New person combat questions, and clubs in NM?

[My_karuba]

Hey there forum, please forgive my ignorance! Question on the combat readiness of using one of these sabers. I do historically analogous medieval combat, with steel weapons and armor. Much like the SCA, but with real (albeit dulled-so-we-don't-kill-each-other) steel weapons. My standard of durability is high, and I'm curious on the scale of rattan weapons to steel ones the durability of these sabers. My brother is convinced I'll break the thing within 10 minutes of unboxing it. I'm just wanting to know just how hard I can hit an opponent with one of these. The other thing, are there light vs heavy forms of combat (irl, not in-universe)? And last question, are there known chapters in NM ?

[Master Seblaise]

Considering your first question about durability:

Polycarbonate is a very good material ... I have never broken a blade for the last 4 years and I sometimes spare vs thick wood weapon ...

If you spare versus Sharp steel blade, you will surly make damages on a polycarbonate blade but if you spare polycarbonate blade versus polycarbonate blade, you will have fun for more than 10 min

[janx]

polycarbon blade vs. polycarbon blade will last nigh forever.  There are videos of people beating these things against concrete pylons with no breakage. It'll bend or fold before it ever breaks.

Avoid hitting edges of things (metal, concrete corners) or that'll scratch your blade.  Stick to fighting sabers with sabers.

That said, medium grade blades should be used in light contact only. BUT, if somebody whacks one too hard, it'll be fine.


Heavy grade blades are likely to never fold or bend with heavy contact. You should wear protection because you'll break before they do.

Now be mindful of the tip.  It is solid, but it is a glued in piece.  It'll hold up under normal use for years, but eventually, that glue will fail and it'll pop off.

[Sportycloud]

I found this to be super helpful for what saber blade to get. May switch to a mid grade now. Not to sure. Thank you though because it helped me out.

[Sakura No Kaze]

One note regarding dueling with the mid-grades, since they will bend with moderate to hard contact, it's very easy to wrinkle the blade film inside the blade, and that's a royal pain to fix. Not impossible or difficult, just tedious.

I always use Heavy Grade blades because it doesn't matter how hard I'm dueling, they can take it. So it doesn't matter if we want to just do light sparring or full on dueling, we're good to go (meaning we don't have to worry about switching blades).

Also, the heavy grades will be closer (not by much, but still closer) to what you're used to with steel weapons, and more importantly are more likely to give your sabers a similar balance to what you're used to with a steel sword.

As far as combat grade, as has been mentioned, you'll probably break before these blades do. Unless you're intentionally trying to destroy them, as far as sparring they will last forever. They will get scuffed/scraped/marred from sparring, so I'd have a sparring set and a "look pretty" set of blades (if that matters to you, I could care less how damaged the my blades get). One VERY important note, do NOT, ever, ever, EVER get acetone on your blades. It will destroy the polycarbonate, especially if the blade already has scrapes, etc. on it's surface. If you want to do a science experiment, take an old CD/DVD scuff/scratch it up, and put some acetone on the surface and just watch.

Light vs. heavy forms of combat irl… not exactly. In my mind "light" combat simply means you're moving slower, and "heavy" combat means you're moving faster. I don't really think there are specific techniques/moves that would be considered light or heavy.
My suggestions would be:
1) "Light" combat would have a more limited target selection for strikes, and probably very limited thrust attacks.
2) "Heavy" combat would have a wider availability of targets and allow more thrust attacks.
3) ALWAYS wear protective gear whether you're going light or heavy. At a minimum groin protection (ladies this applies to you too, I've seen on more that one occasion a cut to the thigh be deflected not enough and turn into a thrust and that's all I'll say about that), eye/head protection, and protection for your fingers/hands.

[kaanapuchris]

there's the saber legion.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/thesaberlegion/
and im sure they have a new charter