How much does a Thai sword weigh?

Practitioners of Thai Sword or sword fighting in general know:  The choice of a training weapon for everyday practice can have a big impact on the kind and quality of ones techniques.

A too heavy training weapon can lead to unwanted injuries. Is it too light it may happen, that the thoroughly trained movement patterns simply don’t work anymore, once you switch to a heavy steel sword.

Fast direction changes and hectical movements from the wrist can work well with rattan, bamboo or polymer sticks. But they certainly don’t work with heavy edged weapons made from steel.

For stage fighters, Cosplayers, LARPers and other show practitioners (e.g. Krabi Krabong) it may be absolutely reasonable to use lightweight mock ups and rattan sticks. The same applies of course for everyone who does not necessarily train with the goal in mind to wield a heavy war sword sooner or later (e.g. FMA stick fighters from Escrima, Kali, Arnis).

But when it comes to authentic Thai sword fighting, we recommend to skip rattan or bamboo and use something heavier instead, right from the start.

For a better comparison of the various weights, we have made two videos. The rattan sticks were borrowed from our FMA-friends at Kampfkunstschule Neukölln.

Weight comparison