This year I plan to host a sword cutting competition on November 13 and 14 at the Texas Renaissance Festival near Houston.

The game will be heavy cutting only. Twenty Bugei wara, individually rolled and soaked from 36 to 48 hours, will be arranged in a staggered formation on a four foot long stand. I will be offering a prize of $2000 to the swordsman who cuts the most mats with a single strike. The game is open to all styles of sword and swordsmanship, with a limit of no sword having an overall length greater than 6 feet. Only completely severed mats will count.

Entry fee will be $200 with a limit of 20 contestants. Each entrant gets one swing only unless there is a tie, in which case there will be a "cut off". Entrant is one swordsman and one sword. Another combination of sword and swordsman may be considered as a separate entry.

Daniel Watson

I hate to criticize, but I don't know how well that would actually work. Prize notwithstanding, you're still asking people to pony up $200 for a chance to make a single cut, and if they don't win, that's it. I imagine if you got distracted in mid cut, or your grip slipped, and you botched the cut, you'd end up rather on the upset side to see $200 go that quickly.

It might be a better idea to lower the entry fee and give everybody ten cuts, and take the best one of those per contestant. That way, there can be no doubt that everybody got their money's worth and a decent chance.

Best regards to all,

Robert Marks

Figure the cost: 1) price of 20 mats, 2) shipping runs almost as much as the cost of the mats, 3) labor to roll the mats, 4) labor to soak the mats, 5) labor to flip the mats end over end every few hours to ensure even soak, 6) setup and logistics costs, etc. You are probably looking at about $200 (my costs) just to have the 20 mats set up and ready to cut. The prize money will probably come out of my pocket.

Daniel