Iaido

[shadowplay]

hello all

i am thinking of purchasing a Iaito, does anyone have any advice/recommendations on what i should invest my hard earned dollars in?

[dickclark]

Your are probably best served to go and watch a workout and talk to the folks. Iaido, like karate, can be many different things.

One thing I would not do is to run out a by some cheap sword. It is like bringing a plastic toy gun to a gun club.

Your first thing might be to find a two meter square area at home to practice within.

[AngelaG]

I would recommend emailing sensei John as he does Iaido.

Ebay is surprisingly good for Iaito sometimes, of course it depends what is listed at that time.

[shadowplay]

thank you for both replies, i think that i will email John Burke as suggested

thanks again

[AngelaG]

Either way check out Blitz, they do some quite nice reasonably priced Iaito.

[AngelaG]

Oh and ask your work to start paying you in Pounds Sterling too

[shadowplay]

they usually pay me in buttons but i have a US contact who does me a deal

anyone else get paid button?

[Aefibird]

Nah, I work for Rotherham Borough Council, so I get paid peanuts.


eBay is a good choice for iaito - I got a very good sword from there for only a surprisingly small amount of ££. It's buyer beware on there, though - watch out as there's a lot of cheap crud on sale. I happened to drop on a good sword, but for every decent iaito on sale there's 100 others that I wouldn't even give houseroom to.

Barringtons Swords and Battle Orders also do good swords, but a lot of theirs are more for sheer display purposes only.

[shadowplay]

took your advice Angela and emailed John Burke Sensei, he of course furnished me some great advice on buying a Iaito, especially in regards to the importance of blade length, i have worked out that for someone of my height (6'3) i would need to buy a iaito with a length of at least 2.75 shaku, unfortunately that means no cheap quick fix for me as most standard iaito lengths are much shorter, will keep looking

thanks for the replies

[AngelaG]

2.75 shaku

Nods head knowingly.....

[AngelaG]

I hear congrats are in order shadowplay. Well done on your promotion.

[Aefibird]

Congratulations shadowplay!