Knives, Swords, and everything in between.

[Dotini]

The fencing school provost I've been taking fencing lessons from for 3+ years now has recently received the accolade and formal title of "Maestro", one of only four in the USA that I know of. Below is a pic of the weapon I am currently training with, the Spanish foil. Sometimes we train with other weapons.


(click to enlarge)
The Italian grip, evolving from the handle of the rapier (Renaissance) and its later progeny, the smallsword (Baroque period), is rarely used today in sport fencing today, but is common among classical fencers.

 

[prousonhairy]

Well I got my Sharpmaker Today. I won't be able to do much with it, until my knife gets dull. I may practice on a couple older knives I have.

On Spydercos official website they have a forum section. I signed up today, and found out the guy that started(and still owns) Spyderco in 1978, is active on the website. He personally welcomes new members to the forums, and answers all kinds of questions people have. I found that really cool.

I had an impulse buy yesterday, it should arrive next week. This thing isn't really practical for EDC, but I had to have it. I'll post a pic of it when I get it, this things going to make me feel like Rambo.

 

[prousonhairy]

Well, I got my first Spyderco for Xmas, and I now have three of them. My two newest knives, are the Spyderco SLYSZ Bowie, and the Spyderco Farid K-2. From top to bottom in the picture it's, SLYSZ Bowie, PM2, and the Farid K-2.

The SLYSZ Bowie is absolutely spectacular. It has CTS-XHP steel, and 3D machined titanium scales with a stonewashed finish. It has a Reeve Intergal Lock. It also has a cool daddy wire pocket clip. The blade is the same size as my Paramilitary 2, but the handle is a bit smaller. Great knife, it was expensive at $280, but absolutely worth it. It feels so great in your hands, and fits in the pocket awesome.

The second knife I just got, is the one I was talking about going Rambo with. I bought this knife mainly because it's discontinued, and I wanted one while I could still get it. It's the Spyderco Farid K-2. It has Titanium scales(although I don't think they are 3D machined like the SLYSZ), and comes with 10V steel. This thing is absolutely massive, not really an EDC, it has a 5.4 inch blade. It takes two hands to unlock the blade, which is probably a good thing for safety.

That picture doesn't even do justice to how big the thing is lol.

Here's all three together:

Anyways, I just wanted to share that. I've been EDCing my PM2 almost everyday. I highly recommended that knife, for anyone looking for a great EDC. And if you want to spend a bit more, for an absolutely stunner EDC, that SLYSZ is the way to go. The K-2 isn't really practical, but it sure is mean as 🤬 looking.

 

[a6m5]

"That's not a knife..."

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

@prousonhairy nice, but man your hands have seen better days

Also I found this cool channel on youtube that makes all these fictional bladed weapons and other stuff

 

[a6m5]

Are you trying to get me to lose both my hands @LMSCorvetteGT2

 

[prousonhairy]

@prousonhairy nice, but man your hands have seen better days

Also I found this cool channel on youtube that makes all these fictional bladed weapons and other stuff

20 years being a carpenter/construction work, and now being a laborer at a cement plant, would do that to your hands too.

 

[Michael88]

Here is my 16th century flanged mace. This is true replica weapon and not a decorative piece.

This weapon gained huge popularity in the 15th and 16th century, when even regular foot soldiers wore heavy plate armor and swords were no longer very effective.

The mace was used one handed with a shield in the off hand. The head was spiky and featured many sharp edges to avoid glancing off plate armor, instead this kind of head would ''bite'' into armor and transfer all its energy into the target, severely injuring it through blunt force trauma. The shaft is hollow to shift the balance point towards the front for more impact energy.

I'm a big fan of medieval weaponry but I've always especially liked the flanged mace.

Also, here is a picture of an original, with a slightly different head shape.

 

[Dotini]

Receiving a lesson at Salle St. George, Seattle, 2015, from Madame Acosta-Martinez, visiting fencing maestro from New York City.

 

[SillyWilly]

If we would be discussing knives I would say Spyderco Autonomy makes great knives with Cold Steel in a close second,

 

[a6m5]

Never heard of this one before, but this is one of those times I wish I was in a market for something:

Gerber Downrange.

