what's the difference between wushu and spring steel?

[Shaolin Dude]

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[Brad]

It's the same thing. Wushu steel is kind of a stupid slang for spring steel. Spring steel is very flexable and often seems like tin foil when you start going real fast. A lot of people call modern wushu just wushu, and most modern wushu people use spring steel when performing, thus "wushu" steel. The new modern wushu swords that a lot of people are are starting to use are less flimsy and heavier though. Spring steel's main advantage is $$$. It's often less than half the price of the good stuff.

[Judge Pen]

. . . and because of its weight some people prefer to perform a competition routine with it because they can move the blade really fast.

I've heard some people argue that the ultra flexibility of the blade has a martial purpose for either bending around someone block or even for the transfer of chi down the blade, but imro that's bs.

[omarthefish]

I thought "spring steel" was another term for 'sprung steel' which is real steel. The real deal. Wushu 'steel' is abviously the tinfoily stuff. but:

http://www.lapham-hickey.com/Products/SpringSteel.cfm

and http://kungfu-weapons.com/spring.htm


How about this one:

http://www.trophytaker.com/id26.htm

Definately NOT bendy floppy Wushu material.

[count]

Leaf springs on cars are made of spring steel. They aren't so light weight either. Something is not correct here. I have a spring steel sword which is a heavy weight. It's thick and yet I can bend the tip around back to the hilt and it "springs" back without any warp in the steel. Quite different from the performance swords seen in Wushu demonstrations.

[Radhnoti]

Someone on this forum once stated that the term "spring steel" meant it was steel reprocessed from the old springs supporting cars, as the count has said. Therefore, extremely strong and "good" steel was designated "spring steel".

I think different companies use "spring steel" as a designation for different types of steel/swords. The "spring steel" I see typically advertised is the flexible stuff these days. Maybe an interesting example of how words and their meanings can change with time?

[GLW]

To get the big distinction you have to go back a few years.

Originally, CMA weapons were hard to get outside of China.

In the US, what was available...well you had REALLY BAD aluminum weapons. Some were all one piece and others had the blade bolted onto a fitting.

Then you have poorly balanced bae metal swords. They were not even the quality of the cheap stuff you can get now.

There were not that many people doing Contemporary Wushu running around.

Then came the ads for "Spring Steel" blades. The typical ad had a guy holding a straightsword with the blade bent back about 50% in one picture and then straight in the next. Its big thing was that the blade was not the lifeless junk but would vibrae and was flexible.

The "Spring Steel" was NOT the really light weight stuff that so many in Contemporary Wushu may use. It was simply a somewhat decent and flexible blade that did not deform with flexing. That was about 15 years ago.

In more recent times, you have "Combat Steel" These are heavier and supposedly will hold an edge if you were to sharpen them. Typically they are over-priced and poorly balanced.

The wushu practice/performance blades became available ("Wushu Steel") and they were cheap, flexible, and of varying degrees of quality. You have to understand that the weapon for the Contemporary person is an "apparatus" and so they place MUCH less emphasis on the blade and more on the balance and how they can use it in the routine.

This went so far and now in China, there are rules about the weight and flexibility of the swords. You now have Competition Wushu weapons. They MUST be able to support their own weight on the blade. They are actually pretty close to traditional weights and the lengths are standardized for different people's heights.

You still have the standard some will refer to as LungChuan blades. They are OK for practice but not combat steel...and better balanced than the combat steel.

If you REALLY want good quality, then you have to go custom or near custom. These run anywhere from $200 to $2000 and more depending on what you want. These WILL hold an edge and as such are not really for people that don't KNOW how to use the weapon...unless you really want to lose body parts.

So, now you have:

Light Wushu steel
Lung chuan or standard
Combat Steel
Competition Blades
Custom. (usually damascus or other...sometimes 440 stainless...but those are NOT really that great).

[yu shan]

We use combat steel, no idea what this wushu/springsteel is all about.

[GeneChing]

Steel grades in Chinese weapons is as much of a nightmare as the weapon terms themselves. As a former swordmaker, it has always been a pain, but one that has to be accepted since the precedent has already been set. Take for example our standard translation term for dao - broadsword. Anyone who knows the first thing about sword terminology knows that is completely incorrect. The term broadsword was originally used in the west akin to arming swords, to distinguish the wider straight bladed weapons from the newer skinnier blades of the transitional rapiers. But who's going to try to change it now? It' be like trrying to get everyone to agree to call it 'gongfu' instead of kung fu...

As for steel grades, most terms are based on slang. On the whole, Chinese swordmakers don't go into hardness to the degree of Japanese swordmakers - Paul Chen's Hanwei being the exception. But I can at least unravel our usage for www.MartialArtsMart.com. For us, we generally use the term wushu grade for the light competative spring steel blades typically used for kids, beginners and contemporary wushu. We use spring steel to refer to a more traditional weight - thicker blades, but not the real fatties.
Combat steel is the thick stuff, the stuff you can punch through a car door with. That's mostly the high end stuff from Dragon Well forge (lungchuan) and Shaolin Temple Forge. So generally speaking, I'd recommend people start with wushu or spring steel. If they want to move heavy, try the combat stuff - although be warned that a lot of those are wristbreakers - you got to have a good sword arm to work them. Generally, the combat stuff makes for better collectables. A little polish can really bring up the beauty of those pieces, and at a much more affordable price then entering into the custom market. As a funny side point, the custom market is generally more expensive than the antiques market at this time, which is to say you can probably acquire a real authentic antique weapon for less than it would cost you to have someone make a new one for you. Go figure...