Hey El Clap, check out my wood!

[Watchman]

<img src=http://www.photoloft.com/view/exportImage.asp?s=jasc&i=7569240&w=256&h=177>

<img src=http://www.photoloft.com/view/exportImage.asp?s=jasc&i=7569238&w=256&h=186>

I hope this was the visual you wanted. :D

http://www.wckfc.com/masters/man/Sec2-1.GIF

One is weak because he makes preparation against others;
he has strength because he makes others prepare against him.
-- Sun-Tzu

[Super-Fist]

Nice toys!

[chi-kwai]

Very nice looking.

--
chi kwai

[El_CLap]

Very nice.

[Gluteus Maximus]

They look nice alright! Are they much lighter in weight than metal knives?

Max

To know the unseen, you must first learn to see.

[JiuKaiMan]

>>>Are they much lighter in weight than metal knives?

No, they are special Chinese iron-wood.
iron-wood is rare and hard to come by.
It is as hard as and weighs as much as
steel or iron.

<img src = "http://www.wingchunkuen.com/community/clipart/chinese/wingchun_old.gif">

[martialdoulos]

I like em -- pretty sweet.

[BAI HE]

get me some for X-mas!

http://www.humor.nl/funnypics/059.jpg

[BAI HE]

http://www.funnypop.com/images/sos.jpg

[Watchman]

LOL @ BAI HE!

Dude, I love that first pic!!!

JKM,

Those knives pictured aren't iron-wood (I wish!!), but are actually made out of standard issue plywood believe it or not.

GM,

Those knives are a LOT lighter than metal ones. Training with wooden Bot Cham Do is cool because when training with metal blades it is sometimes easy to get a bit lazy and let the weight of the knife make the cut, rather than using proper technique.

Wooden knives force you to use proper technique all the way through each cutting motion in order to keep the blades in their proper path.

Also, wooden knives are a bit more forgiving on your kung fu brother's body when playing Chi Do. :D

At the same time you wouldn't want to train with the wooden blades exclusively because you need the weight and feel of a metal blade. My "wood" is just a nice addition to my equipment repertoire that helps on the pure technique aspect.

http://www.wckfc.com/masters/man/Sec2-1.GIF

One is weak because he makes preparations against others;
he has strength because he makes others prepare against him.
-- Sun-Tzu

[Gluteus Maximus]

Watchman, thanks for the info regarding the use of the wooden knives. Very interesting, and it certainly makes a lot of sense to incorporate wooden knives into training.

JKM, interesting - we have a species of wood in northern Australia also called Ironwood. It wouldn't be the same species as the Chinese one though (since ours is a Eucalypt), but has the same qualities of hardness and weight.

Anyway, I don't live up there any longer but now live in the southern desert area where there's lots of beautiful, fine-grained, ebony-like heavy wood (mostly red, brown or cream-coloured though, not black). It's mostly different species of Acacia, Eucalyptus and Casuarina. It's been used successfully to make high-quality stringed and woodwind instruments here, in the USA and in Europe. I can get hold of quite a bit of kiln-dried stuff here, as I'm invlolved in the wood-working industry.

When I get time over the next few weeks I'm going to make a pair of Bat Cham Do out of some of the local wood (I'll use a red coloured one) and will post pictures here when they're finished.

Cheers,

Max

To know the unseen, you must first learn to see.