- Joined
- Dec 2, 2005
- Messages
- 69,968
Regular visitors here will already be all too keenly aware of the plight of the Lambsfoot, an endangered knife species which could one day face extinction. While related species are thriving elsewhere (Charlow Ovinepedus for example), and hybrid species abound, the pure bred Lambsfoot currently has only one last habitat. Even in its native breeding ground of Sheffield, England, as we saw just recently on this thread - http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...sfoot-knife-in-sheffield?highlight=Lambsfoot- the Lambsfoot is in decline, with fewer and fewer quality examples being produced every year.
What has led to the decline in numbers of this once thriving pattern is unclear, but changing domestic tastes, government repression, and the pattern's apparent inability to find fresh production grounds, are all thought to be factors, along with competition from non-native species such as brightly coloured Swiss imports. While there have been recent sightings of an unmarked silent variant, for admirers of the true REAL Lambsfoot, this will be quite a different species, a patina-less pretender to the original.
Now, I'm afraid I must share with you a fresh horror, and indeed Those of a sensitive disposition, or those not of mature years, may want to look away at this point.
Today I travelled to a town which for the moment at least will remain anonymous (let's just call it 'Town A'). Suffice to say that, while Town A is within the boundaries of the sacred county of Yorkshire, it is a long way from the Lambsfoot's traditional breeding ground.
In response to a tip-off, I ventured to a small "antiques shop", in a quiet part of town. Up a flight of steep stairs, hidden away in a virtually windowless room, I found something which I think I will remember all my life, and which I know will shock many of you to the core.
The graphic images pictured below were captured with a hidden camera. I know you're going to find them hard to take in, grown men have wept at less.
Sickeningly, even the place where this poor wretched Lambsfoot came into the world can no longer be discerned. Certainly, this is a Lambsfoot which has suffered years of neglect and abuse, and is now in its death throes, thrown in a box for people to look at, with just a cheap price sticker to cover its modesty.
Readers, sickened as you may now feel, heartbroken as you may now be, please pause for a moment, get your breath back, and while doing so THINK. What can be done to save the poor endangered Lambsfoot? If we don't act, who will?
If one single Lambsfoot can be saved by this post it will be worthwhile. Unfortunately I came too late for this one, and I will have to live with that, but the suffering's over now, rest easy sweet prince.
What has led to the decline in numbers of this once thriving pattern is unclear, but changing domestic tastes, government repression, and the pattern's apparent inability to find fresh production grounds, are all thought to be factors, along with competition from non-native species such as brightly coloured Swiss imports. While there have been recent sightings of an unmarked silent variant, for admirers of the true REAL Lambsfoot, this will be quite a different species, a patina-less pretender to the original.
Now, I'm afraid I must share with you a fresh horror, and indeed Those of a sensitive disposition, or those not of mature years, may want to look away at this point.
Today I travelled to a town which for the moment at least will remain anonymous (let's just call it 'Town A'). Suffice to say that, while Town A is within the boundaries of the sacred county of Yorkshire, it is a long way from the Lambsfoot's traditional breeding ground.
In response to a tip-off, I ventured to a small "antiques shop", in a quiet part of town. Up a flight of steep stairs, hidden away in a virtually windowless room, I found something which I think I will remember all my life, and which I know will shock many of you to the core.
The graphic images pictured below were captured with a hidden camera. I know you're going to find them hard to take in, grown men have wept at less.
Sickeningly, even the place where this poor wretched Lambsfoot came into the world can no longer be discerned. Certainly, this is a Lambsfoot which has suffered years of neglect and abuse, and is now in its death throes, thrown in a box for people to look at, with just a cheap price sticker to cover its modesty.
Readers, sickened as you may now feel, heartbroken as you may now be, please pause for a moment, get your breath back, and while doing so THINK. What can be done to save the poor endangered Lambsfoot? If we don't act, who will?
If one single Lambsfoot can be saved by this post it will be worthwhile. Unfortunately I came too late for this one, and I will have to live with that, but the suffering's over now, rest easy sweet prince.
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. That guy sure has seen some use...
