[El Tejon]

As a Christmas present to myself, I purchased a Paul Chen "watersong" training (i.e. unsharpened) dao in mid-December. Have been training with it for 4 months now and am very impressed.

http://www.kultofathena.com/product~item~PC2064~name~Paul+Chen+Watersong+Wushu+Broadsword.htm

The blade is 28" and is firm about 3/4 of the way up the blade and then "whippy" at the end. In holding it one can tell that this is a quality item, not something slapped together in a hapzard manner. The grip is solid and the weapon is light, but well-balanced which makes practice a joy (usually daos are notorious for inferior grips that vibrate and unbalanced weapons which make manipulation difficult)!

The weapon can take a beating as I have used it in spear vs. broadsword drills and it does not rattle at me in anger. For those interested in Chinese Martial Arts who use a saber in your division, or if you're just a collector and want something to screw around with that won't remove any limbs or other members, I highly recommend this weapon.:)

[JShirley]

Very nice.

Would you perhaps suggest a serious individual buy two, one for training, and one to sharpen?

John

[nomadboi]

I'll second the reccommendation- I bought a used one a couple years back, thinking I'd dull it down for stage use. Haven't needed it for any stage or film gigs yet, so I've kept it sharp so far, and use it for trimming the hedges. Makes yardwork more fun!

[El Tejon]

JShirley, you could, but I cannot see any practical reason to do so. The thin blade of the Watersong is so the boxer can train body power with the saber.

I know in this day and age everything has to do everything, cell phones have to be cameras, secret agent decoder rings and make lattes, but I have mine for a specific purpose, just to train.

If you want a sharp one, I would pony up the bucks and get the real McCoy, or is it, McChen? Several of my clubmates have custom daos and train with them--the whole old school live blade training.

This Chen sword doesn't look bad, but I do not know anyone that has one and the grip to me looks unbalanced (my style uses it mostly one handed). At the price, worth a look, IMHO: http://www.kultofathena.com/product~item~2047~name~Ritter+Steel+Chinese+Broad+Sword.htm

[nomadboi]

Ah- correction: I actually have a different Chen Dao. Mine is this one:
http://www.kultofathena.com/product~item~PC1011~name~Paul+Chen+Chinese+Broadsword.htm

Thicker, stiffer blade, not whippy at all.