 

[a6m5]

*bump*

I apologize for the double post. This is a sales alert:

This is a slightly different version, but Gerber Downrange I had given up on just couple days ago was in my junk(e)mail from Botach this morning. Instead of $140-ish price range, $39.99!

Since I don't really need a pocket knife, I just decided to offer $35(shipped) & they took it. It seems to be decent to mediocre pocket knife at $140, but for $35, you guys also might be interested, too. 👍

Jokes on me: “Opening button doesn’t work , you can only open it manually”

Oh, well. This is what you get for reading emails at work.

Edit: All good again. It turns out that seller added the comment in there about "opening button" not working, because it's not a "opening button". Button is used to fold the knife, but I think Botach(seller) put that in there, because too many people see that button & assume it's an "automatic" knife. By design, this knife is an "assisted opening" knife & it works perfectly(Assisted-opening means you have to manually flick the blade out, using the thumbstud on the blade, then the blade swings open & locks).

 

[prousonhairy]

I'm glad I bought the knifes that I did. Now that I've caught the gun bug though, I don't see me spending a lot on knifes anymore.

 

[a6m5]

I'm glad I bought the knifes that I did. Now that I've caught the gun bug though, I don't see me spending a lot on knifes anymore.

You know you won't get argument from me on that!

 

[Blood Eagle]

@prousonhairy nice, but man your hands have seen better days

Also I found this cool channel on youtube that makes all these fictional bladed weapons and other stuff

Going to bump this. I've been watching a lot of these same type of videos lately and getting very interested in it. I have a lot of tools at my disposal but nothing in the way of forging equipment. I may get there someday but for now I've been watching videos about making Viking style battle axes out of regular axe heads. This is something I really want to do just as a hobby in my spare time. So I went ahead and bought an old rusted axe head from a seller on ebay for like $5 plus shipping.

I plan to do something like this with it.





I'll post the progress in this thread when I get around to it or even wait until it's finished and take lots of pictures and make one megapost for anyone interested. Pretty excited to be honest.

 

[Dotini]

After several years training with the French foil and Italian foil (twice a week), I've added the knife to my schedule of training. We use (dull) aluminum and plastic replica knives 6"-12" in length, and full protective gear. Very fun and interesting. Several years could be devoted to attaining mastery of this weapon, and I expect it to be part of my ongoing studies. I practice only under the supervision of a qualified maestro in classical weapons and martial arts.

 

[Blood Eagle]

Bought my wife a really nice set of kitchen knives for Christmas so now the ad bots are all about selling me knives and of course I'm an easy target so I buy them. Picked up a couple cheap Pakistani damascus knives. Beautiful knives and very sharp but there are some horror stories about Pakistani knives but plenty of good experiences as well and I think it all boils down to preference and also blade snobbery. I have many knives from old military bayonets to nice EDCs and some of the best knives I've ever had were cheap military knives because they are basically made of tool steel and so hard that they hold a good edge. We'll see if these do but honestly I wouldn't really care that much if they didn't because they were cheap (+/- $40).

 

[JockeP22]

I was browsing ebay for Buster Swords and found this incredibly expensive one
sold out of Mount Vernon, Ohio. Price is set to US $5,000.00.

But what caught my eye in particular was the shipping cost.
US $1,325.34 if I want it sent to me.

And the seller isn't providing very much info for someone who sells an item for
five thousand bucks. Two terribly grainy photos, one line of text and that's it.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Real-life-...911358?hash=item2397e03fbe:g:GPIAAOSwB09YIetZ

 

[AOS-]

I was browsing ebay for Buster Swords and found this incredibly expensive one
sold out of Mount Vernon, Ohio. Price is set to US $5,000.00.

But what caught my eye in particular was the shipping cost.
US $1,325.34 if I want it sent to me.

And the seller isn't providing very much info for someone who sells an item for
five thousand bucks. Two terribly grainy photos, one line of text and that's it.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Real-life-...911358?hash=item2397e03fbe:g:GPIAAOSwB09YIetZ

"Never Used". Well I sure hope it so!

