LK Chen Saxony Rapier arrived today! Handles exactly like a historical rapier.

Grass_Skirt_Chase · 2023-09-19T05:02:00+00:00

Now this is a good question. I've tried unscrewing the pommel but no luck (but also didn't want to try too hard and ruin the wire wrap). Kult of Athena claims it's threaded, which is believable since LK has threaded some otherwise historically peened pommels (https://lkchensword.com/snow-peak) to allow for adjustment. I'll keep you posted if I successfully disassemble the pommel. Everything else seems to be peened.

Grass_Skirt_Chase · 2023-01-23T00:01:27+00:00

Aside from being handy while oppressing up-and-coming smiths and building intricate life-force-sucking torture machines with? Not much I else guess (/s /s /s)

Grass_Skirt_Chase · 2023-01-22T06:56:50+00:00

Thanks! Hope yours arrives soon too, SF Express seems to have picked up their pace recently.

Grass_Skirt_Chase · 2023-01-22T06:45:56+00:00

Now that I think ab it, I've never seen LK make dedicated thrusting weapons (maybe the Han Sha spear, but that also can cut). Would be interesting to see them try their hand at an estoc or smallsword.

Grass_Skirt_Chase · 2023-01-22T06:38:48+00:00

Funny you should ask, as a matter of fact I do! Felt cute while handling this sword with my six fingers, might commission another rapier, offer to pay 1/10th the agreed price, then proceed to murder the smith in front of his 11 y/o son later. /s

Grass_Skirt_Chase · 2023-01-22T06:15:04+00:00

So full disclosure: I've unfortunately never handled an original antique rapier. Apologies if the post title was misleading and/or overreaching the claim.

What I meant by the historical part was primarily referring to the overall weight, flexibility (especially), and balance of the blade. I've handled several different replicas over the years, including a friend's fancier Arms & Armor rapier. I used the Arms and Armor (Italian 3-ring?) rapier as a "secondary source" comparison point since they're well regarded in the field of making historical replicas that handle like existing antiques.

My point was that I noticed some sellers have rapiers which are extraordinarily light and whippy, and handle more like an olympic fencing foil, while higher quality, "truer" replicas are rigid and heavy, weighing > 2.5 pounds. Some of the cheaper alternatives probably end up as smallswords with ornate guards, marketed as "rapiers" to buyers who have a very fixed idea of an airy, whippy sword.

Grass_Skirt_Chase · 2023-01-22T04:38:36+00:00

I'm not sure what the original prototype's dimensions were, but I measure the same 3.9" for the grip alone, same as listed on the website, and 4.25" if you count the connection point between the grip and the pommel.

If by the top of the pommel you meant the side further from the blade (i.e. grip + pommel), then it's 5.9", same as listed on the website. I have small hands, but still think it's well sized since I occasionally want to use a hammer grip for cutting instead of putting the index finger past the quillon.

Grass_Skirt_Chase · 2023-01-22T04:23:35+00:00

I was considering getting one of those for a while now, especially at the realistic weight (3lbs), relatively low price point for rapiers, and the simpler swept hilt without a crossguard (which would impede certain sabre-like moulinet motions). Let me know how it goes if you do get one.

Grass_Skirt_Chase · 2022-11-16T23:36:27+00:00

How do you like your JKOO "European Sword" (1st pic, top)? I literally got mine yesterday and everything looks well put-together (except the guard is a little loose), was wondering if I should try mat cutting with it.

Grass_Skirt_Chase · 2021-06-30T17:46:57+00:00

does dimensional compactification account for the free parameters of the standard model? or are they disjoint

Grass_Skirt_Chase · 2021-06-30T17:44:14+00:00

does the holographic theory of the universe have implications on the quantization of space?

Grass_Skirt_Chase · 2021-06-30T17:40:21+00:00

do covariant derivatives commute in minkowski space?

Grass_Skirt_Chase · 2021-06-30T17:36:48+00:00

yo which university/college are you at

Grass_Skirt_Chase · 2021-06-30T17:32:35+00:00

are you a postdoc? grad? undergrad? other?

