A well put together book. Gives a variety of openings and closings to the Balisong (Butterfly) knife. Good for beginners. Exceeded my expectations.

This is an excellent book for martial artists who desire to understand the role of weapons in the totality of combat. This book goes beyond merely learning the techniques of these weapons; indeed, it stresses the need to develop an "iron will" and fighting spirit to win in battle.

It quotes the famous swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi, several times to emphasize its lessons. In my own system( Bushi Satori Ryu) we teach 16 martial art weapons in our training classes. This is the reason this book appeals to me. If one is truly a martial artist, than weapons should be part of the total combat arts curriculum.

I especially related to the section on Heiho, which is a word Musashi used to explain "the path to enlightenment that must be followed by anyone who practices Bushido, the way of the warrior."

This text is broken down into three areas: One deals with the Weapon Fighting Secrets, which is essential to master if one is to be a true warrior. Part two covers the weapons of Okinawa. Part three explains the weapons of Japan.

This is an excellent book that every martial artist will find interesting and informative.

This book gives general info on the types of weapons used by ninja. However for more in depth info I suggest that you look elswhere. This book is good if you are looking for the types of wepons used and not how to master use of them.

Sid Campbell wrote a very good reference on shuriken throwing, with pictures that describe different concepts. For those who don't know what shuriken are, they throwing blades such as the straight kind and the multi-pointed or ninja star style blades used by ninjas. While the info in this book was presented well, I don't think he did much research into throwing blades other than from his own experience with some he had made. For one, he mentioned that the multi pointed blades will return to the user like a boomerang. I find this unlikely, and I don't think I would want to try catching it on the return flight. Also, he says that the blades are more potent when they use poisons on them, and that the ninjas of olden days had to know about that. He must not have read any of Stephen Hayes books. The ninjas did in fact use poisons in their blades, and sometimes even explosives. He does not, unfortunately, tell a student how to obtain a shuriken like he did. But for the beginning user, it is a handy reference.