Daisho...

[fuzzyweasel]

Greetings,

I'm hoping someone here can help me. I am decorating a room in my home, and was looking for an attractive sword set. I'm guessing that many of you are constantly looking at, or seeing a wide quality range of weapons, so any help in this would be appreciated.

I am also looking for a "functional" set of weapons, or at least katana for training. All I really care about for this weapon(s) is the proper weight, balance and feel within reason.

Thanks,

[The Coffee God]

It's more of a question of what you're willing to spend on a diasho.
There are many, many places to go look at, both for quality and aesthetics, but generally they're not soft on the pocket book we shall say.

[fuzzyweasel]

For something pretty I was looking at around $200-$300 bucks max. I'm not looking to ever swing these, they are simply for decoration.

As for something to train with, I'm thinking around $500 per weapon. I know this is not a great deal for these weapons, but I mainly just need a reliable training weapon, it doesn't need to look pretty.

[The Coffee God]

For that price you might want to look into some Paul Chan blades.
Shinsakuto can get quite expensive.

[fuzzyweasel]

Great, do you have a web site or any contact info.?

[Soulend]

For your training weapons, I suggest you check out Paul Chen's Practical Katana (the one on the link below has a tiger motif tsuba I like very much)

http://www.bytheswordinc.com/1492-GTP.html

Or the regular Practical or Practical Plus (though I don't know if the Plus has a wakizashi counterpart)

http://www.by-the-sword.com/orient2.html

I haven't owned either of these, but I've heard really good things about both models. I would guess they are a couple of the nicest ones you can get in the price range you're talking about.

As to decorator swords, I don't know much about these, although if you do a web search you should come up with many. I don't imagine the construction matters too much if they are only for looks.

HTH,

[Charles Mahan]

In what do you intend to train? It makes a big difference really. I wouldn't start a beginner in Iai out with a sharp blade. Good one's are awfully expensive, while good Iaito start at about the price of cheap live blades. If you don't intend to actually cut anything, check out the Iaito offered at http://www.swordstore.com . They also sell some truly wonderful live blades at good prices too, but they are somwhat higher than you are looking to spend.

You might consider pooling your money and getting one nice weapon, and using it as a set piece in the room you are decorating when you are not actually using it. That should enable you to get a really nice looking weapon that is also usable as a quality training tool.

Just some thoughts.

[The Coffee God]

The best thing to do is use your search engin and look up "paul chen", but here's one of the many hundreds of sites that carry Chen blades
http://www.mantisswords.com/

You also might want to try eBay, there's always lots of Chen stuff for sale there.

Items matching "paul chen" (http://search-desc.ebay.com/search/search.dll?cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2F&MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ht=1&ebaytag1=ebayreg&query=%22paul+chen%22&query2=paul+chen&search_option=3&srchdesc=y&exclude=&category0=&minPrice=&maxPrice=&ebaytag1code=0&st=&SortProperty=MetaNewSort)

[Chidokan]

The Spanish do a great line of copycat swords from the old armouries in Toledo. Daisho are cheap, but whatever you do dont use 'em, you'll kill yourself! They also do the silly ones from Highlander and that other grotty film, Conan. Hmm... wonder how well sensei will take me turning up with Conan's sword....:D

Tim Hamilton

[Kevin H]

I have a suggestion. For one of the very best swords that Paul Chen makes, I suggest you check out this page:
http://www.bugei.com/crane.html
Its also a great value.