And by the way, at the West Coast Tai Kai I helped my friend Ted Tenold put on a display and discussion of antique blades. Since we both straddle the two worlds we're trying to get more martial artists educated on the other aspect of their world as well as help the collectors better understand the martial artists. We put out some really interesting blades and I brought by the Heian inspired Tachi by Ono Yoshimitsu we have up on our http://moderntosho.com site for people to see in person. Mike Yamasaki of the NBTHK-AB came by as well to offer up some additional comments. We're hoping to repeat it next year and maybe bring in some even nicer blades. We didn't mention it at the meeting but we have about 6 blades on the table. The value of those blades was probably close to $100,000. But we didn't mention it because we wanted them to pick them up, study them, and learn something without being intimidated by the price tags.

We are very lucky in this day and age. We have everything from simple tools for training ranging up into the very best of the antique world. Personally I'm glad to see more and more martial artists learning more about the history, craft and subtlety of the very weapon they train so hard to learn to use. I think it can only improve us all to learn more about as much as we can.

That said, gotta go out and finish rubbing out a new saya for a customer...