Sword is broken

[ursa major]

I have a question for those of you who practice broadsword, it has to do with the size or design of the hand guard.

I use a two piece 30 inch broadsword, nothing unusual about it, it is made of aluminum with leather grip and is of course all hacked up by now. It is one of those cheapo $40 pieces you can pick up through any supplier (can't see the sense of spending more when they break so easily anyway...).

When I am free-sparring with another swordsman I find the hand guard is too small diameter and sometimes when parrying I can feel my partner's blade touching even scraping my hand or fore-arm. One of the reasons for this is the guard is too small a diameter and if it was larger it would help prevent this from happening. Thing is when sparring sword against staff a larger guard makes for an easy target for the staff. Recently the guard has broken loose and I am considering fabricating and welding another size and/or design guard in place of the old (which was just an oval piece of aluminum tack welded in place).

I have considered that too big a guard may change the balance of the sword and too light it will just break again. I figured I'd just get a local fab shop to create a larger version of what the sword originally came with and weld it on.

Any thoughts ?

Thx in advance,
UM.

[Shaolin Dude]

how about if your wushu steel is ripped open? can those be welded back and the extra metal shaved off?

[ursa major]

Originally posted by Shaolin Dude
how about if your wushu steel is ripped open? can those be welded back and the extra metal shaved off?

Beats me. What is wushu steel ?

[tanglang]

soft sheet-metal-stuff that makes the saber getting ripped by the first contact with another weapon.. You can use a hammer to make the blade flat again and grind the rest away. I think this is what he wanted to say.- But not the best solution because you can only do this once or twice- maybe ask a sword-smith to make you a training-carbon-saber like the middle-age-freaks here in europe use them for their sword-demonstrations on middle-age-flea-markets.. don't know if you have something similar in Canada though.. not like carbon steel- catanas- or antique jians- but also carbon-steel-material is used.- I think it's carbon-stuff- the kind of steel that is used is called crysabo..But: They are heavier than the wu shu darn daos you usually find in china-town shops. And much more expensive- maybe it's easier to buy the wu shu stuff if you don't fight that often. In the long run carbon-sabers are a good investment and you'll spare the money you would need to buy those cheap sabers or swords all the time...only my ideas about this...