There's a bunch of other listings I've seen selling a Buster Sword replica for a much different price if you're seriously interested.

Mind you a solid metal one would be a heavy item to store in your home, never mind the shipping charge.

 

[a6m5]

I'd give my feedback on the product, but I don't want to get banned over something so stupid.

 

[JohnBM01]

For my debut in this discussion, I am someone who is not a fan of certain weapons or firearms. However, I've always considered swords as one of my favorite weapons. I've had a practice sword which has decayed over the years but remains fairly useful. It used to be a foam practice sword that had a plastic cap to it. Ever since, the rubbery hilt remains, but the wood still fairly remains. I have seen a good amount of decorative swords that I found to be cool when I went to some flea markets and certain oddball stores at malls.

So... consider me a sword person.

 

[a6m5]

I'm not really into swords, but I do have a soft spot for nihon-to(samurai swords) & ........ light sabers.

 

[Dotini]

I'm making plans to attend the CombatCon first weekend of August at the Flamingo, Las Vegas. I'll be taking fencing and rapier classes and participating in the free fencing with Italian foil, but not participating in the saber and HEMA tournaments (this year). It's free and open to the public. Maybe I'll see you there?

 

[a6m5]

I’m so political......

There were reports my favorite knife company Benchmade was “caught” donating to same politicians who headed gun control efforts, and zero to Republicans altogether.

I decided to “bench” my Benchmade & get a different carry knife. This is what I ended up with:

Spoiler

I know, such a loser.

After weeks of searching, returning one Spyderco in the process(Amazon false advertising “Made in USA”), I couldn’t find anything I liked more than the Benchmade Griptilian I already was carrying.

I was close to ordering Zero Tolerance, but they had lock fail videos on YouTube which made me nervous, considering the price point.

My other Griptilian is drop point w/serration. This new one is with Sheepsfoot style blade.

 

[Dotini]

I just paid $759 for a custom-made fencing rapier, blade length 42". It'll take up to 10 weeks for it to be crafted. I must be daft to do such a thing. But somehow it made sense as time and circumstances come together.

general layout of Italian rapier

 

[Dotini]

As part of my academic matriculation to scholar, I will be giving a public exhibition of my fencing skill, form and composure the weekend of 23/24 November. Forum members are invited to attend. Food and beverages afterwards. PM me for details if you wish to attend.

 

[AOS-]

As part of my academic matriculation to scholar, I will be giving a public exhibition of my fencing skill, form and composure the weekend of 23/24 November. Forum members are invited to attend. Food and beverages afterwards. PM me for details if you wish to attend.

Yeah but let's ask the real question first: where are pics of that rapier? We've been waiting since May. Don't keep us hanging.

 

[Dotini]

Yeah but let's ask the real question first: where are pics of that rapier? We've been waiting since May. Don't keep us hanging.

Okay, I hear you. I've got a couple of problems, but they can both be overcome.
I received the rapier, actually slightly ahead of schedule. But when I presented it to my Maestro, he instantly whisked it away and gave it to the Armourer, Mr. Chin, whom he instructed to modify the weapon in accordance to his preferred blade stiffness and balance. Zut alors! Unhappily, the Armourer is totally over-booked up with numerous urgent duties and has not gotten around to the problem. Also the Maestro has no currently scheduled classes for Italian rapier, although they are in work. So it's hurry up and wait. The other problem is the photography and upload. If I set my mind to it, I could probably get a pic to the forum in maybe three weeks. There's a whole lot of other stuff going on so I've had it on the back burner. But, thanks to your interest, I will take it upon myself to get a pic up. In the meantime, here is a link to the maker of the weapon. https://castillearmory.com/product/build-your-own-rapier/

 

[Dotini]

My new Italian rapier. I have a few more pix if interested.

 

[Michael88]

My new Italian rapier. I have a few more pix if interested.

Very nice! Are those lightening cuts near the base of the blade or do those cuts help with the stability?