Cold Steel Training Dagger Polypropylene Handle with Blunt

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.

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.

It's amazingly durable and amazingly well designed and priced i truly love it and if you don't want to have to be constantly tightening the rubber band on the hand guard just super glue it on and you will be good to go for a awesome time sparring just be careful with the tips of the swords they are still pretty pointy and could cause some damage and pain but I challenged my very strong young nephew to hit the pavement with it as hard as he could and I said if it breaks it breaks and he jumped in the air and used all his momentum and body weight to slam it into the sidewalk it scuffed the bokken leaving a small dent and impressed me with it's durability and my nephew as well we had fun sparring and they make a very very satisfying sound when sparring thwack thwack thwack and the grip is very grippy and for 20$ this is a far better idea for a zombie apocalypse than a multiple thousand dollar actual sword that can break when hitting bone the Japanese katana isn't some mystical magical super durable blade it takes thousands of hours of practice to strike correctly and not break the sword on bone or sparring unless it's a master forged blade of which maybe 10 exist that they would see how many criminals they could cut through with one stroke and to be a really good one its 5 to 7 criminals but for a master forged katana it needs to cut through 10 criminals lined up without getting stuck or stopping and I mean all 10 in a single swing. But they don't test it out earlier.

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!

Better than a wooden bokken. For those who are not ready for an aluminum or steel iaido practice sword, this is a very good option. These weigh more than the average wooden bokken, although still about a pound shy of an actual katana. Balance is decent. Handle feel is not bad, even though it is all plastic it has the shape of an actual tsuka. This can help develop edge awareness. Great for forms practice or structured sparring combinations. I would not recommend for actual contact sparring as it is too hard and could injure with a hard strike. Durability is good, it holds up well to blunt object contact. Do not use it with anything edged as it will be cut. My main complaint is that there is no saya available. This makes it difficult to simulate draw/sheath techniques. I give this a 4 star rating due to this shortcoming. If this isn't important to you, then this is a 5 star product.

Got it on sale for only EIGHT DOLLARS like holy crap that was such a good deal. This thing is an absolute tank in terms of durability, and its design is great, a nice solid handguard with not that much patterning. And since it's black its super easy to decorate it into any sort of katana cosplay piece with not too much effort. As a training sword it has a good weight and balance to it, and it definitely can be used against wooden targets without fear of it breaking on you. The video by the company really tells it all I mean it can severely dent a metal chair without issue, what more is there to say about durability. It's great for just improving your passive strength and flexibility.

Absolutely Love these guys, I've been sparring and sword-fighting for fun with my friends for years using pipes or random lumber just to have some fun and practice a bit of dueling. The durability and handling of such items is dubious at best most of the time which makes these bokken(I bought 2) perfect! They're Stupidly durable, as in I couldn't break these without actively directing my attention towards doing so. They have a great feel and weight in your hands, lighter than the real thing(or so I've heard) but I think it adds to the usability for long term matches over who gets the better game controller. You could seriously clobber someone with one of these if you had to for self defense they pack a serious punch and are pretty sharp at the point. TL;DR just pick a couple up if you have friends, it's worth it. if you don't then it's still worth picking one up just to have on hand and swing around.

Very high quality, good length and awesome for casual sword workouts. I added this to my home gym in my garage and will do overhead swings as warm up/cool down/volume work, great fun workout for upper back mobility and keeping your shoulder girdle loose if you're an office worker like me. I'd recommend looking up some basic youtube videos on how to do (semi) proper technique and then swing away, just make sure you have a high enough ceiling/are far enough from walls, as I accidentally poked a hole in some drywall with the tip being a bit too enthusiastic. Disclaimer, I have never hit anything with this sword (at least not on purpose) so I can't comment on if it will hold up if you try and us it for sparing or something similar.