Twin Spinning Points of Doom… :D
November 6th, 2009 | 
Author: A while back, there was an interesting discussion on the Exotic Automatic Forums (http://exoticautomatic.com) about a rather cool weapon, or set of weapons, called Emeici or Emei Piercers (aka Emei Daggers). they are basically a set of steel rods, with sharp broadhead-like points on each end and a finger ring on a pivot attached at the center. Looky here:
Emei Piercers
Emeici are a traditional Chinese martial arts weapon, most notably practiced in Wu-Shu. The primary purpose of these weapons is obviously to speedily inflict deep puncture wounds, and in that regard, they are excellently designed. The rods are of an extremely efficient design, in my opinion, very strong, but still extremely light and quick. I cannot fault that aspects of the design.
I’ve known of these weapons for a long time, and between the mechanical aspects of it’s design, and the rather visually impressive techniques typically used when wielding them, I cannot, argue they aren’t really, really cool. However in typical DarkBlader fashion, I cannot help but ask myself… What percentage of this kind of this “second kind” of cool is actually useful?
I have a lot of respect of traditional martial arts, the vast majority of my experience has been in TMAs, and so I see value in many of the traditional ways of doing things. *However* I have always found TMAs to have a rather unfortunate tendency towards the retention of outdated techniques and ideologies, and this weapon seems to be no exception.
Besides the obvious snafu of having an overenthusiastic martial artist pretty much admitting, on a nationally syndicated television series, that he is prone to the colloquial *bloodrage*, 
my point of contention is this: Does allowing the weapon to spin actually add any useful value to the use of the weapon besides the cool or intimidation factor? Or is it just for show?
If you ask a TMA what the practical benefits of being able to spin emeici around are, they will tell you it is helpful for confusing your opponent. They will argue that it allows quick switch ups, changes in direction, etc. And to some degree, this is true of most knives. The grip, the position of the edge or edges, the orientation of the point, etc. tell you things about how and where your opponent might strike.
But while the quick change-up explanation has merit, there are really only two grips that you can use with a set of emeici, between which you can perform any strike, to any target. So while this all sounds good in theory, I wouldn’t be looking predominantly at the position of the weapon to try and figure out where the next attack was going.
For spinning, double-ended stabbing weapons, since the spinning, by itself, does not really change any of those factors, methinks it would not matter so much. I don’t think I would be any more confused by the spinning than if it were being held still. I have yet to spar an Emeici wielding opponent, so my analysis may turn out to be entirely wrong, but…
What do you think? Anyone feel like weighing in on this one? Spinning Emeici: Mostly Show? Or Absolutely Go?
Emeici – [Chinatown Shop]
Related posts:
Category: Editorial, Exotic, Knives | 
Tags: Chinese, Dagger, Daggers, Emei, Emeici, flashy, Knife, Knives, Martial Arts, Piercers, points, Shiny, Spinning, Stabbing, Thrusting, Wu-Shu, Wushu | 
8 Comments »
Wu Shu has a non-trivial aesthetic element so it is not very surprising that they find value in a “cool” weapon.
It doesn’t seem like emei would be great weapons anyway — they are too short and thin. They are not as strong as a normal knife and not at long as a spear. As you mentioned, the twirling thing is pretty much useless from a purely martial-arts perspective and the mechanism seems entirely too delicate to last actual use for long anyway.
As for the bloodrage, please rest assured that this is not a feature of most serious martial artists. We try to be “peaceful” martial artists. We do not initiate force and when we are forced to use our skills, we only damage as many bones, joints, and organs as needed to ensure our own safety. Our aim in a fight is to be able to walk away with the minimum of damage inflicted (firstly to ourselves, then the opponent).
As for martial-arts without the useless display, consider (if you haven’t already) Chen style Tai’Chi and silat. The former is basically a form of street fighting that was used specifically for its martial arts applications (as opposed to other forms of Tai’Chi which have a health component) and the latter was created in Indonesia relatively recently and has not had time for showy moves to collect.
Southern style Shaolin also has very few showy moves (though all Shoilin styles have some degree of “cool” built in by now).
I have not actually fought someone using these however I have talked to someone who was almost of master status with them, I asked the same question and he simply said that he liked it not because it confuses people, but when blood gets on them and he spins it in a certain way all of that blood can be aimed into the opponents face and that is not only a seeing hazard, but drinking your own blood or even just having it on your face is a huge moral dissolver.
TheHat, tbh, blood spattering in the enemys face is a part of Mia-kage Kenjutsu lol. we aim to save lives by being as grusome and as intimidatingly bloodthirsty as possible.
@newt
Thin pointy weapons do have their place, I just don’t think spinning in the hand is one of them… And I agree, both Martial Arts, as well as Martial Artists run the gamut so far as temperament and showiness, so I suppose it’s really a matter of looking at as many as possible choosing a style that fits your purposes…
@theHat/Mozza
The blood in the face comment makes sense, but here’s the thing though, you could do the same with a regular knife. And getting blood in ones face at best (or worst) can sting the eyes, but is not necessarily morally demoralizing to everyone. Focused fighters won’t even notice, or may not care…
oh they most certainly notice when you ram a nice o kissaki katana into their generals gut push him to the floor and use overhead chiburi to splater blood allover aforementioned generals army
When exactly does that guy “see more blood”? He’s certainly a master of bullshit. The spinning is nothing but flash. An opponent would have to be pretty terrible to get distracted by some twirling, and if they’re that bad why bother. The real usefulness is to allow the user to easily retain them while holding another weapon or object which would not be difficult considering the narrowness of emeici. The swiveling ring simply provides for more comfortable gripping.
@Brick: Have you ever been in a knife fight? If so you’d know that when you’re facing someone you are watching your opponent pretty closely, however you are not focused just on his blade. You are focused on his hips and ware he is going to move too, his shoulders and when he is going to move his arms, and his face to try to tell what he’s thinking. You rarely actually look at the blade with more then the side of your eye. Now imagine trying to do that while the think you are looking at is [i]constantly spinning[/i]. While it is noting that makes the style “far superiority to everything else” it does make it kind of hard to see what is going to stab you, which could cause confusion, especially if the other person hadn’t seen this before. So while I’m sure the spinning was played up a little in the video it is a key part of the style and thus it should be noted.
No, TheHat, I’ve never been in a genuine, life or death knife fight. I doubt you have unless you went looking for it. Your point about not focusing on his blade, not really the same thing as emeici but whatever, is the same point I was making. You would have to have a terrible opponent to be able to mesmerize him simply by twirling your weapon. The twirling only lets your opponent know you do not value a sound grip on your weapon. If the twirling is indeed an inherent and intended feature of the weapon then it is a design flaw. It is an extravagant part of the style and should be noted as such.