- Joined
- Aug 1, 1999
- Messages
- 3,036
Ever since I read Gates of Fire by Pressfield I've been determined to make a kopis. (Before you purists scream that Spartans didn't use the kopis, they used a Xiphos, put a cork in it. In my story they used a kopis and that's what matters.)
Normally, everything I make is with an eye to efficiency. Fast cuts, chops and slashes like nothing else, not much weight, a handle that owns you, and something you'd happily carry around all day without noticing you had it on you. Fast, sharp and lethal. Above all, fast. Whether I achieve these goals is another matter, but that's the way I think when I make a knife. That's my normal mindset.
The reason I think those things is because I always put myself in the users' position and make things I'd want for myself, EVEN if I'm making it for someone else. It needs to satisfy me as a user before it is experienced by someone else.
Not this one.
This blade is made for a Spartan. It's for a hand larger than mine and an arm stronger than mine. It's for a powerful man in a brutal battle where it will crush everything in its path, and everything it strikes will be destroyed. Everything. 18" of 5/16" 154CM steel. 26" OAL. 2 lbs 6 oz. weight. Green Canvas Micarta handle.
My goal was to create a sword that causes the person who holds it to know it was made for a greater being, a real warrior, and feel humbled. I want them to feel the power, and at the same time know they can never use it all.
The Kopis.
Remember the scale. This blade is 18". My normal handles are 6" in length. This one is 8". And yes, I used 154CM and I did so without apologies. It will easily cleave a bronze blade or shield and there is no wood on earth that can harm it. Much smaller blades in the same steel have severed flesh and bone with ease.
For those of you who haven't read Gates of Fire, you are missing an amazing story of the salvation of western civilization by 300 remarkable men. I think it should be required reading. A Marine at Paris Island told me it is required reading in their unit.
Normally, everything I make is with an eye to efficiency. Fast cuts, chops and slashes like nothing else, not much weight, a handle that owns you, and something you'd happily carry around all day without noticing you had it on you. Fast, sharp and lethal. Above all, fast. Whether I achieve these goals is another matter, but that's the way I think when I make a knife. That's my normal mindset.
The reason I think those things is because I always put myself in the users' position and make things I'd want for myself, EVEN if I'm making it for someone else. It needs to satisfy me as a user before it is experienced by someone else.
Not this one.
This blade is made for a Spartan. It's for a hand larger than mine and an arm stronger than mine. It's for a powerful man in a brutal battle where it will crush everything in its path, and everything it strikes will be destroyed. Everything. 18" of 5/16" 154CM steel. 26" OAL. 2 lbs 6 oz. weight. Green Canvas Micarta handle.
My goal was to create a sword that causes the person who holds it to know it was made for a greater being, a real warrior, and feel humbled. I want them to feel the power, and at the same time know they can never use it all.
The Kopis.
Remember the scale. This blade is 18". My normal handles are 6" in length. This one is 8". And yes, I used 154CM and I did so without apologies. It will easily cleave a bronze blade or shield and there is no wood on earth that can harm it. Much smaller blades in the same steel have severed flesh and bone with ease.
For those of you who haven't read Gates of Fire, you are missing an amazing story of the salvation of western civilization by 300 remarkable men. I think it should be required reading. A Marine at Paris Island told me it is required reading in their unit.
:thumbup: