The Passion of Swords

Re-enacting is simply people recreating a certain period of history. Many people call this activity “living history”.

Historical re-enactment can be defined as a sort of role-playing game in which the participants recreate some event or period in our history. Some scenario involves recreating a well known battle while other scenario may only represent a period in time.

Believe it or not but re-enactment is not new…according to wikipedia, this activity was also performed by Roman during the middle ages. Roman could recreate famous battle in the coliseum or amphitheatres as a form of entertainment. Even the Victorians practice this hobby by recreating medieval joust.

Doing it as a simple hobby however is an invention the 20th century.

Re-enactor supplies

People involved in such activities are always looking to match as closely as possible every aspect of the period or event they are simulating. From clothing, headgear, footwear, camp gear to weapons and gear everything is reproduce as closely as possible.

The goal of all this is to give the participant a life-like experience.

Take a look at our re-enactor swords. All of our items are of the highest quality and tailored to meet the needs of re-enactment and stage combat.

As child I often dreamed i was a ninja, but apart of being a black dressed warrior a had no idea what real ninja were all about.

As an avid sword collector, especially Japanese swords, i have been doing some research and some of that research as led me to better understand the mystical warrior called the ninja. A lot remain unknown about these fearsome warrior apart from the fact they were believed to be skilled assassins and chaos agents.

By that i mean that ninja are suspected of being a special unit sent into the enemy camp to create social chaos, assassination mission and sabotage.

Ninja were known to use a wide variety of weapons but the most common of them all remains the Japanese ninjato swords. Other weapons that could have been part of the ninja weapons arsenal are:

Gunpowder

Smoke bombs

Firecrackers (escape and diversion)

metsubushi “eye closer” - bombs filled with sand or metal dust

And many more weapons.

If you are interested in learning more about the ninja i would highly recommend doing your own research, this is a fascinating subject for the Japanese sword collector.

Here are the things you should look for when you are buying swords for your collection, especially if you are buying a used one…

1. Is the blade intact? Is it straight or is it bent…The best way to see if the sword is straight or not is to point the sword toward a light source and look down the blade for any curves or unnatural pattern.
2. Is there a scabbard with the sword? If yes does it look like the matching scabbard?
3. Check the handle for any defects, is it loose?
4. How about the blade, does it looked like it was cleaned? If the blade was not cleaned and looked after this could clearly affect the value over time, so make to look into that before buying a used sword.
5. Is the sword well balanced? Make sure to hold the sword to see if it’s comfortable in your hand.

Tips & Tricks

Make sure you get the best price for your sword, it is my experience that most sellers can be bargained when selling a used sword. This simple tactic can save you up to 100$…

Before going out to buy a sword make sure to do your own research about the range price. The internet is probably the best source of information you have to do that…

If you are interested in becoming a sword collector, it is important that you acquire a certain knowledge about swords materials. You most people are under the impression that swords are indestructible simply because they are made of steel. Well nothing could be farther from the truth…

You see some swords are made only to be collector’s item while other are made to be practice swords and even Battle-Ready swords.

If i were to simplify this i would separate the material used to forged sword in two main category:

• Stainless steel: These types of swords are for collectors and cannot be used in battle nor in practice.
• Carbon Steel: This is the type of material that can turn your sword into a functional sword. Whether you are practicing Iaito, re-enacting or any other type of martial arts, this is the type of sword you are looking for.

Before even thinking about buying a sword, you must first consider how the sword will be used. If you are looking for display swords only, then in this case, stainless steel will be the perfect match for you.

You can find some pretty amazing swords made of stainless steel, even some that are very sharp, just keep in mind that these swords were not designed to withstand any type of contact. 

On the other hand if you are like me and only collect the real thing, then you might want to consider buying battle-ready swords, these are of higher quality but they are also a lot more expensive.

Some sword collectors are only interested in army swords, while other prefers samurai and Japanese swords, but in the last couple of years a new breed of collectors as come to light… They are interested in one thing and one thing only: to collect movie swords.

Collecting movie swords is not exactly my first priority when it comes to my own collection, but i have to admit that there are some amazing movie swords available. The Lord of the Ring swords collection is the perfect example.

The first step you need to make is to search for the official manufacturer, in our case here it is United Cutlery. If you find lord of the ring swords, verify that you are indeed buying the real thing other wise you will be greatly disappointed.

As you probably know Ebay is on of the most popular website on the planet, unfortunately this is also one of the place where you can find a huge quantity of fake replicas…

Today’s post is a simple warning that i have found browsing around various swords collector’s association forums.

The warning was titled “Chinese Ebay Scam!!!” and here is the warning..

There is apparently a group of Ebay merchants located in Hong Kong that are producing fake swords and selling them as antique swords on Ebay. As you already know this type of activity is considered fraud but it also damages the reputation of all the ethical dealers in Hong Kong and elsewhere in Asia.

Here are some tips to help you avoid being scammed:

• Try to buy only from reputable Chinese dealers
• Avoid bidding on private auctions especially when the bidder’s names are kept secret!
• Avoid auctions from Canada or U.K where the swords are shipped from China or Hong Kong

Click here to get the full story.