Talk:Butterfly sword

Martial arts wiki links
The original article had links to Ving_Tsun, Wing_Chun, and Wing_Tsun all in one sentence. I'm removing the duplicate link to Ving_Tsun, as it's a redirect to Wing_Chun anyway, so it's probably redundant to mention both. Wing_Tsun looks to be a different (though admittedly related/descended) martial art entirely, so I just put a separate link to it instead of having a complicated series of nested parentheses. --Culix (talk) 17:08, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Name origin?
The only explanation I have found for the name comes from "the fluttering effect caused when rolling the blade with the wrist", however this is just one of those unsourced statements you see on the internet. If someone could find a reliable source that would be good. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.22.50.11 (talk) 18:46, 27 September 2020 (UTC)

Butterfly Swords article needs work.
The photo shown is a variety of butterfly sword not representative of the historical specimens found. It is extremely rare. Nearly all surviving antiques have a straight spine sloping down to a stabbing tip though there is also precedent for a horizontal straight spine. It is misleading to say these weapons were mostly made to measure as the surviving examples make clear there was bulk production of quality butterfly swords in foundries for militia use. This offsets the lower quality work by village blacksmiths that would have a greater chance of being done on a made to order basis. The concept of leaving part of the blade blunt for blocking was not applied to the Militia design antique I own nor do I believe it to be the case on the bulk of the surviving antiques. The article appears to interweave Wing Chun martial arts-designed butterfly swords with the genre in general. Wing Chun BJD are theoretically tailored to each practitioner's arm so that they can perform the technique set of their lineage without cutting themselves. There are 12", 13", and 14" blade lengths commercially available for those practitioners who cannot afford full-custom knives. Some, not all, Wing Chun lineages leave the rear 1/3 or 1/2 of the cutting edge blunt for blocking.  Most Wing Chun designs have a rounded tip so as to intentionally reduce the lethality of the weapon.  These designs are, however, very suitable for the chopping and slicing techniques emphasized in Wing Chun.  Other martial arts typically use butterfly swords that range from 14" to 16 1/2" in blade length with the formula for determining the appropriate blade length for an individual dependent on the style and lineage.  Jeff Modell 97.83.85.232 (talk) 14:06, 30 December 2021 (UTC)