New Han Jian! part 1

Got my new sword! Got my new sword! Got my new sword!

Ok, so I'm a bit excited.

Technically this is more a replacement sword than a "new" one, since the last one I got from Jin Shi was deemed defective by Garrett Chan, the business owner. He insisted I get a replacement that was built to standard... and boy is it.

I plan on doing a more formal review of this later, but I just wanted to give you guys my first impressions of it. So far, I'm pretty impressed.


Soundtrack:

The Herbaliser - Intro

The Herbaliser - Scratchy Noise.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• jian
• chinese
• sword
• han
• dynasty
• jin
• shi
• Jinshi
• garrett
• chan

[elgostine]

this sword is known as a han jian i get that is ithat design actually the kind used in the han dynasty or was it just called that... .. admittedly in not 100% sure about how jian have changed over time. but do you have much idea when iron and steel jian first started being used.

[Swordsage]

@elgostine Good question. Basically this is called "han jian" because it mimics the fittings and blade dimensions of jian(though to be fair, it would need to be a 6 to 8 sided blade to be more accurate) made during that time period. As far as how jian changed over time, check here: it goes into the detail I can't with this stupid 500 character limit: en(dot)wikipedia(dot)org/wiki/­Chinese_swords#Late_Spring_and­_Autumn_to_Early_Warring_State­s_(dot)28500BC_-_350BC(dot)29

[elgostine]

@Swordsage and out of curiousity, that thing seems to have a very long grip. youve mentioned before that there are tales of old ,marial atists during the warring states oeriod etc. is there any mention of the possible use, maybe the transitioning between 1 and 2 handed grips? 

[Swordsage]

@elgostine While off hand I don't know of any tales of warring states period swordsmen switching between one and two hands per se, I do generally know that it was done, and this can easily be seen in the two handed jian forms that people practice today. If you look them up on YouTube, you will see them switch back and forth between the two grips. Even the one handed forms can have a two handed application; the fingers on the wrist isn't always that in actually application.

[chibraxial]

@elementalwiz

Bladesmithing isn't a skill you learn in an afternoon.... but with he right ideas (start reasonable, humbly, or you'll end up in a world of failures and frustrations ) and the right directions (there are TONS of very well documented and entertaining beginner's guides to knife making online ) you can achieve encouraging results in a few days/weeks .

[chibraxial]

@elementalwiz

Hmm. What you describe isn't a sword. So I don't think you're asking the right persons there.

For a real sword..you would need to ...start making little knives..... using makeshift forge and affordable materials (good quality steel file for the blade , like Anza Knives do, excellent steel for a blade) learning how to heat treat (an untreated steel is worthless, a badly heat treated steel may be even worse -extreme brittleness, or too soft to get and keep an edge)...etc

[chibraxial]

@karis630

You should be happy that "we" enjoy your culture and history even if we're often mislead by some greedy cinema producers and *many* chinese themselves who sell all sort of tourist crap claiming it's a "fine chinese [insert desirable item]".

[chibraxial]

@Swordsage

Nicely said.

We're but mere ADMIRATORS altough as ignorant as we may be. Actually, WE contribute in keeping these cultures we like alive.

[xingfenzhen]

Pretty cool, though the sword pattern is used for Chinese bronze ceremonial sword, rather a practical steel/iron sword pattern.