lord of the Rings replia swords. I had always wanted one but I knew my mom didn't really want me to have one.
When I got my present yesterday I opened it and I saw that they got me Sting, Frodo's sword which is like over 300 dollars! I was soooooo happy cause that's the one that I wanted for it was shorter than the others.
Now some of you might think eww... why does she want a sword, well the reason is because I have always been big on medievil stuff and this would just add to my collection of Lord of the Rings stuff![/color]

[Boba Fett]

[COLOR=green]Swords have always intrigued me. I don't actually own any, unless you include plastic lightsabers...

I'm more into informal sword fighting/fencing than collecting. Me and a few of my friends use painted wooden poles for lightsaber duels. It's a lot harder than it looks to use a double bladed lightsaber...[/COLOR]

[Kinetic]

[color=darkblue]
I don't have any swords, but I have wanted some for a long time. I always imagined that I wouldn't bee that great at wielding a sword, although I've practiced all my life with long sticks and other things and I thought that I would be afraid to wield one so carelesly, because it was sharp.

That's not the case, however, because last week my Art teacher brought his swords, axes, and even a spear to school. I picked up his dagger and started spinning it around myself. . .then I got in trouble, but still :p

I hope that some day my brothers will learn not to break into my room, that way my parents will let me collect swords, because that's the only reason they don't. They love swords, I love swords, and I'm sure they would like to collect swords too, but my brothers are little brats :p
[/color]

[Sara]

[size=1]I don't have any, though I guess I wouldn't be adverse to owning one, heh. They're just so cool.

Most of my guy friends collect them, though...some more than others. One came home from Turkey this summer with a new one--I couldn't believe they let him through Customs.

Another has somewhere between six and twelve dangerous pointy weapons.... Scary guy; I tend to avoid his room when I visit.[/size]

[Solo Tremaine]

^_^

I've liked swords ever since I started fencing seven years ago. Most of the ones I have are for actual use, and don't look so good. I have a few (exceedingly wimpy-looking) fencing foils- about the flimsiest you can get, which I use to do the actual sport.

I also do stage fight choriography with my best friend, and we both have these fantasy RPG onse which are designed to look good but be safe enough for anyone to use. They're made out of latex :bluesweat But they look very good, and they're easy to use to choriograph moves.

The real meaty stuff are those you can get for historical re-enactment (I don't have one of them, but I use them), which are made of tempered steel and are incredibly heavy. Unfortunately, they don't look very nice, because they have to be accurate.

(I have three lightsabers, too. Darth Maul's is my favourite :p)

Heh, anyways, I love swords. Although I enjoy using them far too much to get an ornamental one, despite the fact thet they're very nice to look at. When I do get them I want to be able to use them.

[Deedlit]

[color=009966]I don't have a sword, though I've always wanted one....>.>;; [/color]

[Ninjaman]

Swords are cool. I had like a hundred plastic and wooden swords when I was a kid. I remember I took them outside and played with them thinking I was in a video game or something. Kinda of embarassing when I think about because I bet people who walked by thought I was wierd or something, but hey I was a kid! Man it would be pretty cool if I had a real one though.

[Juu]

[color=ff00cc] [size=1]My grandfather has one. ^_^
It's a samurai sword, and it has a few words in Japanese on it.

He got it when he became General in the Navy sometime in the 60's...

I don't own any swords. ^_^; I have a pair of sai at my house in Korea. ^_^ It's fun twirling them, but I'm terrible at them. @_@;[/color] [/size]

[Rhys Mayiessen]

[color=navy]Actually I might start fencing. There are a few places around here that I could go to! This sword is surprisingly sharp and if you really wanted to you could fence with it though I would rather not since it is actually a collecters item.[/color]

[Kinetic]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Juuthena [/i]
[B][color=ff00cc] [size=1]My grandfather has one. ^_^
It's a samurai sword, and it has a few words in Japanese on it.

He got it when he became General in the Navy sometime in the 60's...

I don't own any swords. ^_^; I have a pair of sai at my house in Korea. ^_^ It's fun twirling them, but I'm terrible at them. @_@;[/color] [/size] [/B][/QUOTE]

[color=darkblue]
I have sais! I forgot about those, geez it's been so long. I guess I forgot about them because I brought one out of my backpack at school once on accident and someone "tattletold" on me. Ah well, I still have the other :toothy: They're rounded off though, that's the only downside. I had a couple pairs of nunchucks too, but my brother lost the one with the chain, now I just have the wimpy rope one.

