Alright, let start with the fun stuff first. The following was posted to the Bath Township Police Department's Facebook on March 4th
*While You Were Sleeping*
In the early morning of Jan 27, Officers conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle. A subsequent search located a very odd combination of illegally possessed weapons as well as methamphetamine.
#ObviouslyAHiPoint#LordOfTheRingsMeetsJohnWick#AncientSwordOfTheMethKing
This is definitely the type of thing I can see the cops talking about for a few weeks, that's for sure.
And before anyone else calls it out, a basic inspection of the other weapons there show that there is markedly less than first greets the eye.
- The 'assault rifle' looking long-arm at the top of the photo is, in fact, some model of 22 self-loading target gun with what looks like a 20 round magazine.
- The Pistols looks like a standard, modern auto-loader(possibly 9mm) with what is probably only one 18-round magazine.
- The 'bowie knife' at the let looks like a really (and I mean really) cheep blade,
- The black knife low-center in the photo looks like a $7 'boot dagger" I got at a garage sail one time.
- The folding knife right next to that looks like the same one I got at Wallmart for $18. (And if mine is any indication, that one is actually a decent quality knife, truth be told)
Okay, so, lets talk about the obvious.
First of all, yes, the sword is clearly vaguely Japanese in design type, the hilt and handle both have design elements to them are are absolutely pacific Asian.
Second of all, if you look at the photo for a minute, you can see that those seven spokes (including the head) of the weapon are not forged out of the blade's steel, but rather are screwed on with machine screens.
Keep looking a little longer, and you'll notice that the 'edge' on that weapon (the light gray part that denotes where the metal was ground down to a cutting edge), isn't even real. If you look at the details on the photo, it painted on. The metal doesn't even look like it will cut butter, let alone a human being. Also, the handle wrap, if you look at it closely, is more or less falling apart.
In short, this is some fantasy blade that was probably purchased at a convention for $100 (or there about) and has absolutely no more use than to sit on someone's wall and look 'cool'.
So, before the anime fan's out there crawl through my screen and take over my keyboard, I'll go ahead and explain here that this piece of metal looks like it fell out of a comic book more or less because it did. Specifically, this is the blade of the character Renji from the anime and manga Bleach.
Now, why am I talking about this? That's certainly a fair question.
First of all, for a lot of you, I wanted to quickly disassemble that photograph and illustrate how not-dangerous, and non-tactical a lot of that was. I'm not saying the suspect was harmless at all, that Bowie knife probably had enough edge on it to open someone up. But There is a large demographic out there who sees the shape of a rifle like that one and honestly can't differentiate it from a military grade 5.56mm combat rifle, and I want to help differentiate the two.
But second... I wanted to point something out that IS absolutely accurate about this weapon (No, I have not gone off the deep end, I promise you).
Ask yourself why someone would pay $100 (or more) for that consume sword.
The very real, and very likely reason is 'because it looks cool' in this case.
And before anyone disparages that line of reason, please stop and ask yourself how many oddities you have in your house that sit there for absolutely no other reason that to take up space and 'look interesting'. I'm sure most of us could put the $100 figure to shame in a hurry if we were honest about this.
That brings us to the crux of my post.
The fact of the matter is that swords through history, and into today were shaped by two very different groups of people. Those that made them, and those that used them. Between those two, there was documentably very little overlap. What this means is that the master blacksmiths of the day, while they did know a lot of how to make a good blade and how the best swords of the day were probably made, were also subject to the influence of the next wealthy noble who walked in the door and said "I want x on my next sword".
And lets be clear, "X" historically had a lot of examples of really ornate inlay work on the handle or blade, jewel work on the hilt or hand guard, or other details that had nothing to do with, or maybe even limited the combat usefulness of the weapon.
There are plenty of examples of nobles, knights, royals, or others who indented their weapon to make every bit as much of a statement while scabbarded as it might have while drawn.
In many respects, its like the guy who walks into a competition rifle shoot with $20,000 worth of hardware on his rifle. Before he's even taken a shot, he has made a statement and shifted attentions his way.
The man who walks in the room with a gold-hilted rapier, or a silver inlayed basket hilt on his sword is doing much the same thing, and for many of the same reasons.
In fact, some examples of the German Flamberge were so large and heavy that they were absolutely unusable in combat. They were built from the ground up as ceremonial swords, in part, to make a political statement during ceremonies. (Yes, word leaders were playing 'mine is bigger than yours' before nuclear weapons existed).
The point here is that while we talk about some of the finest blades in history, we need to keep from falling into the trap of assuming that sword development followed some logical progression based solely on effectiveness of design. The fact of the mater is that blade design in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas was a chaotic, and at times insane evolutionary process guided as much of the whims and superstitions of man as they were the combat experiences of soldiers and fighters.
The "this looks cool' factor has existed for centuries, and just like firearms today, swords were clearly influenced not only by the soundness of their design, but also the random and even superstitious whims of the people who pay for them.
Now, I would never suggest that the fantasy blade above is a 'good' sword. To be clear, the man who was arrested while having this in his car was not looking to impress anyone on a world stage, but, in his own existence, between him and his own people, probably largely ignorant of the history they were sharing space with, the sigh of that sword probably did do exactly what it was intended. It 'looked cool', and got people's attention.
The fact of the matter is that it is (in its own way), even without a blade, even with no functional use, and even with a plastic handle, a sword, which means it is a part of sword history, just like the katana and the rapier before it.
#Swordsunday is intended as a fun and educational series of posts for the enjoyment of readers.
His Lordship Ivo Blackhawk
Kingdom of Ansteorra
"Long Live the King!"
No comments:
Post a Comment