Okay, maybe it's time I come to the dark side.

I've had the itch lately to do some light impact test-cutting with some of my swords; mostly out of curiosity, but partly because I was so ridiculed on SFI when I said I didn't collect swords to cut with them.

Anywho, does anyone have suggestions for light-duty cutting mediums? I've heard about a lot of people using pool noodles. Will these mark up the blade? I like my swords looking purty.....

Thanks.

I'm shocked you were ridiculed. That's terrible. Quite honestly, I think it's much stranger that so many people collect swords to cut pool noodles. ;)

Pool noodles won't do a thing to your blade. But they're a little on the pricey side if you plan to cut many. They're tricky to cut at first, and take a bit of practice, because they tend to bend out of the way rather than get cut.

Fruit and vegetable work, I'm rather fond of pumpkins, especially this time of year. Though you need to clean the swords IMMEDIATELY as they'll stain the blade. The first time I ever cut a pumpkin was a real eye opener, as I truly understood just how dangerous and deadly the piece of steel in my hands was. Quite humbling. In fact, martial arts in general have given me a whole new respect for the preciousness of life because of the realization of how easy it is to take away.

The famous 2-liter bottles of water are okay for testing your technique, as if you don't have your blade moving just right you merely smack the bottle and send it flying. The first time you succeed, though, it's a bizarre feeling as you don't feel anything. You'll think you missed. But be careful: a bad cut on a 2-liter bottle causes a lot of shock against the sword.

Tatami is also a favorite of mine (and many others, as I'm sure you know). Definately a medium that shows how powerful the sword really is.

Those are the usuals, anyway.

This is something alittle wierd we did this summer but it was kind of neat . Watched the kids in a food booth down the
hill from us fill this big crock pot with ketchup from an enormous plastic sack and we immediately started to obsess(sp)
with the idea of stringing one up and cutting it . Could'nt get the kids to give us one but the next week one of the guys
shows up with one ( seven pounds of ketchup ) that he got at I think its Sams club . Strung this thing up and went
at it with an Albion Crecey . It cut effortlessly ( granted the cutter had cut a few times before and by a few i mean like
two or three) . What happened is this , the bottom half , filled with ketchup dropped ( about 5 feet ) hit the ground
and made a sound like some ones tripe getting spilled on pavement in a movie , the ketchup leaps up on impact
comming back down in a wide ( 2.5-3 feet ) ragged circle kinda resembeling (sp) the affore mentioned tripe spilling .
All in all it was pretty neat . As tomatoes have acid in them the blade had to be wipped down immediately so the
blade wouldn't get etched . Apparently you can get guacamoly (sp) in a big plastic bag as well .

Edit note:

I've edited this post to remove things that, as Nathan pointed out, don't belong here. So that pretty much got rid of the whole post. :)

To those who read it before this edit, I'm sorry. It was way off-topic and unnecessary.

To those who didn't read it, you didn't miss anything good.

Back to the topic...

And my apologies to all.

We really don't need to bring this stuff here. Talk about the cutting, not the other stuff.

Hi Chad,

I haven't done much cutting either. This last weekend though, I did dispatch a couple of Orcs disguesed as watermelons with my Albion Acre - great fun and it does give you an appreciation for what these weapons are capable of. Last year I slaughtered a few pumpkins and recommend this medium too.

Happy cutting!

Mike

Back to the topic at hand:

Any tips for a first time cutter? I have this part down:

1) Grab non-sharp end
2) Swing sharp end toward target

I know it's not that simple. Anything else I should keep in mind?

How do you keep a pool noodle stable when cutting it? A stand of some sort?

I'm not really very good at it but what with doing the ARMA event in June and having Albion stuff around the house and booth all summer I watched alot and Harlan gets the basics . Softer stuff seems to be what you get your form/ style
down on . In other words get used to the idea of using your body to cause the blade to draw across the surface to be cut .
The two liter bottle filled with water willbe a very quick reminder if you haven't quite got it down ( i did the knocking the
bottle away and shock the daylights out of the sword and your hand thing more than once this summer ) but when
you hit it right its really wierd . You seem to have tried to hard to have cut it. We've hung the bottle on rope and set it
on a surface . Hanging it adds the variable the it spins .Harlan built a stand that we use for cutting mats that seems the
same as the one at svardfest . It really just a 4x4held verticle by four 4x4 feet ( layed out like a cross ) . The upright
4x4 is tapped to take a 1" dowel rod about 6" long thats glued in . The mat gets spiked on the one inch rod . Themat stand is about two and one half feet high at guess .