Ouch.

[Sir William]

My sister and I spar using steel blunts...it can be quite painful, but also fun.

[SirNathanQ]

HAHA, thats hilarious! 
My sister would NEVER do anything that cool. She's simply afraid to walk into my room. The full sized halberd propped up against the door, and her recent experience of stubbing her toe on my warhammer (whilst pilfering my music no less!  Serves her right!) might have something to do with it.....

[Sir William]

I think my sister may have more weapons than I do...her collection's certainly more varied than mine.  She used to get bamboo staves from some local business and we'd spar with those as well, when armor wasn't available or too much trouble to bother with.  lol

[Sir Brian]

I've seen some of those new plastic trainers in MRL's catalog...might give them a go and see how I like it.  We may all have to get one for sparring sessions initially until we're all in a trusting frame of mind. 

I used my polyurethane waster at the last session of MASHS on Sunday while the instructor used his wood waster. The poly held up very well.

[Sir William]

Good to know, Sir Brian...these poly bladed swords seem to be pretty durable, based on your account and the reviews of some other folk.  I find wooden wasters to be somewhat fragile...but I guess it is like anything else in life, you get what you pay for and I got some of those on the cheap.  lol

[Sir Edward]

The MRL wooden wasters aren't very durable. They work well enough for a while, but they tend to split right down the length of the grip. The Purple Heart wasters (http://woodenswords.com) are very good in comparison.

The Cold Steel plastic wasters (the ones Sir Brian picked up at MDRF) work well for the price. Can't beat that, really. Ideally they need a slightly heavier pommel to offset the blade weight, but they work well enough for being so cheap.

MRL has the Rawlings plastic trainers. I bought a set of these too. They're not too bad, though they have almost a little too much flex in blade which makes certain techniques difficult to perform. But then, no trainer is perfect, and they'll all have certain compromises in their use. They cost about the same as a waster from Purple Heart, and I think they're much safer than wood because of the softer plastic and flex.

Usually, as a general rule, you don't want to mix materials with what your partner is using, since one trainer will chew up the other. But plastic and wood seem to mix pretty well, IMHO.

[Sir William]

Those are the ones...I like that they're not just cross-shaped pieces of plastic but they went the extra mile to make them look like the swords we know and love.

[SirNathanQ]

Whoah. I'm seriously impressed by those wasters. Anyone try out those models? They might be just what I've been looking for if the handling isn't sloppy.

[Das Bill]

I'm not very impressed with the current batch, but supposedly they're making changes to them. Right now they flex over the length of the entire blade, and therefore all actions from the bind are hindered because the blades flex with pressure. The feedback the community has been giving them has been that we want them to be stiffer in the forte of the blade, but retain flex around the third of the blade nearest the point, and supposedly they're working on that. Also they are really light, and many people want them to have at least a little bit more heft to be more realistic, but not so much as to lose sight of safety.

I prefer the Purpleheart Armory synthetics far more, but these Rawlings ones by MRL show promise if they make the appropriate changes.

[SirNathanQ]

The page says that it only flexes the last 3rd of the blade. I think they may have made those changes.
lets hope. 
http://www.kultofathena.com/product.asp?item=600874&name=Rawlings+Synthetic+Sparring+Long+Sword

[Das Bill]

There are prototypes in existence, but they aren't on the market yet, so no, those are not the updated versions. They might flex *more* in the last third, but they still flex all over the blade. Trust me, these are not martial arts tools. They're toys. Like I said, though, they show promise that better ones can be made, but for now the Purpleheart Armory ones are much, much better.

[Sir Edward]

These are the ones Bill is referring to (as being good):

http://woodenswords.com/WMA/synthetic.LS.typeII.htm

I have one of these as well. They're cost effective, durable, and don't flex nearly as much. Though they also hit harder in a thrust as a result of course.

[SirNathanQ]

Oh. Well I'm giving those a wide berth then.
Anyone have anything to say about the cold steel longsword trainers?

[Das Bill]

Anyone have anything to say about the cold steel longsword trainers?

You get what you pay for.

[SirNathanQ]

But as far as "bang for your buck" goes, how are they?
Are they safe for sparring? (main concern)
Do they handle anything like a sword? Is the handling bad enough to prevent proper technique?
Anything else I might want to know? (knowing cold steel, I bet they're at least gonna last for a long time)