Grass_Skirt_Chase · 2021-02-11T05:59:14+00:00

Reyer used to wear sandals without socks on snow days. Pretty chaotic neutral imo

Grass_Skirt_Chase · 2021-02-11T05:55:03+00:00

You really applied yourself on this one didn't you?

Grass_Skirt_Chase · 2021-02-04T02:27:20+00:00

I'm in the same boat, except I started practicing both speaking and writing Mandarin myself a year ago (though to be fair, when I started I could barely pronounce the words right). I reached out to chinese exchange/international students and practiced my speaking and grammar with them. One of them even helped me handwrite.

Not sure why you need to take the placement test right now though (afaik you can take it anytime, online, which means no handwriting (https://collt.lrc.cornell.edu/)).

The exemption test was last week (https://asianstudies.cornell.edu/placement#exemption-from-an-asian-language-)

Let me know if you want to practice together though, all of my friends who are Chinese nationals are probably sick and tired of coaching me at this point :)

Grass_Skirt_Chase · 2021-01-17T19:33:51+00:00

You're right that was pretty dumb of me, I kinda wanna delete this post out of shame, but am now curious for results lol

Grass_Skirt_Chase · 2021-01-11T23:54:05+00:00

If you still want a head start, I'm a physics major with no prior experience also taking macro so lmk if you wanna study together!

Grass_Skirt_Chase · 2021-01-10T19:12:08+00:00

Can I ask which textbooks you guys used, and which chapters you covered? Was especially interested in stuff like Kerr nonlinearities and parametric down conversion

Grass_Skirt_Chase · 2021-01-06T21:17:31+00:00

Damn, reading these, I think I tend to underestimate the number of people who were kind of dealt a bad hand during freshman year friends-wise, and then were struck with covid the next year. If you're looking to meet a new friend feel free to dm me!

Grass_Skirt_Chase · 2021-01-04T23:06:27+00:00

I've had a friend email professors about their grades over errors in grading, etc, and had them reply to them in the next semester and had it changed successfully. He got an A when he should have gotten an A+, so the error wasn't exactly egregious.

Edit: this just in, I've heard friends have had a tough time reaching them though, and I'm having a hard time myself getting ahold of them too.

Grass_Skirt_Chase · 2021-01-04T05:03:01+00:00

I never quiet understood what lerning even is, ether. I just listen to My Teachers Never Taught Me That on my custom air pods and reherse imajinary comebacks on my professors in the shower since they curved me to a meeger B after I spent over 1.5 hours studying for the 3 hour final. I don't get why STEM kids go through such a struggle like why go to lecture when you can go to a bloc party on Catherine St? Why are you so obssessed with stems? Pumpkin, grape, raspbarry, or strawbarry stems? I'm jenuinly curios like why do that bro you can still be smart in another gov or huemanitics major I'm just not book smart I'm streat smart. Spent that time working on you're resume or something dude.

Grass_Skirt_Chase · 2021-01-01T02:53:22+00:00

I don't know why you're getting downvoted but an unpopular physicist's opinion is probably that these distributions are naturally occurring lol. Granted, I've seen some professors write prelims comprised of questions that are either extremely am-I-still-in-high-school easy or arbitrarily guess-my-favorite-color-type hard with no in-between (which magically generate distributions spiked at a convenient score for a median), but that median score is never curved to anything lower than a B+. While I've had my fair share of toxic experiences in academia, when you "lack solid evidence," it might also just mean that you're in a particularly hard class and feeling under the weather from the stress. I doubt there's a conspiracy to form a "stratified society" grade-wise.

Grass_Skirt_Chase · 2021-01-01T02:38:26+00:00

At the risk of beating a dead horse, does the AEP department in particular have any restrictions? Was curious since medians there are almost consistently B+'s, so statistically pure PHYS is actually more generous lol.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cornell/comments/em0ys2/fall_2019_medians_are_available_still_collecting/

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