E D I T: It's funny that the karate instructors give these weapons to little kids :p I got the sais when I was 8 or 9 I think, lol. I have to hide those from my brothers too. I wonder why my parents let me have those and not the swords. I'll have to bring that up :toothy:
[/color]

[Sere Tuscumbia]

Heh. My friend Mandy has a sword. (Some of ya'll know her as Seress) That thing is freaking heavy. Real sword too. Would get a sword, but there's no good places to find one. *shrugs* Oh well. I've always like crossbows better anyway.

--Mistress Sere Tuscumbia, signing off.

[Rhys Mayiessen]

[color=navy]Hehe I never thought there would be a good place to get swords but one day I saw this booth that was called the House of Knives. I was looking at it when I saw swords on one side. They have all kinds of swords they have samurai swords and have a bunch of fantasy daggers. The website is [url]www.houseofknives.ca[/url] but I think its Canadian. Oh well at least you can look at it.

My grandfather just came over and gave me the scabbard. Its soooooo cool!!^^[/color]

[Kent]

I dont have a sword anymore because I thought the cheap piece of crap was a real deal sword that could actually cut something... yea, it broke.

But, I do have a true piece of history. Although I feel bad about how I got it... My grandfather is a ww2 pacific vet. He did mop up ops in the pacific after the war ended and did fighting before that during the actual war.

He managed to get his hands on several samurai swords and a piece that he gave me... what we (westerners) call a "harry carry" sword.

Its the real deal, not just something that was made for ww2. Its a real piece of art, but its also the sharpest damn thing in the house.

My gramps is a big collector of all kinds of stuff, and has a real passion for swords.

And so, I just happen to know a good deal about how the original samurai swords (quality ones only) were made. As well as where some of the most important and oldest ones are today.

Story goes like this... (very condensed)

The original quality swords were made by men who would build a fire in a huge pit. The fire would burn for a full month constantly.
Then the maker would get tons of snow from the mountains, this snow would be put on the fire and melted down. This would continue for a long time.

Eventually the maker would put out the fire, and at the bottom of the pit would be the raw iron-ore which was melted out of the snow.
He would take that and melt it down. Then he would take the liquid metal and spill it across a floor.
After cooling, the "grain" and quality of the iron would be inspected and if it was high enough quality it would be used to make the famous thousand fold swords. (if you dont know what those are please ask, dont be embarressed.)

That is how the ancient samurai swords were made.

Now, about where those things ended up.

When japan was opening up to the world towards the end of its fuedal era, the foreign dipolmates (believed to be british, but Im not sure) were asked about how to help build up the economy of japan.

The diplomates said they needed to lose the samurai. (they did nothing and were one of the highest and most powerful classes of people)

They decided to get rid of the samurai, and allegedly they did this by making everyone a samurai, hence, the samurai was no longer a postion to be valued.

When they did this the samurai had to get real jobs.
This is where the swords go.
When they went to get jobs, many decided to become law enforcment types. (cops)
When they did this, they couldnt carry those big ol' swords, so instead of just letting them go, the samurai would have their sword makers cut and resize the swords to be roughly the size of a night stick.
This way they could continue carrying their swords.

And so, some of the oldest and most valued samurai swords are now half their original size and stashed away in museums as pieces that police carried after the fuedal era in japan.

hope you guys enjoyed that.

[Valen]

I've got a pair of Sai, a bastard sword i got for $20 in Florida on vacation (nice one too), a few that aren't exactly allowed in this country, but meh! Heh, it's great having friends in Navy, Army, and Air Force... Hehe especially if they know you love swords! Only drawback was, she brought me a french or spanish or birttish one, i forgot which one, but the tip was bent... Back in the old days, they used to do that for safety on the cargo ships or something of the sort...

Oh yeah! I also have a katana and Isis Dagger... if I could combine the two, I'd really have my RPG weapon... bwehehe!

[Cora Jane 2]

well... i have 3 swords in my house.... one is a big one... that i will get when i move out. my brother gets another one, and nice chinese sparing sword, and the third is my fathers, but if he should pass i would get. i love swords... they are fun. i have a pair of chinese stars, also.

[Fall]

Heh. I don't have any kind of sword. Though my father does. He has this huge one that has another two sharp blades that extend from the handle.

Don't ask me if it's real or not, all I know is that he has alot of pride in it.

