Hi everyone,

Long-time lurker, occasional poster (a leftover from SFI, no less).

My interest is primarily in European swords-- Oakeshott's Type XVIIIb is my personal favorite...

... but I've recently taken an interest in Haidong Gumdo (the Korean sword art). I want to know if anyone knows a good source of Korean Jingum (kind of like a Japanese Katana, but slightly-different geometry).

They seem to be very under-represented on the internet.... (oh yeah, I have a Korean girlfriend...)

You may try to look for martial art swords.

http://www.martialartswords.com

Jeremiah Swanger wrote:

Hi everyone, Long-time lurker, occasional poster (a leftover from SFI, no less). My interest is primarily in European swords-- Oakeshott's Type XVIIIb is my personal favorite... ... but I've recently taken an interest in Haidong Gumdo (the Korean sword art). I want to know if anyone knows a good source of Korean Jingum (kind of like a Japanese Katana, but slightly-different geometry). They seem to be very under-represented on the internet.... (oh yeah, I have a Korean girlfriend...)

MAS as noted above are known as a good quality supplier, and have prices to match the quality.

Munetoshi has some much cheaper ones, likely of lesser quality (iirc, http://www.swordnarmory.com/ sells these).

ZhiSword does a Korean sword, http://www.zhisword.com/index.php?main_page=p...cts_id=836 complete with Korean-style mounts (don't know about the blade geometry). AFAIK, Haidong Gumdo uses Japanese-style mounts, so perhaps highly unsuitable even if highly Korean.

Kris Cutlery, great bang for your buck, though it's not much of a looker.
[ Linked Image ]
http://www.kriscutlery.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?S...anandother

Here's the review of the prototype a while back. Nowadays there's no ugly wire-brushed fake hamon, just a clean monosteel blade. Bare bones, but a solid sword.

http://sbgswordforum.proboards.com/index.cgi?...hread=9857

And for a pretty Korean sword, with historically authentic style of mounts and blade geometry, you could always see if you can find Hanwei's Korean Cloud Sword. (Again, Korean-style mounts, not Japanese style, so probably unsuitable for Haidong Gumdo.) Unridged blade (so, samgakdo in modern terminology).

These are discontinued, but some retailers still have them.