learning wepon arts

well here i am agin to be more specifec. i am interested in learning Halabred, spear(same as halabred?) chain and Manriki(same as chain?) sickle and kame(same as sickle?) sword, amd sais. as you can see i am interested in learning these weopons. i also am wondering if i have to or should have a back ground in other fighting styles. and i was wondering if anyone knew of any dojo's in so cal.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Narross:
well here i am agin to be more specifec. i am interested in learning Halabred, spear(same as halabred?) chain and Manriki(same as chain?) sickle and kame(same as sickle?) sword, amd sais. as you can see i am interested in learning these weopons. i also am wondering if i have to or should have a back ground in other fighting styles. and i was wondering if anyone knew of any dojo's in so cal.[/QUOTE]

Hi, Narross.
Thought I'd try responding to you, since no one has to date.
First off, take my opinions with a grain of salt, since I've only been training in Kenjutsu for about 5 1/2 yrs., which may sound impressive, but is merely scratching the surface in reality.
Which brings me to this: I must say you ARE ambitious. Considering the amount of weapons you want to study, and assuming you don't just want to dabble with them, I hope longevity runs in your family!!! It takes DECADES to become really good with one weapon, never mind several.
That said, there are several arts that teach several weapons. Most Kenjutsu styles (As distinct from Kendo) teach the sword and several others weapons. The mix that you mention being interested in, however, seems more slanted towards some of the Ninjutsu schools out there. I can't vouch for or against how close to the ancient teachings these schools are, because I don't have an interest in them beyond the casual. Be warned though that some of these seem to be just wannabes who tried to capitalize on the Ninja craze in the movies some years ago in order to increase enrollment.
The sai you mention as having an interest in also is a weapon originally particular to Okinawan Karate styles, so you won't find it in legitimate Ninjutsu schools. Some of these wannabes I mentioned might have incorporated it, since the movies showed (Erroniously) Ninja using them. So the quality of instruction would be dubious.
By the way, the halbred IS distinct from the spear, the manriki IS the chain and the kama ARE the sickles, although it's possible that some schools call them by a different name.