10-18-2003, 09:46 PM
Hi,
Saying you would only want a reproduction that used the original steel doesnt make sense to me.
OK, first a few background thoughts:
Swords have no real use today and haven't for well over a hundred years. I am not including the sporting toys (i.e., fencing epees, sabers and foils and their oriental kin in this). As backup to balky single shot firearms, swords still had a small purpose. With the invention of breach loaders and revolvers, they became an anachronism.
So, swords fall into two basic categories: Antiques, that are of value for their history and their beauty (and are too expensive for the likes of me), originally made when they still had a purpose which has since gone away. Or modern fabrications made either in imitation or for vanity. Not having any desire to go into the backyard and beat up on defenseless jugs filled with water, nor particularly wanting to fool myself that I had developed some skill in an art (actual sword fighting as opposed to fencing) that no longer has a real use, I do not desire "functional" swords, be they replicas or the fevered imaginary works of people who've never visited a museum and get their medieval and earlier concepts of history and weapons from fantasy books and novels.
So, if I were to buy a replica, I'd want it to be as true to the original as possible. If the original had a leather wrapped grip, I wouldn't settle for Naugahyde. If the pommel was held in place with the tang riveted over a button, I wouldn't want screw threads. If the the original had wrought iron rings and quillions, I wouldn't want cast aluminum. And if the original blade had to be babied to keep it from destruction, I wouldn't want something I could swing sideways into a telephone pole. Anything other is neither a replica not an antique. Simply a pretty toy.
Don't get me wrong, I like those pretty toys to look at. And I'm glad that the oldest profession still has its practitioners -- swords, BTW, predate money and thus probably predate hookers. I'm glad that there are some who, for whatever reasons, want to buy those swords. But it's not for me.
--Pete
Saying you would only want a reproduction that used the original steel doesnt make sense to me.
OK, first a few background thoughts:
Swords have no real use today and haven't for well over a hundred years. I am not including the sporting toys (i.e., fencing epees, sabers and foils and their oriental kin in this). As backup to balky single shot firearms, swords still had a small purpose. With the invention of breach loaders and revolvers, they became an anachronism.
So, swords fall into two basic categories: Antiques, that are of value for their history and their beauty (and are too expensive for the likes of me), originally made when they still had a purpose which has since gone away. Or modern fabrications made either in imitation or for vanity. Not having any desire to go into the backyard and beat up on defenseless jugs filled with water, nor particularly wanting to fool myself that I had developed some skill in an art (actual sword fighting as opposed to fencing) that no longer has a real use, I do not desire "functional" swords, be they replicas or the fevered imaginary works of people who've never visited a museum and get their medieval and earlier concepts of history and weapons from fantasy books and novels.
So, if I were to buy a replica, I'd want it to be as true to the original as possible. If the original had a leather wrapped grip, I wouldn't settle for Naugahyde. If the pommel was held in place with the tang riveted over a button, I wouldn't want screw threads. If the the original had wrought iron rings and quillions, I wouldn't want cast aluminum. And if the original blade had to be babied to keep it from destruction, I wouldn't want something I could swing sideways into a telephone pole. Anything other is neither a replica not an antique. Simply a pretty toy.
Don't get me wrong, I like those pretty toys to look at. And I'm glad that the oldest profession still has its practitioners -- swords, BTW, predate money and thus probably predate hookers. I'm glad that there are some who, for whatever reasons, want to buy those swords. But it's not for me.
--Pete
How big was the aquarium in Noah's ark?