I'm a big fan of hand protection. Even with butterfly sword d-guards, I often end up with scraped or bashed knuckles, so I love the idea of the hand shield. I'd be really interested in seeing a version of butterfly swords that have full hand coverage like that.
Such beautiful swords! I am always impressed with everything that LK Chen comes out with and the fact that he is branching out into other cultures is wonderful for my friends who are more into HEMA
The Grip which exceeds the D-Guard reminds me on the Grip of an indian Khanda. Their swords look like they were intended with a onehanded use, just with a strange spike under the grip; but the Spike could be used for twohanded use if you needed different angles and Power.
I had no idea the Chinese had done swords with such guards. Makes me wonder why they disappeared ? All Chinese guards seems to have little protection (excepted butterfly knives like in wing chun)
Only speculation here, but I've wondered if maybe there's a stigma with using them in the battlefield "for real". Like how we view bikes and training wheels; the training wheels provide stability, with bicycles/motorcycles being inherently precarious unless you learned the right technique. You could argue that it's safer and requires less training with training wheels or trikes, but it still won't be as popular as two wheels.
Might be because of wardrobes? I'm constant reminded of that time when Seki sensei had used a longsword, the guards catching onto his robe. A lot of older chinese outfits had similarities to japanese outfits for obvious reasons. If you're in the battlefield anyways you are armored. IIRC jians were preferred by nobility more. So I guess they preferred accessibility over hand protection? I reckon.
@@SifuKuttel Europe also had minimalist guards for a lot longer than they ever had developed hand protection, more complex hand protection came close to the end of the medieval period and even after simple crossguards were still quite common. There's many reasons that are possible, fashion, convenience, the use of shields and/or gauntlets making them less necessary and so on. It's pretty universal over the world and for most of time to have minimalist guards. China did later introduce the disc guards so hand protection was considered it seems.
Elephant in the room is the question why the f*ck the D guard version wasnt widely implemented in any kind of whitearm in china, dao and jian. Its just vastly superior to a small crossguard and especially to a tsuba style disc.
@@SifuKuttel its super weird. Really. The shell i can understand to be ditched in "everyday life" beeing a burden to carry for both soldier and civilian (although it has been done with bowl and basket hilts in europe) but the D guard? But the historical evidence and originals seem valid. Without me having much expertise in the chinese field though and not having seen the sources in person...
So pretty much parallel evolution from dueling. My guess they evolved for people who weren't wearing hand armor.
That makes sense ⚔️
I'm a big fan of hand protection. Even with butterfly sword d-guards, I often end up with scraped or bashed knuckles, so I love the idea of the hand shield. I'd be really interested in seeing a version of butterfly swords that have full hand coverage like that.
Such beautiful swords! I am always impressed with everything that LK Chen comes out with and the fact that he is branching out into other cultures is wonderful for my friends who are more into HEMA
Allright, I've never seen those swords before but I am intrigued to try them out myself
The Grip which exceeds the D-Guard reminds me on the Grip of an indian Khanda. Their swords look like they were intended with a onehanded use, just with a strange spike under the grip; but the Spike could be used for twohanded use if you needed different angles and Power.
Thank you for showing us these beautyfull swords and this excellent video. I was wondering where do you get you nice chinese shirt?
Have a nice week !
The shirt is from www.fbkdesign.com 🙏
That is very cool.
Hmm I bet they’d have both sharp and blunt versions even in the past . Once you get a fencing culture you get a dueling culture very quick .
So what's the weight and PoB/CoG of both?
It’s a shame that the techniques for these fencing swords are lost to time.
Truly
Yes, but since they are very similar to European rapiers, you need to do Spanish/Italian Renaissance HEMA to understand how they probably were used.
I had no idea the Chinese had done swords with such guards. Makes me wonder why they disappeared ? All Chinese guards seems to have little protection (excepted butterfly knives like in wing chun)
It truly is a mystery. You would think that more hand protection would be beneficial on the battlefield, and yet they kept the very minimalist guards.
Only speculation here, but I've wondered if maybe there's a stigma with using them in the battlefield "for real".
Like how we view bikes and training wheels; the training wheels provide stability, with bicycles/motorcycles being inherently precarious unless you learned the right technique. You could argue that it's safer and requires less training with training wheels or trikes, but it still won't be as popular as two wheels.
Might be because of wardrobes? I'm constant reminded of that time when Seki sensei had used a longsword, the guards catching onto his robe. A lot of older chinese outfits had similarities to japanese outfits for obvious reasons.
If you're in the battlefield anyways you are armored. IIRC jians were preferred by nobility more. So I guess they preferred accessibility over hand protection? I reckon.
@@wayland4159 Good point!
@@SifuKuttel Europe also had minimalist guards for a lot longer than they ever had developed hand protection, more complex hand protection came close to the end of the medieval period and even after simple crossguards were still quite common. There's many reasons that are possible, fashion, convenience, the use of shields and/or gauntlets making them less necessary and so on. It's pretty universal over the world and for most of time to have minimalist guards. China did later introduce the disc guards so hand protection was considered it seems.
Explain Tamil Nadu traditional weapons
Elephant in the room is the question why the f*ck the D guard version wasnt widely implemented in any kind of whitearm in china, dao and jian. Its just vastly superior to a small crossguard and especially to a tsuba style disc.
RIGHT?! It boggles my mind that both of these designs were lost with the fall of the Han dynasty...
@@SifuKuttel its super weird.
Really. The shell i can understand to be ditched in "everyday life" beeing a burden to carry for both soldier and civilian (although it has been done with bowl and basket hilts in europe) but the D guard?
But the historical evidence and originals seem valid. Without me having much expertise in the chinese field though and not having seen the sources in person...
🗿👍
Great information
Thank you!!!
Thank you!!!