Blade Length

[Hasid Lafre]

woops I ment 36" not 26"

[B5813]

I actually like the shorter blade and chose a 30" on my 16" hilt. The center of balance feels good to me. I actually used a 1" wooden dowel to determine the length I liked from a visual perspective. I've not worked with a longer blade length but this 30" one is very bright using a celophane inner core.

[Hasid Lafre]

30" blade on a 16" hilt will be funny looking.

[DarthFender]

30" blade on a 16" hilt will be funny looking.

I dont think it would look any funnier than a wakshasi (sp?) But I think I would do a 1 1/4'' instead of 1 1/2. for the hilt OD. It would look better.

[Hasid Lafre]

I used to have a wakasahi and it dident have a 16" long hilt.

Becides they were used in close quarters like a small hallway

[DarthFender]

My point is that the wakasashi has a hilt that is nearly as long as its katana counterpart. And it doesn't look funny.

[Hasid Lafre]

They do look funny, thats why I got rid of mine.

[37H4N]

*clears throat* It's Wakizashi.

They were also used to commit seppuku, but this was commonly assigned to the tanto. Just a little wiki nerdness for ya.

[Ghostbat]

I was long ago told that the proper length of a sword was such that if you placed the point on the ground the pommel would be at your waist.

I suppose you could put the pommel on the ground but then you couldn't rest your hands all dramatically...

In any case I think I actually prefer the length a few inches shy of that.

[Hasid Lafre]

figure the length accordingly to the length of the hilt and your height. The easiest way would be to measure from the floor to mid-chest height while standing, subtract the length of the hilt. Then you will want to add back in two extra inches for the part of the blade that is inserted into the holder. That is but one way to get a good blade length for you.