Were can I find a Japanese sword that is meant for sword drawing techniques?
To be honest, for repetative drawing, then best thing to use is a mogito (unsharpened “mock sword” in Japanese; iaito). If you are wearing out saya (sheath), I assume you’re using live. I would strongly advise against iai with shinken (live-edged blade) unless you have had proper training. The wear through the edge side of the koiguchi (“carp’s mouth” saya opening) comes from improper drawing technique which may cause the ha (edge) to whittle away at the wood for the saya. If the sheath is simply splitting, then get better swords. A split saya comes generally from a poor sheath/habaki (blade collar) fit. If your swords are hard to seal after resheathing, this could also be a major cause. For shinken that are shown constant use, a lot of swordsmen commission sayashi (sheath makers) to make iai-zaya. Basically, a saya for iaido or battodo. It has, along the edge side of the saya near the opening, a strip of buffalo horn replacing some of the wood. Steel bites much more slowly through hor
