Tony Alvarez breaks sword

[Rhomyn Escalante]

I have been reading about the sword that Tony Alvarez broke while doing a Tamashigiri demonstration on stage at the U.S. -Japanese Expo in L.A. this past weekend, did anyone see this?

[Toyamadude]

Curious to know what type or target and cut Tony was doing. I competed with him in both Orlando and Seattle. I have heard about the " unbreakable" and " unbendable " swords from Howard Clark. Tony can you share any info on this ??

Thanks

Tom Smyth

[pgsmith]

Hi All,
Come on Tom, surely you know that NO sword is "unbendable" or "unbreakable". Anyway, it was not one of Howard Clark's swords. It was a prototype from Paul Chen. Keith Larman does a very good investigative report here ... http://home.earthlink.net/~kdlarman2/break/break.htm
and Howard Clark is supposed to receive the pieces soon to do his own analysis of what might have happened. Myself, I think Big Tony is just too big!

Cheers,

[Toyamadude]

Thanks for the link to the post mortem. Was curious if it was the same blade Tony used in Seattle ( which I had the opportunity to inspect closely)for the Dotan competition, which was a large ridgeless design blade I thought he had just recently received. Glad no one was hurt..

Tony - If it was that blade, sorry to hear about it.. Hey I got a good sword I will sell you .....( just kidding)

Tom Smyth

[Ted Tenold]

Hello all, this is my first post here, but I really like your forum. I have heard good things about it but I don't spend a great deal of time on line. I have worked very close with Bugei for a number of years and was announcing during the demonstration (I speak much better than I cut). I had a full view of the sword during the cut and its failure.

The sword that Big Tony used during this demonstration was a Prototype Hirazukuri Daito made by Paul Chen. It was made specifically for Big Tony as a prototype design to use in extensive cutting. He had used this sword for most of the competitions that he has been in over the past few months and done quite well with it. Tony used it in the recent Seattle event for the dodan cutting competition. During the Atlanta Blade show he cut the same types of targets as well as some more significant ones with 1" oak dowel cores. We had tested this sword on these dowel targets in advance of the Atlanta show as well. Its been through a great deal and we were all impressed with its performance. Just about everybody who has ever seen it has also been impressed. Needless to say we were shocked that it failed on the targets at this event because even though they were heavy targets, they were not as significant as prior cutting sessions.

The cut was the very last one of the demonstration. It was one of the Bugei Wara approximately 10" in diameter. This particular wara is also longer than normal goza targets by a few inches, so it is taller than usual on the stands. The cut he performed was a blend of a Dodan cut and a Kiri Otoshi where he splits the target vertically in two. Tony later told me that I had announced it as a Kabutowari. I remember mistakenly calling it that, so I get bread and water for dinner. Tony has done this cut before but had to make a slight change in the technique in order to save the stand and stand peg. We still had the next days demo to do so we needed it undamaged. Tony split the target but altered the path of the blade at the last few inches to exit the side of the target, and thus clear the stand. The blade speed in combination with the "squat" he performed to drive through the additional length of target caused him to contact the stand leg (6" high instead of 4") with the kissaki. The force of which caused the blades failure almost directly in the middle of the blade. The forward section of the sword fortunately did not fly, but instead stayed very low and was cushioned by the cuttings near the base of the stand. Tony realizing what had happened, kept his composure, stayed in focus, and completed with Chiburi, Noto, and a Bow. Proudaya!

The failure of the blade was immediately examined by myself, Tony, and Keith Larman. There was no pre-existing damage because I personally examined the sword *before* the demo as I do for Tony before he goes to any event, and found no damage to the blade whatsoever. Keith offered his opinions and was welcomed to comment on the incident with his post. I will not speculate on any reasons for the failure other than a freak occurance with perhaps inherent geometrical inferiority of hirazukuri in comparison to shinogizukuri from lateral stress standpoint. I have replayed the scene in my head over and over again and it still seems odd that it just appeared to part rather than what anyone would imagine a total failure of a sword to be. The evidence on the sword itself is even perplexing because it is not demonstrating any obvious reasons of why it failed either. For these reasons it is going to be sent to Howard Clark for his examination as he is far more knowledgable from a smithing and metallurgical standpoint than us and perhaps can shed some new light on the matter. I can only say doo doo happens, and I am very happy that nobody got hurt.

Ted Tenold

[Toyamadude]

Paul :

I used a world war II military sword ( 26.5 inches in length) which was machine made for over 4 years while I was learning to cut ( as if i know how to now!!). It also functioned as the dojo sword until students could purchase their own. This sword went through sheer hell, got thrown across the room, hit the floor, hit the peg uncountable times, hit the stand and got stuck in the wara at every imagineable angle, and it NEVER BENT.. I do not know what arsenal it was made at, but I have never seen another sword like it to this day.

I am currently using a sword which is made by my sensei somewhere overseas and to date have abused it severley, cutting up to 5 tatami mats in a single roll, 10 tatami mats Dotan style and countless poor angles and missed cuts on single full tatami. IT has never bent to date.

Just counting the days until it does........

Tom Smyth

[pgsmith]

Hi Tom,
I stand corrected! I also have a sword right now that has been pretty badly abused with no bending, but I figure I am just on a lucky streak! :cool:
Here's hoping your current sword is as blessed as your last one! :toast:

Cheers!

[Tony Alvarez]

Tom,
Good to hear from you. I hope all is well.
Sorry for not replying to you sooner. Ive been overseas along with other places and am leaving again this friday.
Can't always get the internet connection you need in mainland China.

As im sure you heard, it was the big hiri-zukuri blade that you saw at the tournaments.
It was indeed a prototype all the way . I must say as you have seen. That blade performed rather well against all types of targets. In trying to save the cutting stand (not splitting the 4x6 post) and my sword. I pulled the cut out of the bottom of the target at an angle and put the kissaki into the leg of the cutting stand. Between the kissaki being logged in the wood and me driving down against it . It had not choice but to break the way that it did.
After speaking with howard, he felt that just about any blade might have broke under the same circumstances. With the exception of the L6.
Oh well.Maybe PgSmith is right.Maybe i am to damned BIG!

Anyway, i am working on two other prototypes of the same design ,just modified a bit. Ill keep you posted on the results.
Please tell Bob Elder and Mike "Animo" i said hello.

Best regards

BIG TONY

[Toyamadude]

Consider it done !!!!

Tom

[Howard Clark]

well, after looking at it, and thining about it, and looking at it some more, really close, I have nothing much to add. There is nothing in the fracture surface that indicates a bad blade or a big problem of any kind, and no indications of flaws that would have initiated the breakage. I think most anything might have broken the same way given the circumstances.Tony is a really BIG guy, and had a lot of pressure on the blade in a lateral (sideways) direction when the break occurred. I am glad it was not one of my swords at the time in the same situation :) Hira zukuri has less lateral strength than shinogi zukuri just because of the geometry. The shinogi actually stiffens the blades up quite a bit, and the ones with tapered shinogi-ji that are more diamond shaped in section are the stiffest of the lot (Yamato-den style, historically were most often made this way, and it is what I prefer to do myself).



[Edited by Howard Clark on 12-05-2000 at 06:20 AM]