what do you think? read the questions before you scold.

by bern&ginny miron
(Danbury, CT 06810)

QUESTION: Well now, the reason we said before you scold was because we are not sure this is the correct place to ask our questions and if we are inappropriate here, just let us know .......ginny says you won't mind, and that you would like to look at this anyway ............never having met you, i don't know how she is so sure of that......but i gave up trying to explain women's intuition long a go.
.......i was reading that the yari was actually the main battle weapon in the warring period of japan, and that was due to the fact that although mounted samurai used them as well; the common foot soldiers used them all the time & there were many more of them than there were mounted samurai cavalry. It being dangerous to give tightly packed & untrained parallel troops a whole bunch of swords (ie: zatoichi film- in a tightly packed group, a yakuza draws sword while fearful & excited & almost cuts his buddy's arm off while zatoichi is still 15 yards away)
..............well, there were also broken lances, other types of yari, broken swords, etc made INTO tantos as well when need be.........bearing in mind that even in WW2 japanese troops have attacked with sticks, stones, unloaded & bayonet mounted rifles, etc. hundreds of years later than the days of our beloved weapons.

..............so, i was unimpressed with most close weapons except for the oversized tantos.................the idea being that you might wind up right along side an armored knight on horseback & your yari, if not broken already would be too long & the yoroidoshi one might be carrying is awfully short & might cause one to stretch, raise their arms & expose vital areas & block peripheral vision at the same time, never a good idea in combat in any century (take my word for it)

........................then i discovered a thing called a short su-yari...............great idea but clumsy to carry when already carrying a longer spear, a long or short tanto or wakazashi, & other gear; you know what i mean..........these things were apparently custom made, again, from broken yari.........or not broken & could range from a couple of feet to maybe 3 or 4 feet depending on the individuals preference, but was still a short spear with the corresponding lack of maneuverability & speed & did not handle like a sword or knife really at all for close work(we experimented with this premise)

.................so, we made our own; it is 1065 carbon steel, with a tsuka from someone we both know & admire, it is double mekugied & though these apparently, were originally made without tsubas, a tsuba can be nice & has, as you know, a definite function, especially on a deep penetration weapon.......it is a real su-yari blade & highly maneuverable particularly with the sword adaption...............& unlike a more traditional tanto, is armor-piercing (car door, say no more) ...........because it is 17" long with a 10.25" blade it has the reach due to the fact that deep penetration is actually unnecessary in reality........it is used to stab & then rock back & forth horizontally for full effect.............................well, that's it; except, the questions........do you think anyone would be interested in this?........if we wanted to sell a few, how might we go about it? or maybe we shouldn't.....what do you think?.......please do not under-estimate the importance of your thoughts about this, really.

ANSWER: Hey Bern and Ginny,

It is definitely an innovative concept and may fulfil a niche within the Japanese sword market and collectors in general.

It is hard to say if it will be successful or not at this juncture, but I'll provide some feedback that I hope will help...

First off, you will probably need to explain the history behind this design and it is quite obscure to many, but doing so will add to its appeal considerably. Demonstrations of its armour piercing capability will also go a long way towards increasing interest.

As to actually selling them, I would recommend listing one or two on ebay at the starting price of $0.99 to get a feel for how much people are willing to pay and then working out it is feasible to sell them based on the cost of production.

Overall though, very innovative - and you could be on a winner - but there really is only one way to know for sure... :-)

Good luck guys, and let me know how it goes.

Kindest Regards, your Aussie friend,

- Paul