Cold Steel Training Dagger Polypropylene Handle with Blunt

I recently purchased the bokken style sword, and I couldn't be more thrilled with my purchase. This product deserves a solid 5-star rating! First and foremost, the build quality of this polypropylene bokken is exceptional. It feels robust and sturdy, ensuring that it will withstand extensive training and use. The durability of this training sword is a significant plus, and it's evident that a lot of effort was put into crafting this top-notch product. One of the standout features of this bokken is how great it feels in your hand. The grip is comfortable and provides a secure hold, allowing for precise control during training sessions. The weight and size are well-balanced, giving it an authentic feel that adds to the overall experience. It's important to note that the balance is slightly away from the guard, but it doesn't detract significantly from the product's performance. In a nut shell, without a doubt, this is a fantastic training sword. It's perfect for honing your skills and techniques, and it's sure to enhance your martial arts practice. I couldn't be happier with my purchase, and I highly recommend it to anyone in need of a high-quality training sword.

This beauty arrived today, and I have spent some time with it since to put it through its paces. It is absolutely everything I hoped for, and then some!!! It is immediately worthy of respect. The relationship begins even while it is in the plastic bag in the box. You pull this bokken out in its plastic, and feel the sturdiness and weight, see the beauty, and know you have a worthy training weapon that will not let you down. It also put me through my paces. Before you can wield this bokken, you must earn its respect. When you unbox this bokken, you are immediately faced with getting the tsuba and the retaining ring onto the blade, and three do not ever look like they are going to go on. BUT!!! A resourceful owner will figure out a way to get them to transform into 1 beautiful bokken with tsuba. The way I chose was to don leather gloves, and sprinkle a tiny bit of corn starch powder on the blade. First the tsuba, which went on without corn starch, but did benefit greatly from heavy gloves and the pressure nearest the blade. After it is in place, it will retain a very slight give, which could be done away with by using epoxy at the base, but I am unwilling to risk marring the beauty by dribbles of epoxy. The retaining ring required the corn starch, determination, and eventually tiny taps all around it with a hammer, taking care to use as little force as was necessary to get it to slide into place. Do not hit the blade, not that it will notice if you do. Patience is a virtue. And now I have something much more beautiful than I was expecting. The "cordwork" on the handgrip is extremely well molded, in beautiful detail, and there is more texturing in the spaces between the cordwork. All in all, this gets a 10 for beauty, and in my opinion a 10 for everything else. Getting the tsuba (hand guard) and retaining ring on made this weapon my own. The balance is what I had hoped for based on other reviews--the bokken is weighted toward the blade, which gives extra confidence when sparring and practicing. I have 2 very fine wooden bokkens, made by a craftsman and costing much much more than this, and this, but for the thinner tsuba, gives as good a workout, without the unwillingness to damage them in any way. I'm not sure they *can* be damaged in any way, but Cold Steel Bokken 92BKKC is a very, very strong training sword, giving the feel of something very genuine. I will train with this for a very long time, and will update this review if I notice any weaknesses in it. ((And, yes, I gave this a beautiful, worthy name.)) I feel that my hands are not sufficiently calloused to use this bokken long without developing hot spots or even blisters, so I plan to wear leather gloves when working with this. Just ordinary leather gloves will do--no need for fancy, padded ones, although fencing gloves are a good alternative. I chose ordinary because they were not so glaringly white. I have 1 fencing glove, which does not lend itself to training with both hands. I think I will purchase another of this bokken, so I can work with one in each hand.

Bought this for sword training practice. A bit lighter than a steel katana but still a good solid weight and feel. This unit seems to be stout and not as prone to breaking as some other units. The blunt roundness of the "edge" is good for practice on a BOB dummy as unless you are really striking hard will not hurt the BOB, or any other item that would be cut by a sharp edge. But, then again, swords are not baseball bats, they are a blade and meant for more of a sweeping cutting motion, not impact. Also can make a nice personal defense weapon to keep in your car with out getting hassled for keeping a "weapon" in you vehicle.

After some practice, the sword feels perfect for a beginner, yes, it's much heavier (thicker) than what a steel trainer would be, but there is value in learner with a synthetic sword asost folk lack the strength to actually swing the blade over and over again. For durability, I'd say it's okay, I haven't tried to hit anything yet, but I garner a guess that that it cqn withstand a good amount of abuse. My only complaint is that the little band required to secure the hilt to the blade can come off loose bit by bit if you swing the blade too hard, too many times in a single day of practice, if I don't constantly refit it after every practice, I'm quite sure that the hilt will go flying off and hit the cat... Good for beginners, shorter than I expected, and enough space in the handle to learn Fiore.

Over the last three or so decades I have broken many bokken. Polyprolene seems like the solution but every bokken I have found has been too thin and weak for any serious practice. The Cold Steel polypropylene is the exception and, hopefully, the last bokken I will ever need. I am not sure why some people are having trouble with the tsuba and retainer; they are fairly standard these days. Slide the tsuba into place, place the rubber retaining ring on the blade making sure the “flat” edge is facing the tsuba, place the bokken so it is vertical, handle end resting against the ground or a sturdy table and press the retaining ring into place. DO NOT LUBRICATE THE BLADE OR USE GRAPHITE, CORN STARCH, ETC! Some of this will remain trapped under the retaining ring and only make it slide away from the tsuba more quickly (it is not uncommon for the rubber ring to slide away a tiny bit at a time with use, just press it back into place). The “wrap pattern” on the handle is not only attractive it provides an excellent grip, which was a concern since some polypropylene and kydex handles get slick and hard to retain. My only complaint about this bokken is that polypropylene, although more durable, is lighter than a good hardwood and the bokken is a bit lighter than I would prefer. All in all, though, this is a quality piece I look forward to using for many years. Although the handle is much longer, the blade is a similar length to my liuyedao (willow leaf knife) so I am considering buying a second and cutting down the handle. For single hand use. I guess that makes this one the second-to-last bokken I will ever need!

Lot of people complaining of this not being sharp, or club like, I disagreff egg the balance is off by a bit but a bolt in the pommel should help with that, but for 31$ me and two friends had a blast with these and got great exercise. Totally worth owning. It is a bit heavy if you were small, but that usually true of longswords

These are a great value for the money and for training as far as strengthening your wrists and arms. They're good for sparring but are quite stiff (so be very, very careful stabbing your partner) and the point of balance (POB) is about twice what it should be; 10" from the guard instead of 5". I bought this to turn into a halfway clone of a Chinese Pi blade sword trainer. I left off the handguard and gasket and threaded the end of the pommel to take a bolt, then attached a lifting eyelet to it. I used a 27/64" drill bit, a 1/2" tapered bottom tap (the taper is important), a 1/2 bolt with a lock-washer, a threaded lifting eyelet, and some black spray-paint to bring it all together. The reason I used a tapered bottom tap is so that the last thread or two of the bolt has to really force its way into the threads of the polypropylene, locking it into the pommel. It is very sturdy and brings the weight of the trainer as pictured to roughly 2.2 pounds, which is much closer to historical accuracy for a blade this length than the stock trainer's 1.8 pounds. The POB is now also exactly where the fuller ends on the blade, which is perfect for a blade this size and length. This simple modification took the hand and a half trainer from a cool looking club to a deft, nimble, practical training sword.

Heavy and I immediately smashed it against a thick tree as hard as I could for multiple consecutive blows and it didn’t even dent the sword but merely chipped the bar off and left a slight dirt scrape. Perfect for training and sparring once I get a second sword. Says hand and a half but at 5.7 I can fit both hands easily.