eisman
Gold Member
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2009
- Messages
- 6,868
The National Firearms Museum, also known as the NRA Museum, in Fairfax, VA is an amazing place. I highly recommend anyone interested in firearms put a visit on their bucket list. I was lucky enough to be able to spend several hours there a couple weeks ago, and thought I'd share some of the wealth with the folks on this BBS.
As this is a knife forum I'll limit my photos to sharp, pointy, objects unless someone has a specific request I can fill. Likewise, as these are all historical blades I could have posted this in the Traditionals Forum, but I thought the rest of the community might be interested, and some of you may find this interesting enough to visit that forum also.
This first item is an Ames Rifleman's Knife, one of the 1000 purchased in 1849 as the first knife bought by the US Army Ordnance Dept.
The museum is undergoing a major revision of the current exhibits, as evidenced in this next photo by the white tags placed to show current or planned revisions. Still, a whole case of guns with attached blades is fascinating, if only to see the large variety of combinations.
Knives matched to (or paired with) individual firearms were pretty rare, so this ivory handled set caught my eye. Unfortunately the displays are not as well lit as they could be, and this isn't the best of photos.
Somewhat better is this shot of a stiletto as part of a violin cased shotgun diorama.
This period "Bowie" seemed to fit right in with the the late 19th Century arms in this case.
As a slipjoint fan I found this "gun" extremely interesting. The secondary "blade" actually held a .22 caliber round which was fired by pressure in the "spring" (shown slightly protruding). Range would have been very short, but it's pretty unique.
Last, from the Hollywood side (which there's an impressive room full of), here's a shot of the Bowie used by Dennis Quaid in The Alamo.
I hope you all get a chance to visit and see the guns on display here. Some of the displays have been in other museums (very notably the Gene Autry Western Museum). Back in the 1980's the Smithsonian Museum of American History had an entire wing of guns and knives on display. Sadly that's been removed, and I doubt it'll ever be made public again. The NRA has done a great service in making these historical relics available for public viewing.
As this is a knife forum I'll limit my photos to sharp, pointy, objects unless someone has a specific request I can fill. Likewise, as these are all historical blades I could have posted this in the Traditionals Forum, but I thought the rest of the community might be interested, and some of you may find this interesting enough to visit that forum also.
This first item is an Ames Rifleman's Knife, one of the 1000 purchased in 1849 as the first knife bought by the US Army Ordnance Dept.
The museum is undergoing a major revision of the current exhibits, as evidenced in this next photo by the white tags placed to show current or planned revisions. Still, a whole case of guns with attached blades is fascinating, if only to see the large variety of combinations.
Knives matched to (or paired with) individual firearms were pretty rare, so this ivory handled set caught my eye. Unfortunately the displays are not as well lit as they could be, and this isn't the best of photos.
Somewhat better is this shot of a stiletto as part of a violin cased shotgun diorama.
This period "Bowie" seemed to fit right in with the the late 19th Century arms in this case.
As a slipjoint fan I found this "gun" extremely interesting. The secondary "blade" actually held a .22 caliber round which was fired by pressure in the "spring" (shown slightly protruding). Range would have been very short, but it's pretty unique.
Last, from the Hollywood side (which there's an impressive room full of), here's a shot of the Bowie used by Dennis Quaid in The Alamo.
I hope you all get a chance to visit and see the guns on display here. Some of the displays have been in other museums (very notably the Gene Autry Western Museum). Back in the 1980's the Smithsonian Museum of American History had an entire wing of guns and knives on display. Sadly that's been removed, and I doubt it'll ever be made public again. The NRA has done a great service in making these historical relics available for public viewing.
