Quote:
Craig Hocker wrote:
I would not recommend steel to a beginner. It's significantly heavier thats more likely to cause physical problems with repetitive movements especially with beginner's poor technique. (steel blades are twice the weight in general)
Flexing of an alloy blade for solo kata is in my experience not an issue.
Steel blades that have even half decent saya or a lot more expensive than alloy iaitos since that is where the makers save money to make a profit. Having a quality well fitted saya is critical to iai practice. Half the cost of decent alloy iaito is making the saya.
using a more forgiving much lighter, well-balanced alloy blade is better idea IMO.
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I couldn't agree more, Craig. I would also recommend an alloy Iaito and not a steel blade. Bad habits can lead to injury stress and the aluminum Paul Chen Iaito is a wonderful weight for both me and my students. As time goes by, the subtlety of the blade will announce itself and the iaidoka can make a change to another blade if so they choose.
As I mentioned, I use a Paul Chen Hanwei Iaito and I practice Ryu Shin Jigen Ryu which requires a somewhat shorter blade then, say, Muso styles. I find it to be a very good tool for training.