Has anybody noticed that aside from the intimidation value, martial arts weapons are generally ridiculously ineffective. Flat, often heavily dressed and coated, cheap materiels, weak construction and terribly overpriced. Most smash to pieces the first time you use as intended (in a controlled training environment of course). The exceptions would be a nice pair of nunchakus and a very expensive, custom made katana (ridiculously powerful and completely inadequate for anything but thoroughly lethal use). A bit of expense could get you a supreme example of balisong or tanto whilst they were available. I lobbed a leg bone of lamb with no resistance when we couldn't find a carving knife in the house, using my old (confiscated) 3 1/4" tanto. I mean why the half measures? If it's a non-usable training implement, make it obviously such, a replica requiring licenses then be as usable as those regulations facilitate. It's all just so commercial it rubs my rhubarb. And it's the misguided enthusiast who loses with the police.
You forgot the sticks used in escrima. They are made of yantok, rattan, or kamagong (Heck you can use any kind of wood). It's cheap, and if it isn't, the seller is sh*ting you.
That's the beauty of sticks. They can be cheap AND of good quality, simply because they're just a wooden stick!
It really sint that hard to find swords and such for martial arts use that are for all intents and purposes a real weapon just sans sharp bits. And there are always machetes and axes.
You need to find a new martial arts supplier, my friend. I have a plexiglass bo that is older than I am and endures my full swings. As punishment for dropping a tonfa in class, you have to do push-ups on the tonfa while holding them against your arm. Even after dropping them a whole bunch in training, the handles are still in good condition. And I have never even heard of a poorly-made sai. Don't get the cheap @#$% that is obviously used only for kata. If your kama have holes in the blades, don't use them. If it has glittery paper, glows in the dark, is see-through, or wobbles when you strike with it, then that is probably the cheap junk you're talking about. There is plenty of good quality weaponry out there, the problem is to find it. Some that I have found has come from Century, others came from local suppliers. The best bos I ever saw, though, were from a purple belt in my dojo, name of Sam. He had this bamboo grove that had been growing for many many years. So, he cut off two long shoots that were the right size and circumference for bos. Our 200-pound ex-football player black belt who breathes intensity couldn't break those suckers. Some of the best quality stuff can be hand-made.
