My little sister's Birthday is coming up (she's gonna be nine) and since she enjoys coming over and "playing" with her big brother's swords, I thought I might surprise her with her own new sword, perhaps something she could even test-cut with. Now, she was adopted from Vietnam and thus I was looking for Vietnamese swords of some kind on the net. I was thinking of a dao-like sword. I trust her skills and judgement far more than the average nine-year old, but I think I won't tempt fate with a double-edged sword she can bring back at her head. The only trouble is finding something online. I'm looking for something light and with a thin enough hilt for a nine-year old. Oh, and cheap too, since I imagine she'll outgrow it and go looking for her own in a few years. I haven't seen anything that "clicks", so I decided to check here.

Anybody familiar with a good Vietnamese (or a close enough Chinese version) single-edged sword? Something light, thin hilted, and on the cheap side.



Another thought that occurred to me was modifying a machete I have. Can hit that sucker with a hack saw and make the blade any old shape I please and throw on a piece of heavily sanded tomahawk handle for a thin hilt. Not period, but way cheap and custom-made for her hot little hands. Only trouble is just how safe is a machete? I always figured because they were intended to chop away at trees they were on the soft side so that they would bend if abused and not snap on you, but I've been wrong about many things before... Anybody have any opinions on this thought? I don't remember exact price, but I doubt it was much more than $10.

Here are two articles on Vietnamese swords. Not sure how accurate either are:

http://www.eriksedge.com/vietnamswords.html

http://www.sharpblades.net/index.php?page=post&id=46

You might look here:

http://www.cozun.com/Blades/ThaiSwordsAranyik/blades.htm

Reasonable prices and I've been very happy with my dao.