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**largonioulurI** · 07-25-2006, 12:16 AM

A standard rule of thumb is that when standing with the blade in your right hand (this hand is the forward one, gripping just behind the blade guard (tsuba), and the arm hanging freely, the arm and wrist relaxed, the blade will not hang straight down, but will angle with the tip winding up in front of the swordsman (maybe just past his big toe), the tip should be one or two centimeters from the ground.

Having said that, the style of swordsmanship will influence length dramatically. Some styles are meant to be used indoors, so the swords are necessarily shorter. Some iaijutsu styles use very long swords. The main limitation, outside of strength, is arm length, which limits what you can do drawing and re-sheating the blade.

http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/measure.htm has a good explanation of how sword length is measured.

I am 5' 11" and have a 2-6-5 sword (31.6 inches, according to the calculator at http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Pagoda/8187/Script.htm ) I feel like it's the most sword I can handle, but I have seen iaijutsu practitioners my size or smaller use longer swords. I also have a 2-5-0 iaito
(29.8 inches) that is much easier to manage.

07-25-2006, 12:16 AM	#5
largonioulurI Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 450 Senior Member	A standard rule of thumb is that when standing with the blade in your right hand (this hand is the forward one, gripping just behind the blade guard (tsuba), and the arm hanging freely, the arm and wrist relaxed, the blade will not hang straight down, but will angle with the tip winding up in front of the swordsman (maybe just past his big toe), the tip should be one or two centimeters from the ground. Having said that, the style of swordsmanship will influence length dramatically. Some styles are meant to be used indoors, so the swords are necessarily shorter. Some iaijutsu styles use very long swords. The main limitation, outside of strength, is arm length, which limits what you can do drawing and re-sheating the blade. http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/measure.htm has a good explanation of how sword length is measured. I am 5' 11" and have a 2-6-5 sword (31.6 inches, according to the calculator at http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Pagoda/8187/Script.htm ) I feel like it's the most sword I can handle, but I have seen iaijutsu practitioners my size or smaller use longer swords. I also have a 2-5-0 iaito (29.8 inches) that is much easier to manage.
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