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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
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- Thread starter blue lander
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Touché, if I was an archer, one like that would be my first pick.
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When it rains, it pours:
my recently acquired kaskara saif:
25 in. short (infantry?) blade, no scabbard -early 20c from so. nile valley area. 636 grams ('bout a pound & a half) on it's way from france.
35 in. looong (camel cavalry?) blade wi. traditional scabbard: early to mid 20c. very sharp 75%from tip, latter 25% near guard unsharpened.
about 950 grams, just under 2.2 lb. w/o scabbard from sudan.
also arrived recently, guardless nimcha saif, heavy 20 in. blade, 19c. very sharp too. alas no scabbard. possibly moroccan, madagascarian, baluchistani. (i.e. nobody knows)
goat horn grip.
attachments of above:
my recently acquired kaskara saif:
25 in. short (infantry?) blade, no scabbard -early 20c from so. nile valley area. 636 grams ('bout a pound & a half) on it's way from france.
35 in. looong (camel cavalry?) blade wi. traditional scabbard: early to mid 20c. very sharp 75%from tip, latter 25% near guard unsharpened.
about 950 grams, just under 2.2 lb. w/o scabbard from sudan.
also arrived recently, guardless nimcha saif, heavy 20 in. blade, 19c. very sharp too. alas no scabbard. possibly moroccan, madagascarian, baluchistani. (i.e. nobody knows)
goat horn grip.
attachments of above:
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- Joined
- Feb 20, 2014
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Wow Kron, 3 really sweet examples of their styles. For some reason of these particular ones the nimcha saif is speaking to me. The handle looks awkward and uncomfortable, the blade looks "unprofessionally" completed; just little things like the length and waviness of the fullers and the shape of the cutting edge, but still regardless. It just speaks to me. It seems perfect in it's imperfection.
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actually, the grip is very comfortable. it is a locally made blade, ie. 'villager' in HI parlance, in the style of european trade blade. which would have been much longer. the fullers extend to the tip imply it was likely a longer blade once that has been reground after the tip breaking, but the distal taper of the blade doesn't show evidence of the tip being reground down, so it looks more like it was made this way from the beginning. the front of the grip horn has a steel disk that is smaller slightly than the blade width but fits the grip exactly, so it was made without the traditional multi pronged steel guard arms & knuckle guard rather than they are missing. it seems to be a secondary long knife in the tradition of a langseax or scramaseax. it has the double eyebrows makers marks on both sides frequently found duplicated on arab blades from north africa from morocco to the sudan and further east into arabia and pakistan. the pics are as it arrived, and pre-cleanup. i've brass brushed off any red rust in the grooves, liberally applied ballistol and given the grip a good soak, brush and hand rub in hooflex.
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last year a friend who makes/restores swords for museums and high end collectors asked me about doing some photo enhancement for a sword he'd taken pics of in a thai museum. he needed details on the grip knotwork:
found this while googling: it's not the sword i just mentioned above.
another shot of it in the thai museum:
after admiring it, he offered to make one for me at a discount. he had to finish a few he'd been commissioned to do, but he'd work on mine when he could. he makes them using materials, metal, wood, cordage, glues and laquers that would have been used when the originals were made using the same tools and techniques. anyhow, between delays, illness, holidays, etc on both sides, it finally arrived this morning.
the blade is heavily distal tapered, the bulbous 'nose' is quite thin but stiff, and has a false edge on the spine. blade is VERY sharp, but not razor sharp & is a convex edge. the fittings on the grip are rust blued steel, the grip is rattan covered in a layer of cloth then covered in knotted string similar to the originals. to save me some dough it's a more open pattern than the original. the originals would have been coated in resin when made, which has worn off thru time, mine is coated as they would have been back in the day (17c). he had a couple of days last week where he had some free time, so just because he wanted it perfect he added a leather wrap under the baldric and lined the scabbard mouth in leather, which also was done in the old days. the sword's fit & satin finish are perfect. balance is about an inch in fron to the guard, and is a pleasure to hold. i told him i wanted a soldier's sword, not a fancy parade one. it's what i got. it is based on a 16c royal guard sword from the thai kingdom of ayutthayah. the tang extends back to under the middle steel grip fitting. this is, in spite if the long grip, a single handed weapon, the grip extension is for balance & for protecting your fore-arm.
he also sold me a garden tool he brought back from thailand that he'd used to cut back the overgrowth from his garden after his last visit to thailand. i thought it was cool. reminds me of a filipino panabas. it's about 2 ft. long. black cord i added to hang it on the wall. comes from the aranyk area of thailand where most of the knives and swords/tools come from. it's sharp on the inside of the curve and around onto the tip.
found this while googling: it's not the sword i just mentioned above.
another shot of it in the thai museum:
after admiring it, he offered to make one for me at a discount. he had to finish a few he'd been commissioned to do, but he'd work on mine when he could. he makes them using materials, metal, wood, cordage, glues and laquers that would have been used when the originals were made using the same tools and techniques. anyhow, between delays, illness, holidays, etc on both sides, it finally arrived this morning.
