The Kingdom of the Emerald Hills

Round blades or flat blades? Personally I would love for flat blades to become the standard and round blades go the way of the dodo, but whats your oppinion on the subject Emerald Hills.

flat blades require an ammount of expertise and control that most dont have. and with most people making flat blades with round grips, accidents will be more apt to happen.

Could you elabirate on that for me because I am not fully understanding how?

yeah exactly, lol.

knowing where the cutting edge of your blade is is key to fighting with a flat blade, and with a round grip there's no way of knowing unless you pay attention to your sword.. which isn't where you want your eyes in a fight.

real swords for instance, we'll take that famous japanese blade as the example.

the hilt is rectangular. the sides of the tsuka (grip) the correspond with either side fo the blade are longer than the sides that correspond with the cutting edge and the spine of the blade, so when you grab it your hand automatically knows where the edge is and which direction it is.

I love flatblades. I use them 90% of the time to great success. Yes it requires a different set of skill and a different fighting style than the omniblade. But the appearance and ambiance it adds is well worth it.

The best way to prevent blade twisting or having to recheck the alignment of the edge every two seconds in battle is to take a chopstick, and tape it to the handle so that it is in line with your blade. That the handle will always let you know where your edge is and so you can strike with confidence that the resulting hit won't be flat.

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GMR of King's Point

its easier to fix that during construction, then putting a grip over it, like wrapped rope is real nice, lol, one of my knives is rope-bound. i find though that heating and flattening PVC pipe makes for a comfortable grip and is easier to put over lighter cores like golf shaft and kitespar. heck for shortswords, just heat and flatten a whole section of pvc and it almost negates the idea of the foam twisting or warping around the circular core because its flat an the sides have more surface area to adhere to.

I completely agree with Tobias and Myth. It takes a different set of skills to use and construct flat blades. And it is easier to use and construct a round blade, that being said flat blades done right are much safer than round blades.

Whoa... don't get ahead of yourself. The margin of error for a flat blade is MUCH larger than a omniblade. Flatblades are more complicated and easier to hurt people with. I'm not gonna lie.

Flattening PVC? Doesn't that take the "hollow" out of the term "hollow core"? Or are you making more of an oval or ellipse with an open center?

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GMR of King's Point

yeah myth, lol, i mean make it more ovular, the cross section would be like a rectangle with the short sides rounded lol. almost the shape of dogtags. lol

I actually use golf club shafts and strips camp foan on the handle.

lol, but i want people to feel my shots so i tend to use PVC alot lol

bug report here btw, lol, the underline button only puts [u] on either side. it omits the slash for the ending u

Interesting. Though I'm not fond of PVC I do tend to favor longer, and heavier flat blades. Warping PVC does sound like there are many possibilities.

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GMR of King's Point

F this and F that and sh!t brains you and me and everybody!

Phew, for a sec there I thought this thread was going to be 100% productive.

You're welcome.
S

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The general who advances without seeking fame and retreats without fearing disgrace, whose only thought is to protect his country and do service for his sovereign, is the jewel of his kingdom. -Sun Wu