Put your links for online sword shops in this thread.

Anthony,

I believe recently you posted a link to a store in Korea selling Korean swords. Have you seen any of these swords in person? Have you used them to cut? Are they as good as the Dragon sword, if so which one do you recommend? Any input would be appreciated.

Jerry

I did post a link but deleted it a few hours later on Brian Gihm's advice.

Due to the confusion and nature of the US sword market, If I had to purchase a sword there I would go with the Federation models. It's becoming clearer to me that learning what makes a good blade takes a lot of exposure to a lot of different blades.

Unless you can build some sort of relationship with the smith there is an awful lot of faith involved in getting what is really a very expensive "hobby" item.

We bought our first blades on the advice of my Master and they worked out very well for us. I went out on my own with my second blade and learning how to deal with its peculiarities was a long and arduous journey I'm in no rush to repeat. Again, without the guidance of my Master this process would still be ongoing and I would be in a much darker place in my training. There's really nothing worse than thinking you know something.

The Federation blades are marketed with us in mind. Tough and intended for the purposes to which we put them.

Anthony or Mr. Brian Gihm:

May I ask the reason why the post for the Korean sword manufacturer was removed? Is the company less than reputable or is there another reason? I am always looking to buy new swords (emphasis on looking) and I was just wondering if this company was an option.

Thank you

I asked Anthony to remove the link because I have recently purchased a few swords from the particular company and this company has serious problem with quality.

First, the shipping was very poor as they arrived in half broken boxes.

Mainly, the construction and finish of the swords were extremely poor that I thought they were knock offs of chinese fake swords. It almost looked like they tried to copy Chinese fake swords!!! It's bit extreme...but I honestly felt disgusted and felt like throwing up.

In general cutting performance was ok. The blade held fine but the handles, scabbard, etc started falling off after 1 hour of cutting. I had to epoxy them later.