# What’s a cool looking knife or sword



## psilent child (Mar 2, 2018)

I’m thinking about collecting knives and sword.What type of blade weapons do you like. I don’t plan on using it, just collecting.


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## drop bear (Mar 2, 2018)

I like some of the iconic ones. With a bit of story attached. So maybe a smachet. That was used in the trenches of one of the world wars.


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## Martial D (Mar 2, 2018)

psilent child said:


> I’m thinking about collecting knives and sword.What type of blade weapons do you like. I don’t plan on using it, just collecting.


I have a pretty good collection.

My favorite sword is my Carlos V longsword.


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## Anarax (Mar 2, 2018)

I have a Damascus steel Gladius that was hand forged in the middle east, a cold steel hand and a half sword, various fencing sabers and too many knives to list.


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## Dirty Dog (Mar 2, 2018)

These. These are the ones I kept back when I was making blades. I gave others as gifts or prizes.
My favorite is the matching ivory-hilted rapier and dagger set, but the Templars sword (the bastard sword with the black grip) is also a winner. My preference is largely biased by the fact that I'm much better with a rapier than the earlier-period swords. And much better with rapier and dagger than rapier alone.
I did not make the smallsword with the gold hilt, and of the three small daggers, the only one I made is the stiletto.


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## hoshin1600 (Mar 3, 2018)

I have to agree with others, I have a good collection of blades but most mean nothing to me. It's not the blade it's the background and story behind it.


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## Flying Crane (Mar 3, 2018)

I made hilts and scabbards for a while, and I tended to get sentimental about a piece after I put a good many hours of work into them.

That being said, quality over style any day.  The piece has to be well made, out of good materials.  Those fancy swords made of junk, I’ve got no use for them.


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## psilent child (Mar 5, 2018)

Where did you all buy them?


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## Flying Crane (Mar 5, 2018)

psilent child said:


> Where did you all buy them?


A fair number of mine were Chinese imports through martial arts supply shops.  Those tend to be cheap and low quality, but some were just good enough quality to justify using for practice and experience with rebuilding.  My good ones came from Angus Trim, who was making European swords from good materials.  I believe he is no longer in business.

Check out Albion in Wisconsin for European swords.

Check out Wing Lam Enterprises for Chinese swords.  He does some custom work as well, or at least used to.

Also check Christian Fletcher, he does custom work on Albion swords and makes hilts and scabbards.  Very nice stuff.

The good stuff is not cheap.


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## Blindside (Mar 5, 2018)

Flying Crane said:


> A fair number of mine were Chinese imports through martial arts supply shops.  Those tend to be cheap and low quality, but some were just good enough quality to justify using for practice and experience with rebuilding.  My good ones came from Angus Trim, who was making European swords from good materials.  I believe he is no longer in business.
> 
> Check out Albion in Wisconsin for European swords.
> 
> ...



Gus is actually in business on a small scale, I saw him at a HEMA tournament in November hawking his blades.

Angus Trim


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## Flying Crane (Mar 5, 2018)

Blindside said:


> Gus is actually in business on a small scale, I saw him at a HEMA tournament in November hawking his blades.
> 
> Angus Trim


Awesome, I’m glad to know that.  I occasionally did a google search for him but couldn’t find anything to indicate he was in business.


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## Blindside (Mar 5, 2018)

psilent child said:


> I’m thinking about collecting knives and sword.What type of blade weapons do you like. I don’t plan on using it, just collecting.



I like collecting blades in general, but more swords than knives, my knives tend to be functional rather than for some collectible interest.  I have some modern Filipino blades for practice and then a bunch of antiques to give me a clue what the historical blades felt like compared to their modern versions.  This picture has two modern blades in it and the remainder are antiques.  I do have a variety of antique sabers and the obligatory functional katana.  I would second Christian Fletcher, his cutler work is amazing, I would also recommend Arms & Armor as a general supplier of quality western blades. Arms & Armor


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## drop bear (Mar 5, 2018)

psilent child said:


> Where did you all buy them?



EBay.

Otherwise valiantco knives have some fun stuff.


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## drop bear (Mar 5, 2018)

world.html


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## lklawson (Mar 19, 2018)

psilent child said:


> I’m thinking about collecting knives and sword.What type of blade weapons do you like. I don’t plan on using it, just collecting.


Find a price point; what you're willing to pay.  Think of what sort of ethnic extraction (European, Japanese, whatever).  Think of what sort of time frame interests you.

For example, there are some people who collect WWII blades and some who collect WWI blades, and some who collect WWI Trench Knives (as opposed to bayonets).  Some collect cutlasses.  Some collect machete.  

We don't know what you like, what interests you, or how much money you want to spend.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk


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## Oni_Kadaki (Apr 19, 2018)

To me, the katana will always be the end-all, be-all example of beautiful bladecraft. That being said, I've also long held a fascination with the karambit, and newer, out-the-front automatic knives also tickle my fancy. But then, the latter two are more practical in nature and not as collectible.


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## drop bear (Apr 20, 2018)

condor has an interesting collection of just kind of cool stuff. Not neccesarily authentic though but cheap and functional.






The Otzi knife as an example.


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