[Matthew Stagmer]

I don't often share our episodes here because most of them are purely fantasy. We try to use as many historical techniques as possible and share some good historical information. Mind you, we film 6 episodes in 8 days so we don't have much time and are pretty much always rushed on every episode. This one however, I am quite proud of and I think your guys will all enjoy.

We teamed up with Scott Rodell of The Great River Taoist Center and made a Chinese Dandao to the best of our abilities in such a short time frame.

2016 marks the 400th Anniversary of the publication the Dandaofa Xuan, so we thought it was the perfect historical episode for MAN AT ARMS. With enough support we will be doing more and more historical episodes. This is a dream of mine to be able to branch away from fantasy and do some historical stuff with as many proper techniques as our timeframe allows.

https://youtu.be/NhdFygUJOek

for those of you are interested in more info on the Dandaofa Xaun, please check out Scott's Book.
https://www.amazon.com/Dandaofa-Xuan-Chinese-Techniques-Anthology-ebook/dp/B01A0EM6WK?ie=UTF8&%2AVersion%2A=1&%2Aentries%2A=0

[Paul Watson]

That was totally engrossing and very well produced, well worth watching but way too short. I could've watched that for ages and not gotten bored. The skills that your entire team displayed were impressive. As if making the sword isn't good enough, seeing you create that bloom was great. Hope to see more of this from you.

[Stephen Curtin]

Great job Matthew and co. I actually just finished watching this before coming here, and I didn't expect to see a post about this video. Definitely please do more historical based projects in future. I have to admit, though I check out all of your videos, i don't often watch your more fantastical builds, so this one was a pleasant surprise. Again great job.

[Matthew Stagmer]

Thanks guys! We put everything into these builds. It's a shame we are limited by time in both creating the items and editing.
We try to cover everything we can but we are making 6 things at a time. The camera can't be hogged by one build for too long. Getting a 20 min episode is always my goal. It used to be around 6 mins. Most are longer now though.

Thanks for the feedback. I think the historical concept was a success and hoping we will get the go ahead for more!

[Jeffrey Faulk]

This video was reposted on Facebook, which was where I saw it.

Nicely done, and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

The only thing which I had an issue with was the rather constant advertising for the hard cider. It wasn't obtrusive, at least-- just a placard with the name in the frame of almost every shot, a micro-fridge full of cider in the background, cutting-testing on cans of cider...

But if it helps you make good videos by providing the financing for it, I'm all for it and may even buy some if I can find it

[Michael B.]

It was very nicely done! I love your videos, I've watched every one multiple times, especially when I need a creative boost. I really hope you'll do more historic builds. Why did you end up going with the paracord wrap at the end though? Seemed odd, with the amount of time put into everything else.

[Mick Jarvis]

[Matthew Stagmer]

We are just the craftsmen in these videos. Our production company decides the length of the episodes and how to place sponsors. I for one thought it was a tad over done but not obtrusive. If that's what it takes to do se historical builds, then so be it.

We had a slight miscommunication between us the last day of filming and has to use what we had on hand for the wrap. The last day of our 8 days we are scrambling so hard to finish 6 pieces that's some details get skipped at times. Wish we had unlimited time at least once.