Sheltering in Place

[Drunk Monk]

Tell us about the new sword, please.

Forgot to respond. Sorry.
It’s a replica ancient jian with a pattern-welded blade. The furniture mimics a bronze sword guard and pommel, a nice design with a three-legged wine cup motif, but cast from some sort of pot metal it seems. The handle is black wood, lathe turned, and would’ve been wrapped in cord but none of those survived on the antiques so this is often left bare by replica makers. The blade is nice - two deep fullers that show off the temper pattern.
It’s sharp. I’ve had it for months and been waiting for a nice day when the academy was reopened to give it a swing. It handles well with most of the weight in the hand, although the perfectly round handle doesn’t provide a great purchase and with the weight, it wore out my grip after my Shaolin & Taiyu forms. It really needs a cord wrap. It would make a nice cutter I think.
It was relegated to the sale table at TC because of some cosmetic flaws (scabbard glue leak and a broken display box). Ordinarily it would’ve gone to the annual parking lot sale but that didn’t happen. When I saw it on the table, I asked and it was just handed to me.
This is one of the job perks I really miss not being in the TC office. Not being practitioners, they regularly tossed out items for minor flaws or samples they didn’t understand and I got a lot of those. They still take care of me if I ask. When the latest shipment of feiyue shoes came in, they let me know and gave me a pair (can always use shoes) but that was partly due to the timing of me dropping by. Who knows what else they’re dumping? I’ve pulled so many treasures out of their trash bins. 

345: Must catch up on ymaa tasks and head over to my mom’s. She’ll need groceries.