This is a great forum with having so many experts on it like the contributers to this thread, Chris etc. I am learning so many things. I think now in the age of the internet, you can learn things so much quicker than in the old days. This information on hand guards would of taken so long to study in the pre-computer era.
Anyway thanks from now on i will be looking at swords in a completely different way. I had never even thought of the guard as being there to protect ones own hand from slipping onto your own blade. I guess it is because I practice with wing chun butterfly swords that I was thinking of them (guards) only in terms of trapping the opponents sword.
