I bought my first shinai... now what?

[JSchmidt]

Maybe the carbon grows differently in Canada.

Or maybe, being nanadans, their tenouchi is slightly better than Johnny Ikkyu who's breaking shinais like toothpicks.

[ender84567]

show less concern for the person you are trying to kill.

[PabloY]

I use a carbon shinai, it's lasted me about 18 months now, maybe more and I've never had a complaint from people about it hurting more, although this could just be down to the fact that there are several kendoka around here that REALLY beat the crap out of people, so I look better by comparison. I will say though, even if it is cheaper to use and it's nice to have low maintenance equipment, it's not that nice to use.

[The great I AM]

Or maybe, being nanadans, their tenouchi is slightly better than Johnny Ikkyu who's breaking shinais like toothpicks.

I suspect that this is the case.....there by kind of indicating that it's not just because it's a carbon shinai that it hurts more....