At the Practical Self Defense Training Center In Waterbury, Connecticut, you will see in the video below one of the ways we practice with razor sharp swords. This is NOT recommended for people who are not well trained in blade oriented martial art styles. This type of training is very dangerous where you can lose a limb or die from one little mistake made.

Our philosophy on this kind of training is, to understand the blade, one needs to work with real blades. most people use wood or rattan to imitate a real bladed weapon. If by chance you are confronted with a razor sharp bladed weapon and you had no scenario training with it, you will be afraid to use your self defense skills. Going up against a real bladed weapon  is hard enough to accomplish with or without a weapon as it is. Like I said above, do NOT try this without proper training. Its not worth the risk. Enjoy the video below:

In the video you will see a lot of subtle cuts, parries and slashes on various targets. this could not be done without adding the geometric footwork that has to be within sword fighting skills.