Benny Meng is the curator of the Ving Tsun Museum in Dayton, Ohio. He trained under the Moy Yat lineage to Sifu status, then trained under Ip Chun and Ip Ching.
The DVD starts off with a slideshow introduction to Benny Meng’s achievements and his martial arts journey (so far). He then describes what the DVD is designed for, which is to assist active students in the Ving Tsun Museum syllabus and to provide support to quality instructors.
Author Sifu Jon Rister has been teaching martial arts since 1987. He has been involved in Wing Chun since he first met his teacher, Sifu Francis Fong, in 1986. In addition to Wing Chun, he has also studied and achieved instructor rank in Kali-Eskrima under Dan Inosanto, and similarly ranked in Jun Fan/ Jeet Kune Do under Dan Inosanto and Larry B. Hartsell.
For starters, the book title itself really sounded promising to me, as it starts off with the history of Wing Chun.
A couple of U.S. Western-style knife makers did blades with a combination of different grinds. For example, a convex (lenticular) grind adjacent to a concave (hollow) grind. I am not sure this sort of thing is anything but aesthetic for most knives, but I can see how a strong tip grind for thrusting penetration without breaking followed by a sharp slicing grind might be useful, ignoring the potential stress points on the blade. These sort of blades have what is known as a “Nightmare Grind” because they are a nightmare to hand grind though easier to machine on a CNC machine! I thought about what kind of Butterfly Sword might appeal to a knife collector, and was advised that unusual grinds were popular these days so I doodled out a Nightmare Grind blade that would be flippable. I sent it off to Forge Master Ali for him to do a prototype. He decided to do a concave/concave combined grind instead of the easier convex/concave I recommended and found it quite a mouthful, so much so that he said the knife had to be put in the hands of someone who could appreciate the difficulty of the work.
Here is a good article warning about some cheaply made and dangerous swords currently coming out of China.
From https://kwansao.wordpress.com/2012/02/18/dangerous-wing-chun-swords-from-longquan/ :
“A Longquan sword maker is selling Bat Jom Do on eBay as “lqyanggu”. I suspect this the retail website: http://www.yourswords.com/chinese-sword/chinese-traditional-weapons/wing-chun-knife-340.html
These swords are dangerous to the user! They look pretty but are very poorly constructed! Do not buy these if you value your fingers and eyeballs. The blade is not securely attached to the handle, and the handle is actually hollow. This is hidden with the cord that wraps the handle, so you won’t even notice this critical flaw until they snap in half and you impale yourself.
I just wanted to mention a great read on the history of BaatJarmDao /Butterfly Swords /Hudiedao. Our friends at Kung Fu Tea did a great job with this article and we recommend you go take a look:
Lee Man Hung is a master of the Ving Tsun system under Tommy Yuen Yim Keung’s lineage. Sifu Yuen was one of Wong Shun Leung’s four eldest disciples.
At the start of the DVD, we get a quiet demonstration of some Ving Tsun methods. And, quiet is the first thing that I can say about this video. There is no annoying music, no posh English narration—nothing. Just Lee Man Hung talking you through each exercise (in Cantonese with English subtitles). This is a good thing—sort of.
Joseph Lee trained and taught in virtual anonymity for the past 20 years, and it is only recently that Lee has stepped out from the shadows to share his unique knowledge. Lee moved to the United Kingdom at the age of 15 and continued his training before finally meeting and starting his training under Grandmaster Lee Shing, under whom he continued to train for the next 20 years until his master’s death.
The focus of the DVD is on the attack and counter attacking skills of Wing Chun. After a short introduction, we are into Bong Sau and Lap Sau—the first of many chapters on this 75-minute DVD.