Actor Says He Nearly Beheaded Tom Cruise

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2004-01-19 01:34pm

Still, it seems that when you have potentially dangerous situations like that, you go to the fake stuff.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2004-01-19 06:49pm

Most replicas are roughly double the weight of a real sword. They tend to be made thicker to withstand blows (a real sword never intentionally was placed edge-to-edge with another blade), and are stainless steel rather than carbon steel, which requires even more thickness for strength. Also, most stage/movie katana are longer than real katana.

The only swords I can think of (off the top of my head) that are lighter than their real counterparts are wood/bamboo blades and "boffers," which are too light to use in a film (they're for contact sparring without risk of injury).