Thanks! In future videos I’m going to let my wife join in, we already have footage of her test cutting with the French Medieval Falchion by Angus Trim🙂
@@jhl3653 Thank you! I know how lucky I am as a dude =D On the other hand, try to ask your wife to be featured in a sword-related video with the promise of showcasing her makeup styles, perhaps that can work. It worked for me. =p
Hahahaha, absolutely. To be fair, even a stick would do. That old lady from San Francisco beat the crap out of a racist attacker 50 years younger just a few weeks ago, this proves all these racists are just incredible cowards who crumple at the first sign of resistance.
Finally got my Sokojikara katana that u recommended and for the price I couldn’t be happier. The only problems with it I see is the wrapping on the sheath is a little loose and there are some dead zones on the edge. And thanx on another educational review
It's great that you are glad with the overall quality of the sword. The one they sent me got pretty consistent sharpening, even though the final sharpening isn't as fine as some of the katana I've owned or handled. It cuts rather better than I thought it would nonetheless. The saya for mine is too tight to smoothly instead, I guess they need to work on the fit and finish of their scabbard.
It certainly is quite a sword. Being a single-edged sword, but having the traits of period doubled-edged swords. Lighting-fast, deadly in both cut and thrust.
Hi Mr. Shen, i recently bought this dao but i struggle to find any sources on its actual usage. LK Chen recommended me a video on his shop site however the techniques in this video are what i would call kung fu forms (with a rather acrobatic touch to it). They just seem unhistorical to me. I guess it unlikely that someone in armour would have used such complex and dynamic footwork on the battlefield. Even in a duel without armour i doubt the extended usage of such techniques. As for now my best idea is to cut and thrust with the dao as with a military saber (cuts from the wrist, each attack combined with a lunge, parries as always). Because of the complete lack of handprotection i certainly wouldnt utilise extended guards but rather keep my elbow close to the body keeping my hand and arm out of the opponents reach extending only for the attacks. I dont see much benefit from two handed techniques with this sword as it is already very manuvereable and cant be used for proper binding as you lack a crossguard. An alternative to this might be the employing of ming jianfa techniques (but its hard to find something on that either and i do not know how much jianfa relies on the false edge of the jian). What are your thoughts on fighting with the tang dao and do you know any sources on practical straight dao techniques?
I haven't watched the video LK Chen recommended, so I don't know what style of fencing you were referring to. Sadly not a lot is known about the usage of these Migration Era swords from China, as most surviving treatises are from 15 century and onward. We can infer from the characteristics of these swords and the context of their usage however. We know that these are both used in the battlefield as sidearms for specialists wielding two-handed weapons or missile weapons such as crossbows and war bows, which means they don't use shields. In civil context, the town guards may use small shields, or use these swords by themselves. These swords are light weight, with a grip for both one-handed and two-handed usage. So I would say they are rather flexible in usage. You can pair them with a buckler like an arming sword, or use it like a langemesser, which has more retracted land positions in different guard stances, due to not having very extensive hand protection. Guards like long points or the ones in military sabres can be used with caution, and you are right that the fencer should not spend a prolonged period of time in these guards as unlikely dussacks and military sabres the tang dao doesn't have a lot of hand protection. Cuts should be similar to langemesser cuts (single-edged with a short false edge).
@@yoshiamita6758 It's based on archeological finds dated back to 1st century BC for Han Jian, and in the case of Tang Dao, surviving examples brought to Japan from China in the 8th century and housed in the treasure house of temples in Japan, credited as Tara Tachi (Tang Dao). So, nice try, but not anywhere even close.
@@FortuneFavoursTheBold Thanks for your reply! This is the mentioned video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-d-tJ3cxHlck.html I also thought about armingsword and messer techniques. In my opinion however the techniques with these weapons (even most of the basic ones) are based on characteristics the tang dao doesnt share with them. Regarding simple true edge cuts as far as i am aware when using an arming sword or a messer you cut from guard to guard. The main reason is that both have generally too much weight and blade presence to return them quickly to the same position you cut from. The tang dao on the contrary is very nimble. I think one should exploit this rather than employ the slower armingsword and messer strikes (slower in that sense that you cant make as much consecutive strikes in a certain time frame). When coming to false edge cuts i doubt that the false edge of the tang dao can be used to the same extent as the false edge of a messer. Compared to my landsknecht emporium messer the grip and guard of the dao just isnt suited for switching in to a thumb grip which is used to deliver false edge cuts with a messer. The daos handle is almost twice as broad as the messers making it nearly impossible for me to rotate it in my palm for a proper thumb grip. Moreover the false edge on the tang dao is very short. Therefore i assume that its purpose is to assist the thrust (maybe you even mentioned this in your review im unsure) and not to cut by itself. Using it with a buckler sized shield seems reasonable to me. I know that you stated that most soldiers in the field which used the dao didnt have any shields but may it be possible that at least chinese crossbowmen carried bucklers like for example european archers did later?
This is a video beautifully put together. I like your recount of history and sword usage but I didn’t see your wife featured in the video as she is featured on the thumbnail.
Thanks, at the time of the release of this video, my wife had not cut with it. But in subsequent videos I have shown her using this sword doing some test cutting.
