An antique ox-tail saber

[koto]

Originally Posted by kronckew

cool sword. here's a link on how to re-wrap the grip. it's in chinese of course.
luckily the pictures are worth a thousand words.

Linky

The first wrap was perfect in the link. The second was not very satisfactory. Both were done almost 10 years ago. Now the polisher knows better and does a much better job with woven silk fabric close to antique.

Apart from silk cord, fish skin, leather stripe, cloth stripe or just naked unwrapped wooden handles are possible for such ox-tail sabers. They are late Qing weapon, not only for civilian use, but also a standard weapon for the local level officials. Nowadays they are used in martial art practice.

Usually they are thin, light and wide, casually forged or not forged using modern steel, more as an apperial than for practical use.

The last veteran in Chinese cold weapon history.

[KuKulzA28]

Originally Posted by koto

Nowadays they are used in martial art practice.

Usually they are thin, light and wide, casually forged or not forged using modern steel, more as an apperial than for practical use.

I hope by that you mean the modern-made flimsy ones used in "Wushu" performances...

This antique is nothing like that - it's strong and functional. Problem is I don't want to use it because of its age, only swing it and admire it. I have owned/cut with some quality modern reproductions (which one can cut things with no concern), and they are generally decent but without quite the same balance as good antiques. Still, improvements are being made and I'm hopeful of owning a quality pair of modern made Shuang Dao someday.