[Guest Imsirion]

I got two at Christmas. One is like a Japanese short sword. It has a green sheath and green and gold handle thats wraped in this cool thick thread.....*needs to work on sword termenology* Anyways its really cool and the hangguard has dragon in it, also dragons on the sheath. Also came with this rope/thread to tie it to ya, I guess. The blade says fighter plus on it and I know someone with a long fighter plus blad, which she can chop firewood with. I also have this dagger and it has a really cool sheath, and it looks "middle-earthish'.
*re-visits the book of sword termenology* o.O;

[Syk3]

My friend has a couple of Katanas. They're real, and suposedly pretty expensive, but he barely ever takes them out of their holsters. When he does, however, he has a little fight with his younger brother. -__- None of them have gotten hurt...yet.

I don't think I'll ever get one though. I'd pay a lot of money for it, and it will end up just stashed away. Any time that I can actually think I'll use it is if someone breaks into my house, and what are the odds of that? Bah, I'm better off putting that money toward something educational...like video games. :)

[Duo Maxwell]

at a knife shop in town they have a few samurai swords which look cool, and then there's a collectables shop at the plaza with some cool swords too.
I'd love to have one or two but me parents are those people who would never want their children to have anything sharp in their rooms.. no matter how old they are... -_-;

[Outlaw]

I actually have a 6 foot claymore, but the edge is so blunt i couldn't cut butter with it. But back when I lived near a bambo forrest, I would sharpen it up, go down and hack away at the bambo. It was sweet.

[Rhys Mayiessen]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Duo Maxwell [/i]
[B]at a knife shop in town they have a few samurai swords which look cool, and then there's a collectables shop at the plaza with some cool swords too.
I'd love to have one or two but me parents are those people who would never want their children to have anything sharp in their rooms.. no matter how old they are... -_-; [/B][/QUOTE]

[color=navy]I thought that my parents would never let me have anything sharp in my room...well it was mostly my mom that didn't want it but I guess she changed her mind!^^ Good thing too![/color]

[zidane11]

I also like that stuff. I like the mideivil times or however to spell it and I also like swords and lord of the rings. That's pretty cool.

[Bing]

[size=1][color=darkblue]Ah, surprised not to hear from Break in this thread!
THe only experience I've had with swords is his. I like holding it, as it makes me feel powerful, and when I spin it round and such, it makes me look cool. Well, I usually drop it, so maybe not. We take it out with use sometimes, if we are going on a long walk or something, but other than that, it's kept indoors.
I don't think I would buy one though, because I've seen the damage they can do, and with another child in the house, it's pretty dangerous![/color][/size]

[Break]

[size=1][color=crimson]I guess you could call my liking of swords an obsession. I am attracted to more to the old Japanese swords, the katana, wakazashi, surburito, etc. Chinese broadswords and scmitars catch my eye too, but not in the same way as the expertly made folded-blade swords that the Japanese used to make.

But, I hold extreme dislikes for the rapiers and other Revolution sword that were produced during the various French Revolutions and such. I hold the same dislike for old english double-edged swords and Claymores. I find them [i]way[/i] too clumsy. I hate these modern things that people actually can call swords, the big knives the army use and anything that is modern about swords really.

I have (as Bing has said) a 41" inch katana.. hardwood practice one. My mother and father won't let me have anything more than wooden, so I'll have to stick with that until I can twist their arms to let me get one.

As for my skills, I could say I am good, twirling the daito (practice sword) in my hands well. I lack battle experience.. the world lacks old-age feuds too, I guess. In my eyes, swords and martial arts are just being so commercial and made just-for-show. I am currently reading "The Book of Five Rings" by Miyamoto Musashi, an excellent duelist of that time, he once never lost a duel - he started duelling at the age of 16, too. The book is really really interesting, teaching battle sciences, techniques to overcome the opponent easily and hide your strength by making yourself seem weak. I recommend this book highly to anyone with the same interests as me.

I am good with not only swords, but staffs, spears and escrima sticks too. I would love to learn the dagger (or twin-dagger) as well, but I'm okay at that so I'll leave it for now. :)[/size][/color]

[Amorphous]

I collect swords and kifes and anything sharp. I have a big knife collection, throwing knifes are the ones I prefer. My Swords are pretty cool, though I never use them much. I need to learn how to use them better. But yeah I've always like the feel of them on my hand, just like paper money. Need to get a Scyth one of these days to.