Cutting Day- Fall 2008

 

For months Erik has been expousing the virtues of live mat-cutting as being critical in the study of any cutting-sword arts to the small but dedicated group of students who meet to practice Longsword each week.

 

To reinforce many hours of drilling spent emphasizing proper cutting technique and edge alignment, the group gathers at Erik's house for an opportunity to "feel" the cuts and thus improve their practice.

 

Money was being saved and pooled for an Albion Longsword, but that wasn't in our hands yet and with winter fast approaching we didn't want to wait. So we used the only sharp sword available to us at the time which was Erik's very well used Last Legend Katana.

 

We used full-mat Bugei Wara and half-mats from mugen dachi. Erik tried his first double-mat from mugen dachi (tough stuff).

 

Everyone was more or less successful in their cutting and the blade was not damaged at all. We look forward to the arrival of our Albion live-blade and a full box of 20 mats for the spring.

 

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Preparing the Mat and warming up  Ian's Cut Adam's cut  Analyzing the cut Alyssa's Cut  Intent students Erik's cut  Erik's cut It was a thick mat! (Double mat)