KnightHawk Armory

At the 2005 Akon Anime convention, I saw many participants walking around with what I thought were "live steel" swords in their belts. On closer inspection, I found them to be foam latex replicas made by Knighthawk Armory.

These swords really impressed me with the realistic look they had.

I found my way to the Knighthawk booth, and asked about the details of these swords. Mr. Olan Knight showed me several models. I am always looking for safe training weapons. Besides swords, Olan san had knives, war hammers, axes and many other styles of weapons.

Olan sent me two katana for evaluation, which I quickly bought. My students took to these weapons very quickly.

The manual included with these swords advised not to strike the face, and avoid full force blows. Since we are more dedicated to combat, I threw this manual away. We went full tilt with these latex swords. We found them to be very forgiving and they never once left a bruise or a mark. I even took a full force blow to my face, and it only stung for a few seconds.

Unlike modern fencing using the epee', foil, saber and schlager blades, which use steel blades and require expensive armor, the Knighthawks just need to be picked up and used. I was fencing with one of my senior students using steel schalger weapons and Sam Sempai scored a "touché'" on my upper left pectoral. It resulted in a hematoma, which took months to fully heal.

At the 2005 Ninja Summit, I introduced these swords to the participants, as well as some of the top ranked Instructors. My good friend, Richard Elizondo Sensei, and I got to finally spar with these swords. He is a great swordsman, and we both made "cuts" on each other that would have killed us if it was for real.

They were a big hit! Many fellow sword enthusiasts could never really "go for it", and the Knighthawks allowed them to see if their technique was valid or not. Ed Martin, one of the highest ranked Instructors in the Bujinkan, liked them because they were very safe as opposed to hardwood boken for demonstrating waza (technique).

I noticed that when we were having "fencing night", more students showed up than normal. It's a lot of fun to play with these swords, as they inspire confidence. If you enjoy the sport of Kendo (way of the sword) you don't need the expensive armor necessary to participate. There are other padded weapons on the market used for martial arts training. The most fun thing about the Knighthawks are that they look like real swords, and offer what I call "edge orientation". It's also fun to watch passerby get freaked out when they think we are using "real" swords!

Since we chose not to follow the suggested use of these swords, they suffered a lot of abuse very quickly.

This was mostly because I let so many others use them as hard as they could. The first thing to go was the "tsuka Ito" (hilt wrapping). Then the points broke off.

I looked up Olan san's suggestions for repairing these training weapons, and found that "Amy's Tacky Glue" worked very well to repair them. It's very common if you are training hard to damage or destroy your training tools. Now, after a year and six months of hard training with the Knighthawks, here is the final result:

I've had to re-glue the kissaki (point) on these swords so many times, that I reinforced them with monofilament tape. These training weapons still hold up! If anyone doubts that the Knighthawks have carbon fiber rods wrapped in Kevlar, rest assured that I've seen that they are indeed.

The kashira (pommel) broke off so many times, that I glued it shut and taped them with friction tape.

The Knighthawks are very light and quick, and will definitely improve your reflexes. I love these swords! They have allowed my dojo to explore what works, and what does not work in the arts of swordplay. It's fantastic to have someone on the mat claiming that their sword style is "unbeatable", and then score several cuts and thrusts on them.

I have found the Knighthawk company to be very devoted to customer service, and I really appreciate this attitude and devotion. They have earned my recommendation.