You do realize that practicing sword fighting and whacking swords together are two very different things.
I have seen some commercial bokken that are pretty crappy and I would not trust them to take a hit or even to hit with. The bokken used by the Tenshin Ryu schools are very solid and can take a hit. Without knowing where your friend got his bokken it is hard to tell if it can withstand whacking. I got a fancy bokken I would not dare to use for any practice. I am quite sure it would break.
I can't say that I have come across poorly made Shinai. They tend to be quite consistent in their quality. Make sure they are tied tight though. Most come tied lose and you have to retie them before use but other than that,....
So many problems and let me address them one by one. Bokken can kill. One of the most famous duels in Japan ended with a guy killing the other guy with a bokken. Use bokken for swinging practice and set forms, not sparring. Shinai isn't that safe either btw. It can tear at your ear and/or blind you(and other minor injures) if you use it correctly. You guys should have proper teacher and train properly, but failing that at least get full equipments to keep you safe rather than just swinging it out without any gear. If you must practice and you can't get full equipments then keep to swinging practices and prearranged forms. Whatever makes you happy, but do not spar without full equipment.
Yes, it can break the Shinai, but if you're careful as you should be when engaging in any activity like this, you should end up fine. Luckily, Shinai and Bokken aren't expensive in the slightest in the world of swords. If they break, you can easily get a new one.
Shinai is designed to be flexible, so you can't hard block things from a wooden stick well. If anything were to break, it would be the shinai itself.
Generally good wood won't break even if it hits other wood objects. It's flexible enough, but not as flexible as the shinai.
If you wish to practice together, you must either have targeting rules, slow it down to below 40% overall speed, or just have defense and attack routines pre planned. Such as over hand hits, leg hits, wrist hits, and their respective defenses. Then you just repeat the routine.
Generally, unless you can subconsciously do the 8 cuts (a cross with an X, in terms of different cuts), Without hitting your own body or other objects at range by accident, then you won't be ready to maximize your learning in 2 man routines. First fix your own body coordination issues by mastering your own muscles and distance gauge. Then you'll get more benefit from other people swinging at you.
Have your heard of Musashi? he was a famous Japanese swordsman who ended up killing most of his opponents with bokken so this is not something you want to play with.
As for Shinai, before you seriously injure yourself, go on Youtube and watch a Kendo match, you will notice that they are using armor. They are not using this for "traditon" but for protection. Shinai do break and splinter when the do. you can also break bones if hit the wrong place.
Me and two friends decided to practice sword fighting, so me and one of my friends ordered shinai, which are made of bamboo, but the other friend already has a wooden sword, I think it's called a Bokku or something, and I was wondering if it would be safe to fight against it. I don't know if it would break the bamboo or not, so I turned to Yahoo answers, hoping that there was someone out there who knew something about Kendo that I don't
