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Posted on 05/03/2008 8:48:06 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog
Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!
Sing hey! for the bath at close of day
That washes the weary mud away!
A loon is he that will not sing:
O! Water Hot is anoble thing!
O! Sweet is the sound of falling rain.
and the brook that leaps from hill to plain;
but better than rain or rippling streams
is Water Hot that smokes and steams.
O! Water cold we may pour at need
down a thirsty throat and be glad indeed;
but better is Beer, if drink we lack,
and Water Hot poured down the back.
O! Water is fair that leaps on high
in a fountain white beneath the sky;
but never did fountain sound so sweet
as splashing Hot Water with my feet!
Got a precious! Very unusual for me.
Which is why the gun replaced everything else. And why the Europeans decided they should let the government take their guns for safekeeping.
That is an awfully cool hobby! And a great way to spend more money on beautiful deadly things.
Good morning! This is real rain coming down now... been coming down all night. We may actually get the pasture to turn green with this.
Looks like you picked a bad week to haul dirt...
Yep. Too darn wet. Oh well.
No, I don't think I've seen it... sounds interesting. And I don't personally have anything in particular against the rapier. I don't know enough yet to have an educated opinion... but just that some of the old German masters didn't care for it much. The Italians loved it. Our club is developing a curriculum for it.
OK, I do know where to begin, after all. I may not know much yet but one of the first things I learned was that you never intentionally parry edge-on-edge, with any sword. This is the biggest single mistake you'll see made in movies and staged productions. That's what those guys were doing too. And yeah, that's why they'd break swords. Especially if they were using brittle stainless stage props.
Imagine taking two of your best chef's knives... put one on the counter sharp edge up and hit it hard with the edge of another, over and over. What's going to happen? Of course, you're going to have two ruined blades with massive nicks and chips in them. It may not even be fixable. The nicks will create weak spots and it will likely eventually break at one of them. A sword in medieval times cost many months' wages, perhaps like buying a car today. To let that kind of damage happen on purpose is unthinkable.
Instead, what you'd train to do is to parry with the ~flat~ of the blade. Just turn it slightly and meet his edge with your flat. A sword will flex when hit on the flat, like a leaf spring. It gives a little and cushions the blow, plus it is spread across a wide area. You can do this over and over all day without nicking or chipping either one. It may dull a little, but any dulling can easily be resharpened. So simple, yet so often ignored.
This is supported by archaeological evidence. Most ancient swords recovered in digs, if the steel survived at all, tend not to show many nicks or chips in the edges or stress fractures from same.
Titanium would be absurdly light weight and super whippy. It wouldn't handle or feel anything like a real sword. That's just goofy.
Well, like the old saying goes:
"Those who live by the sword, get shot by those who don't."
:-)
I like that....
Heh...when I was little, we were hooked on Robin Hood and also “The Boy’s King Arthur”, which I actually just had out. Pretty brutal, that one. Pages of detailed head bashing and bowel spilling. Lovely.
It’s interesting that even all these centuries later, there is still so much appeal to the old tales of knights and kings, lords and ladies, sword play and archery....
There were horror stories from my college's production of "Camelot." The used wooden swords as props.
One night Lancelot slipped and Arthur almost lost his head...literally.
Actually, it's a buck-and-a-quarter quarterstaff...
It is certainly that. :-)
[snicker]
Jackson was at the office when Animal Control picked up Phoenix, the Rhodesian Ridgeback. Honest!!
LSA
Poor Phoenix...
Oh no...did he manage to jump the fence again?
Poor Phoenix....
I don’t know how Phoenix escaped; our repaired fence is just fine so he didn’t make it out through our yard. I think he’s just so darn bored, he’s a big dog in a 6 foot wooden enclosure about 8 x 40. He can’t see anything except through a chain link gate that leads to another fenced in area.
One day last month he and the pit bull broke through into our neighbor’s backyard and were having the best time just running and rolling in the grass and chasing each other. I left a head’s up on my neighbor’s front door so they wouldn’t just send their 8 year old out to play. The naybor’s dogs had the good sense to stay in the basement while Phoenix and the pit were in their backyard.
LSA
Jackson....
Phone skilz...he haz them.
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