It's not much...

blue lander

blue lander

Joined
Aug 16, 2011
Messages
1,386
... but I managed to make a little room in the basement for displaying my sharp pointy things. I used to have my own man cave but now that everything's "babyfied" I've been reduced to this. Oh well.

My user blades like the KVLUK are out in the shed, these are just my nice or antique ones.
 
Don't be so hard on yourself. My "display" space consists of a half of my bottom dresser drawer crammed with my other gear (flashlights, chargers, batteries, ammo, magazines...). At least you have a little place to be proud of!
 
It's a start and trust me when I say that babyfied only last a very short time. When your at your kids graduation or wedding etc and you look back it will seem like 3 months. Time flies much too quickly.
 
True, could be worse and it's only temporary. Two challenges remain:

1: finding space for my Takouba

2: explaining to the wife why I bought a Takouba

 
can't blame you for the habit, I have been on a quest for an authentic dha sword, very hard to actually find, i did see a forumite on the sword forums found a british military issue which would be pretty much the best of the best, so i would say that is my dream find in antiques right now, getting a british military dha !

Dont explain anything, just say , as long as I pay the bills I can buy what I want. unless its her money then offer to clean the house several dozen times or something domestic
 
My current "dream sword" is a Kaskara, but they usually sell for $300 at the lowest.

ph-0.jpg


My latest acquisition is that middle sword/knife, a jiboula from the Barbary Coast of Morocco. The blade was probably from an old sabre or cutlass made in the 18th century in Germany, and at some point it was cut down to it's current configuration.
 
Well as a public service and as luck would have it I think I got just enough room to hang that beauty for you. My babyfied bunch are now youngest 19 with weapons of their own so storage not an issue.
Happy to help.

blue lander said:
True, could be worse and it's only temporary. Two challenges remain:

1: finding space for my Takouba

2: explaining to the wife why I bought a Takouba

Click to expand...
 
I'm looking for a nicer Takouba to replace this one, I'd gladly send this one your way when I do. I don't know if it's nice enough for your collection though. It's in pretty rough shape. The end of the scabbard's missing, and the leather that should cover the hilt is gone too. It's probably only around 50 years old, I guess things age quickly in the desert. Older ones are usually much nicer, some of the really old ones even have European made blades.
 
bmz2678 said:
Don't be so hard on yourself. My "display" space consists of a half of my bottom dresser drawer crammed with my other gear (flashlights, chargers, batteries, ammo, magazines...). At least you have a little place to be proud of!
Click to expand...
That sounds like my book case, knives, hatchets, tomahawks, I'd stick my mauls and axes in there if I could. I've even resorted to putting knives in between books to keep the clutter low.
 
I've got to get a tomahawk one of these days. I have a few military surplus Swiss and Swedish axes that work quite well, though.

Almost for got to mention vis a vis the Takouba sword - a great resource to check out if you're interested is http://takouba.org. They have pictures of much nicer and older ones than mine. As mine is fairly recent, it was more designed as an "fashion accessory" to be worn with their traditional clothing at cultural gatherings. It's more than sturdy enough to be used as a weapon, I dispatched a few cardboard boxes with ease, but it's not as heavily built as I expected it to be. The blade is very bendy (made from spring steel like HI khuks), more like a machete than a proper sword.
 
Added a couple new things...



A Manding sword from Africa (missing much of it's sheath unfortunetly)



And a surprisingly heavy Mongolian knife that looks like it's been sharpened a million times and smells heavily of sheep.

 
Very interesting. I'm not sure I'd recognize sheep smell without a sheep nearby to compare it too.

Nice sword with lots of history too I imagine.
 
I'm a little bummed about the Manding sword. They almost always have old French or English military blades in them, but this one's definitely a hand forged native made blade with a very rough finish. I assume that means it was made in the 20th century. It's still pretty cool though.
 
blue lander said:
I guess things age quickly in the desert. Older ones are usually much nicer, some of the really old ones even have European made blades.
Click to expand...

Sir, you have great tastes for desert blades. Having a Kaskara as dream sword is quite original.

This is not your typical "everyone loves the Katanas" :-)

Good luck finding what you are looking for.
 
Thanks! Katanas never interested me much, plus a decent one would be way out of my price range.

If I had a grand or two to spend though, my ideal sword would be a Polish or Hungarian hussar cavalry sabre.
 
blue lander said:
If I had a grand or two to spend though, my ideal sword would be a Polish or Hungarian hussar cavalry sabre.
Click to expand...

Last week I was reading about horsemen sabres. A fun fact about Britain, these guys couldn't make up their minds if it should be straight or curved. The last one was straight...
Light, fast, good for thrust and fencing and half decent at slashing.

So you too are flipping between straight and curved :-)
 
I was first drawn to long straight swords, but now I'm definitely digging sabres. I'm not too interested in the smaller infantry officer's sabres since they seem more ornamental than useful, but cavalry sabres are monsters.

My S'boula is what remains of some large 18th century sabre. It's fascinating to think about what it might have been before it was cut down and repurposed. I suppose it must have been damaged in battle at some point and "recycled" into it's current form.



There's some talismanic markings on the blade too. Some crosses and the man in the moon.

 
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that is extremely awesome, its stuff like that that makes collecting addictive
 
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