I learned some aikido techniques with swords and bo staff (my best) and received a master of bo staff in my tae kwan do techniques and so on. You have to be pretty dedicated to martial arts before they start teaching you specific high end techniques with weapons because once you get to a certain degree of skill with them, even with hand to hand combat, you have to register yourself and all skills independantly with the government as lethal weapons.
When I got 3rd black in tae, I was forced to register myself as a so called 'lethal weapon' and then with katana, ti ka sword, and bo staff, once I got 10th star with those. That also means, if I got into a fight with someone ... and I did more than just what was neccessary to defend myself, I could get a lethal weapons charge... regardless of if I did it with my hands or not.
Messed up huh?
