Butterfly Swords

[Lucas]

My reason will be oriented strictly around humor.

[Orion Paximus]

lulz, I won't lie, I'm young enough that my Sai influence was was none other than

[hskwarrior]

[GeneChing]

Hold that thought until tomorrow, OP.

@hsk:

[hskwarrior]

@hsk:

don't ask me. i know nothing

[Blacktiger]

Excellent point, LFJ! You are spot on!

The reason for the question, I have been doing some X-training with southern guys - and they have a butterfly set in the system and mentioned Shaolin, traditional and weaponary - and I was like, ok I have never come across them before.

Care factor zero but just wanted to confirm the info I thought to be correct.

[GeneChing]

It's actually an interesting discussion point, much more so than some of the other topics being discussed today. There is a distinction to be made between what is practiced at Shaolin Temple today, which I dub 'Songshan Shaolin', and the many schools of Shaolin Kung Fu that have come out of Southern China. Mind you, all of those southern schools are equally valid and authentic Kung Fu. It's just that the stories don't quite mesh. And today, as LFJ quite keenly pointed out, the practice of nandao is part of Songshan Shaolin, but not butt knives, which just adds more noise to the mix. I'm sure it's a sore point for Southern Kung Fu practitioners who want to hold on to their creation myths, especially as the history of nandao...well, you'll just have to read my latest cover story to get at that.

[Blacktiger]

Nice info - cheers Gene.

You know what its like training with other groups when your fresh, I did not want to rock any boats with the whole blah blah blah - not Songshan Shaolin

[LFJ]

Nice info - cheers Gene.

You know what its like training with other groups when your fresh, I did not want to rock any boats with the whole blah blah blah - not Songshan Shaolin

Yup. It depends on what they mean by "Shaolin" as to whether or not the butt knives are that, but they are certainly not Songshan Shaolin. Even the nandao forms in Songshan today are adopted from the southern arts and use obvious southern/non Songshan mechanics.

[Blacktiger]

Yup. It depends on what they mean by "Shaolin" as to whether or not the butt knives are that, but they are certainly not Songshan Shaolin. Even the nandao forms in Songshan today are adopted from the southern arts and use obvious southern/non Songshan mechanics.

Exactly - I mean you can say traditional Shaolin but what does that really mean these days.

[SHemmati]

they have many kinds of interesting and powerful kung fu in south and north. calling all those styles Shaolin causes all of them to seem like secondary and less important styles that their ultimate is to imitate the kung fu of SongShan Shaolin, while this is not really the case. Their kung fu has different principles. if they didn't call their styles Shaolin, neither there was such a widespread confusion about the name Shaolin, nor their kung fu seemed less important than SongShan Shaolin. just because of a name, they've ruined both their authenticity and the prestige of SongShan Shaolin. southern Shaolin, northern Shaolin, and SongShan Shaolin are different styles.

waht makes the naming story even worse is that in the south, they call the songshan temple the northern Shaolin temple, and call the songhsan Shaolin kung fu northern Shaolin kung fu, which causes even the more trained people to think that northern Shaolin is the same as songshan Shaolin.

all these stories, confusions, troubles, conflicts, ... only for a name!

[Rolling Fists]

wherever they come from, they are unwieldy and lame. Or maybe I haven't held a decent pair, I dunno.

Interesting, the butterfly knives are my favorite weapons in Hung Ga.

There is a difference (at least to me) with the quality and design. I prefer the knives with the brass handles as the extra weight counterbalances them for better control -- especially when flipping them. The extra mass on the guard, hilt and the quillon makes the knives more practical since we use every aspect of the weapon.

The alternate design where the tang is secured via a nut at the hilt is, imo, an inferior design and those would fall under the "unwieldy" category.

[GeneChing]

lulz, I won't lie, I'm young enough that my Sai influence was was none other than

Hold that thought until tomorrow, OP.

There's no sai in this, but the timing was superb.
Kelly Hu: Beverly Hills Black Belt Takes on Karai for TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES by Greg Lynch Jr.

[Orion Paximus]

lol Somehow I knew it involved an article.

[Orion Paximus]

Interesting, the butterfly knives are my favorite weapons in Hung Ga.

There is a difference (at least to me) with the quality and design. I prefer the knives with the brass handles as the extra weight counterbalances them for better control -- especially when flipping them. The extra mass on the guard, hilt and the quillon makes the knives more practical since we use every aspect of the weapon.

The alternate design where the tang is secured via a nut at the hilt is, imo, an inferior design and those would fall under the "unwieldy" category.

well hey maybe that's it. I've only had the plain, seemingly single piece welded ones. Looking at the vid that HSK posted I can see that those are larger on the end which would making them heavier allowing for more of a chopping ability than the ones I've worked with. But still i'd pick a ton of other weapons over them.