Proving the Obviously Untrue

So, I've been practicing Iaido for seven years now. For almost all that time I've used my trusted Iaito or training sword. Like most Iaito it's got a zinc alloy blade coated in chrome to look like the real thing. It's a lovely sword, but slightly too short for me, and has taken a bit of a beating over the years. It's also semi-sharp. I have some decorative (reasonably sharp) steel swords, and I sometimes practice aspects (usually drawing and sheathing the sword) with those, but in many ways they are inferior to my Iaito, so I've long considered buying a steel sword, and have been deciding between three sellers, Nine Circles here in the UK, SwordStore.com in the USA, and Bugei. This week I discovered that nine circles have removed their better steel swords from sale, in fear of coming legislation to ban sale of swords. No-one knows yet when and what shape that legislation will take. It could, at a stroke, totally destroy a martial art like Iaido in the UK, since only those who already own swords will be able to train fully. Anyway, this all worried me, so this week I finally ordered a (very) sharp steel sword from SwordStore (which are a front for a company in Japan). It will apparently take four months, and I'm looking forward to it immensely; I spent several hours poring over which fittings I wanted, and I'm sure the result will be beautiful as well as practical.

Posted by ct

With apologies to Spinal tap...

P1. The A level is a great qualification, and it's going to get even better, they are going to introduce the scale up to A*.
P2. A*?
P1. Yes, how cool is that? All other qualification only go up to A.
P2. Hmm, but wouldn't it be easier to just call the A* an A and use the scale that way?
P1. [blank look] but it goes all the way up to A*

etc.

Posted by ct