the blade is heavily distal tapered, the bulbous 'nose' is quite thin but stiff, and has a false edge on the spine. blade is VERY sharp, but not razor sharp & is a convex edge. the fittings on the grip are rust blued steel, the grip is rattan covered in a layer of cloth then covered in knotted string similar to the originals. to save me some dough it's a more open pattern than the original. the originals would have been coated in resin when made, which has worn off thru time, mine is coated as they would have been back in the day (17c). he had a couple of days last week where he had some free time, so just because he wanted it perfect he added a leather wrap under the baldric and lined the scabbard mouth in leather, which also was done in the old days. the sword's fit & satin finish are perfect. balance is about an inch in fron to the guard, and is a pleasure to hold. i told him i wanted a soldier's sword, not a fancy parade one. it's what i got. it is based on a 16c royal guard sword from the thai kingdom of ayutthayah. the tang extends back to under the middle steel grip fitting. this is, in spite if the long grip, a single handed weapon, the grip extension is for balance & for protecting your fore-arm.
he also sold me a garden tool he brought back from thailand that he'd used to cut back the overgrowth from his garden after his last visit to thailand. i thought it was cool. reminds me of a filipino panabas. it's about 2 ft. long. black cord i added to hang it on the wall. comes from the aranyk area of thailand where most of the knives and swords/tools come from. it's sharp on the inside of the curve and around onto the tip.
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Well it didn't explode in my hand so I'd say it was a success.
Off hand at ~15 yards. Not bad. At least I kept them all on the paper.
Good enough for government work
Did a lot better than the last person I saw with something like that. I went to the range on Saturday and there was a guy with a short barrel AK, but his had a stock. At seven and 15 yards he was putting in groups scattered ALL over his target, not even a semblance of grouping. And he was using a much bigger target. He had one of those B-27 silhouettes, about twice the size of your target, and he had a stock. He seemed more concerned with shooting it fast then anything else. It was kind of sad to watch in a way, because I spent a fair amount of time at 7 yards with my pistol, and wasn't shooting that slowly, in fact I even did some quick fire, and was still putting nearly perfect groups on paper.
Yeah, that's about it. Unfortunately, he chose to look cool with a short barrel on an indoor range. Made for some annoyance. Thankfully that range was designed with some noise reduction in mind, because it was loud enough as it was.
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Another awesome addition Kron! But are you telling me that museum pieces are "made" for museums? They don't find the items and then build an exhibit around the authentic things? LOL. Seriously though, it is gorgeous. I love the overall shape, especially that distal taper.
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yes, they do it all the time. aside from restoration work, some exhibit a replica alongside a relic (ie. blob of rust) to show what it would have looked like. some have exhibits of full sized human figures dressed in period clothing, and armour with swords, some, like the royal armoury in leeds have 'living' exhibits where they dress up and show off sword skills. one famous exibit at the british museum is the sutton hoo helmet.
as found in a zillion pieces
as reconstructed, the smooth rust colored areas are NOT original - i suspect they are clay.
replica exhibited along with the reconstructed rust bucket.
replica sold by the royal armoury.
as found in a zillion pieces
as reconstructed, the smooth rust colored areas are NOT original - i suspect they are clay.
replica exhibited along with the reconstructed rust bucket.
replica sold by the royal armoury.
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Museums do the same thing with prehistoric fossils. If I remember correctly, the New York Museum of Natural History has a genuine T-Rex skull on exhibit in a case alongside a full T-Rex skeleton whose head is a replica of the same skull.
Fossil dinosaur skeletons in museums have many replica bones, since complete skeletons are rarely discovered. Mistakes were made in early reconstruction and assembly, for example when it was originally thought that dinosaurs were clumsy beasts with bowed legs and poor mobility.
Fossil dinosaur skeletons in museums have many replica bones, since complete skeletons are rarely discovered. Mistakes were made in early reconstruction and assembly, for example when it was originally thought that dinosaurs were clumsy beasts with bowed legs and poor mobility.
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Well it didn't explode in my hand so I'd say it was a success....
Off hand at ~15 yards. Not bad. At least I kept them all on the paper.
Good enough for government work
Awesome shootin philllll! Was that shootin from the hip? Cool looking piece to say the least!
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Well it didn't explode in my hand so I'd say it was a success.
Off hand at ~15 yards. Not bad. At least I kept them all on the paper.
Good enough for government work
yup, very nice hole pokings at reasonably close range. most police confrontations take place at 7yds on average, looks like this'un will do nicely for such close encounters of the deadly kind.
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Thanks y'all!
ndog, no hip shootin' this time unfortunately. That'd be a good recipe for gettin' kicked out of the indoor range post haste. And I'm sure they'd jump at the chance since it is uncomfortably loud shooting this thing indoors. My ears were ringing for a while afterwards even with using plugs AND muffs.
Shav, they don't even bother calling it a muzzle brake, just a "thread protector" LOL. I've got plans to cut the weld and put something better on there but I haven't decided on one yet. I did add the rail on the top of the dust cover which works great. It was kind of a pain in the butt getting the holes drilled straight but I managed with some help from a friend and his drill press. It works great with a red dot seeing as the stock sights are pretty much garbage IMO.
ndog, no hip shootin' this time unfortunately. That'd be a good recipe for gettin' kicked out of the indoor range post haste. And I'm sure they'd jump at the chance since it is uncomfortably loud shooting this thing indoors. My ears were ringing for a while afterwards even with using plugs AND muffs.
Shav, they don't even bother calling it a muzzle brake, just a "thread protector" LOL. I've got plans to cut the weld and put something better on there but I haven't decided on one yet. I did add the rail on the top of the dust cover which works great. It was kind of a pain in the butt getting the holes drilled straight but I managed with some help from a friend and his drill press. It works great with a red dot seeing as the stock sights are pretty much garbage IMO.