My son wants a sword

The boy (13) wants a sword. While I would rather him ask for a text book on differential calculus or etrade account, I just have to accept that he's a kid. He's going to have to pay for it himself, and has a fine lawnmower for that purpose.

So, although it's his money, I'm going to put a (one) boundary on his purchase. He's not going to go to the mall, saunter into "goth geeks are us" and buy the first cool-looking overly polished piece of sword shaped low carbon steel he sees. If he's going to spend money on something like this I'm mandating the same thing about this purchase that I do every other we buy: quality and utility first, then appearance.

So...the question for the forum is: who makes swords that are of high carbon steel, properly tempered?

I think that there are a lot of areas that offer things like fencing clubs, but the kind of fencing with swords, not the barbed wire kind. Just a thought.

My son bought over a dozen swords. He was in his twenties and making his own money. All but one of them are under a bed or in a closet now and I suppose it was the novel appeal of simply having a sword in your hands and fantasizing all the fictional adventure attached to them. I feel it too when I pick one up. None of them are very sharp and most fall into the exaggerated fantasy realm of design. What I'm pointing out is that none of them were bought as a weapon. As long as it doesn't fall apart any silly POS will serve the purpose intended by most young men. Lessons on value and quality still apply.

I might be way off but you can check out cold steel.

Michael

I appreciate people who value quality and and take good care of their things. A thought I had though is that if your son wants a sword, should you really force him to buy the deadliest of them? ;) Just kidding.

This is not really what you're asking for but when I was about 10-11, I wanted a sword, my mom wouldn't go for it but she was willing to compromise and said that if I wanted to, I could buy a bow instead and so I did, I bought a very nice Osage bow and I used it all the time in the summers for a few years and I even made my own arrows, which I got quite good at after a while.

I eventually stopped shooting my bow but I don't regret going down that route, there's not really much you can do with a sword besides looking at it and without knowing your son I'm going to guess that he'll grow tired of a sword pretty quickly.

I don't know how to say this, but a live sword is NOT for a 13 year old to play with. I have several old and modern swords like the "Practical Plus" katana, wakizashi, and tanto (Search - practical plus - CASiberia.com Practical Plus Katana )and they are made for cutting...and the sword doesn't care if it's a pool noodle, tatami (sp?), or flesh.

I consider swords on the same lethality level as a firearm. Think about that for a minute. Problem with youth and swords is that they consider a sword a toy & that's where the problems will start and escalate.

A bokken or shinai would be a a first step IMO.

Well its better than him getting into Justin Beiber or One Direction at least.

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Originally Posted by Baxxer

This is not really what you're asking for but when I was about 10-11, I wanted a sword, my mom wouldn't go for it but she was willing to compromise and said that if I wanted to, I could buy a bow instead and so I did, I bought a very nice Osage bow and I used it all the time in the summers for a few years and I even made my own arrows, which I got quite good at after a while.

I eventually stopped shooting my bow but I don't regret going down that route, there's not really much you can do with a sword besides looking at it and without knowing your son I'm going to guess that he'll grow tired of a sword pretty quickly.

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The bow lost its luster for him when I made him pay his own scratch to replace all the arrows he lost, destroyed, etc...

I offered to teach him to make his own arrows.... but that's hard work!

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Originally Posted by shooter74743

I don't know how to say this, but a live sword is NOT for a 13 year old to play with. I have several old and modern swords like the "Practical Plus" katana, wakizashi, and tanto (Search - practical plus - CASiberia.com Practical Plus Katana )and they are made for cutting...and the sword doesn't care if it's a pool noodle, tatami (sp?), or flesh.

I consider swords on the same lethality level as a firearm. Think about that for a minute. Problem with youth and swords is that they consider a sword a toy & that's where the problems will start and escalate.

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I was thinking more or less the same, I would rather have him buy a dull sword shaped piece of iron or a replica from Lord of the rings instead of a real one.