a boken is a wood sword (japanese "bo"+"ken" = "wood/stick-sword"), traditionally made of dense-grain hardwood, used to practice kata (formalized training movements and sequences), suburi (strength training), and kumite (training-fights, or sparring). It is used primarily in kenjutsu (sword fighting) training as part of traditional budo (the martial arts of the Samurai), but is used to a lesser extent in Iaido (lightning draw), Kendo (fencing), and the modern and essentially defensive martial art of Aikido.
The boken I am making is closer to a suburi-to than a kumite boken - it is very heavy, by my choice. I am carving it from a section of a live-oak branch that Francis stripped from one of my trees. I lucked out in that this section's grain almost perfectly matches the ideal curve of a japanese longsword (katana, to, tachi, or no-dachi).
I am rediscovering how much I enjoy manual woodwork, and how soothing to me such work can be.
VERY nice!
I never advanced far enough in my dojo to get to the place where i was using weapons, other than my own body ( I've broken my right hip twice and it began having problems again my second year... so i left the school)
NOTHING but admiration and respect for you!
Keep me posted on how it turns out!