The Sword Defined:Posted on 05/04/2009 12:20:16 PM PDT by Notoriously Conservative
What does this have to do with conservatism? I don't know, I guess there have been conservatives that have used swords. Look, don't question it, swords are awesome, that's why.
The Sword Defined:
Sword weapon of offense and defense in personal combat, consisting of a blade with a sharp point and one or two cutting edges, set in a hilt with a handle protected by a metal case or cross guard. The sword may have developed from the dagger at the beginning of the Bronze Age. It was not, however, until the more durable iron sword was introduced in the early Iron Age that the sword became an effective weapon. Greek and Roman swords were very short, with pointed ends, and had two cutting edges. Medieval knights used two types of swords: a short sword with a pointed end that was used with one hand and a heavy two-handed sword with a rounded end. During the Middle Ages the best blades were those made by the Arabs in Damascus and Toledo. Swords were widely used in the Middle East and E Asia as well as in Europe. The scimitar, used by the Persians and Arabs, is a curved steel sword. One of the best known of the East Asian swords is the Japanese samurai sword, consisting of a curved single-edged tempered steel blade set in a long handle. As a highly personal weapon the sword attained symbolic importance; surrendering one's sword became a token of submission, and the custom of taking an officer's sword away from him and breaking the blade when he was dismissed from the service in disgrace arose because a sword is the mark of an officer and a gentleman. During the Crusades and later, the sword, because of its...
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Would this be accused of being a cutting thread?
A little trivia: Gen. Patton designed a sword for the US Army.
Never bring a sword to an assault-rifle fight.
It's a reminder that a relatively easily made sharp, long, thin hunk of steel can get an awful lot done, and prohibitions enacted by tyrants do little to stop motivated creation & use thereof.
Time to start buying stocks in Kendo franchises.
I thought Damascus blades were made in southern India.
Cold Steel offers some excellent swords at reasonable prices.
And Toledo blades from Ohio...
The only sword I would recognize by appearance is the one I gave to my daughter when she became an NCO in the US Marine Corps.
The best present I have ever given!
ping
Depends entirely on how close you are when the fight starts.
I believe the blades were made in Syria from wootz steel ingots shipped from India.
They won’t be obsolete much longer if we can’t get ammo...
Swords, knives, rifles, pencils, sharp rocks, broken glass, M-134D, industrial lasers...
Choose your self defense tools for your own personal preferences and situation.
One of the under-appreciated swords is the Macana. In essence, a Mezoamerican weapon of a wooden sword with extremely sharp pieces of obsidian embedded in it. As with other swords, it was optimized for its time and place.
Importantly, more typical spear and sword technology was known, but the embedded obsidian blades were preferred. They even used a spear head that was a smaller version of the Macana. But they also had more typical stone spearheads, and pencil-like poking spear heads made from copper.
Sword ping
My grandfather who serve at Iwo and Okinawa left me 2 swords he brought back. An imperial naval officer sword and a still very ‘sharp’ samurai sword. I am in the process of building a display case for them as well as the Arisaki rifle he also left.
Medieval knights used two types of swords: a short sword with a pointed end that was used with one hand and a heavy two-handed sword with a rounded end.
The authority on sword typology, Eward Oakeshott, classed many sword types of this era. Check out this. The two-handed "rounded ended" swords seen in many museums, such as the Tower of London, are execution swords. Those used in battle, such as the zweihander, would have a point.
"Damascus" is usually another generic term for a pattern welded blade. These are made by layering different steel alloys in the billet, which is then forge welded and twisted/folded repeatedly to form various patterns. Damascus was an early trade center for these, but there were several areas that did this, including the Vikings, Indians, and Persians.
thats the best money you ever spent I’ll bet?
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