As the proud soon-to-be-owner of this beauty (Bill, that carving is *sensational*), maybe I should offer a little bit of background about the machaera.
It's an ancient Greek design, also known as the copis; the earliest examples are from the 6th century BC and were of course made from bronze. According to contemporary art they were commonly used by Greek heavy infantry, though the most famous use of a machaera was by the tyrannicide Harmodius, the greatest folk hero of ancient Athens, who killed the dictator Hipparchus with one in 514BC and made possible the founding of the world's first ever democracy.
Machaeras were popular with the armies of Alexander the Great, who took the design with them to the foothills of the Himalayas where, in the view of many arms & armor historians, it became the direct ancestor of the khukhuri. I'm sure this is right; you only have to look at an original machaera to see the resemblance -
- Which is why, when I wanted to find a bladesmith to make me a reproduction machaera, HI was the only possible choice. The tradition lives on.
Dr Jim Hrisoulas, the noted swordsmith, has described the falcata (the Roman version of the machaera, and essentially the same in all respects) as one of the most perfect cutting profiles of all time. If the HI version cuts as good as it looks (as I have doubt it will) the local undergrowth had better look out...
If anyone's interested, I'll post a report on the machaera once I've put it through its paces
