Suggestions for rubber knives and shinai
 

I just got myself wacked on the head with a tanto and in addition to an obvious solution like getting out of the way I'm going to add to my weapons case a piece of rubber and some bamboo. Any suggestions on where to get shinai and a rubber knife that doesn't flop around in an embarassing way?

Rather amazing thing too. I thought I was clear by plenty and the next thing I knew...BONK! Didn't hurt but it sure made a mess. Quite amazing how it bleeds so fast and with pressure stopped almost instantly. A few hours later, a bit of glue (isn't 3M amazing) and all appears well.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Eric,
glad to hear you survived and are on the mend...
I think BuJin has bamboo tanto. Not sure about your search for a non-floppy rubber knife---if it doesn't bend that easily, then it may do as much or more damage if you get bonked with it as with a wooden tanto, and it will probaly spear you like the real thing. I hope you have good insurance :)

It has a deductable. :(

I'd never noticed the bamboo tanto. That might have been enough to save me from myself. As I've been looking around I noticed that the knife folks generally use protection and probably better judgement. I'd say both of those were in short supply recently.

Rubber Knives
 

I would also add that if a rubber knife is too ridgid, then it wouldn't offer much protection. I have had good luck makeing rubber knives from 3/8 inch thick plasticized PVC sheet stock. As long as the "weapon" is kept small, say the size of a Delica(TradeMark), it is not terribly floppy.
Tom

Re: Suggestions for rubber knives and shinai
 

How about one of the foam rubber tantos used in tanto-randori competition? To the eye of a traditional aikidoka, they probably look a bit silly, but it definitely wont hurt if you get hit with it. (A lot of the tsuki strikes in competitive randori hit the mark, so even a bamboo tanto would probably cause injury.)

I'm not too sure where you'd get one though. If you're based in the US, the JAA-USA could probably help you out:
www.tomiki.org

HTH
Sean