The Beginners Guide to Protective Gear and Swords for Chinese Swordsmanship

New Gear and Manufacturers are popping up all the time. Gavin King, two-time finalist in the Traditional Chinese Sword League Annual Tournaments, gives a run down the the latest Full-Contact Protective Gear and Sparring Swords for the Chinese Sword Arts.

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Links for Gear:

[NikPalmer]

34:00 for Weapons.
Great review and prioritization of protective gear.

[AidanJianfa]

I love Crane Sword Studios' jian, but I will flag that the Wenge Wood (and Daniel says it as well) is *not* for sparring/contact, it will break quickly, even a light tap against something will knock off splinters. It's a lighter weight for recovery days, long training sessions, and aesthetics. His Hickory jian however are top notch.

[sdhikerdude]

Purpleheart Armoury in the USA sells a decent synthetic dao. They actually sell 2 different dao, but one of them is way too light. However, the other dao has been nice to spar with.

[MasterPoucksBestMan]

Maybe you could glue long strips of velcro on the bayonet stock, and on the Dadao edge to simulate a bit of bite.

[drako]

I find it very interesting that while HEMA generally rejects the use of wooden weapons for non drill work due to chance of injury, even in gear, while Chinese swordsmanship uses them very regularly from what I’ve seen on the channel. Is there a particular reason that Chinese swordsmanship seems to have a preference toward wooden weapons over synthetics?