Useless knife

[pistol1911]

I had to have because of the price.Great display item.

[Mogorilla]

I wouldn't say useless, just too pretty to use.

[Forty Rod]

Aw, what the hell.  I'll give you ten bucks for it and pay the shipping myself.  I reckon it'll do to slice cheese.  Besides, I like the way it looks.   

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[Delmonico]

A very nice piece.  With that said I will also add this, even though I know there are some here that don't agree with me, it ould be a very nice knife for a pre-Civil War personna, but the lack of documentation showing or mentioning folks carrying a specific fighting knife in this post-Civil War era most of us here depecit, in my mind makes it as out of place as a flint-lock pistol. 

[pistol1911]

I forgot to mention knife is 18 inches long with a 11.5 inch blade.

[KidTerico]

P 1911 that great looking knife. Good for you.KT

[James-G]

That looks Great.

[WaddWatsonEllis]

I forgot to mention knife is 18 inches long with a 11.5 inch blade.


That is not a knife, that is a short sword *S* .... the sword the Roman soldiers carried, called a gladius, was only about 25" (60 cm) .... and the short dagger sword (Katana) of a two bladed Samurai was about 24" ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladius

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katana

[Professor Marvel]

I forgot to mention knife is 18 inches long with a 11.5 inch blade.


That is not a knife, that is a short sword *S* .... the sword the Roman soldiers carried, called a gladius, was only about 25" (60 cm) .... and the short dagger sword (Katana) of a two bladed Samurai was about 24" ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladius

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katana

Good point, my Dear Wad-
not to cut too too fine a point, but the more appropriate Japanese blade comparison would be to the wakizashi (between about 1 and 2 feet in length) ,  shōtō , or kodachi  (also mentioned in the wiki article) . These are the blades considered "longer than a knife, but shorter than a sword".

The difficulty in distinction comes about through a combination of difficulty of interpreting the archaic Japanese phrases, and the specifications of the era. The most accurate things we have to use are the post Muromachi period edicts banning the carrying of blades longer than a specific length in the archaic traditional Japanese units of shaku, sun and bu.

The kodachi specifically is a shorter sword allowed to the merchant class, it;s length is between 1shakuー2sun and 2 shaku but limited to no more than 2 shaku in length. It has more curve and a longer handle than the wakazishi.

The wakizashi was made as a part of a matched pair: wakizashi & katana

And of course, the wakizashi, shoto, and katana, whilst conforming to general norms, were also made to the specifications or whim of both the maker and the buyer much as today :-)

The confusion is compounded by the fact that the Kanji these things are written in is often misread by us poor dumb gaijin.

for example:

kodachi, when written 小太刀 means little tachi

kodachi, when written 木太刀 means "wooden sword"

(the tachi is the archaic war sword, generally distinguished from the katana by a different curve and the fact that it is carrried edge down suspended by rings from a sword belt)

yhs
prof marv

[Regret Chancy]

1911,
   Thats an awesome looking piece. It only would fall into the useless category if it has no edge, will hold no edge, or is dull. Those categories describe a screwdriver in my opinion.
                                                                    Refret Chancy

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Professor,

As usual, I bow to your knowledge .... the  wakizashi was what I was thinking of ... the short 'sword' that was used for close in work and to parry a slicing from a sword that got by the Samurai's principal weapon ....I think it was used late in Samurai history in a two handed technique not unlike how a midieval person might use his dagger in a two handed technique to assist his rapier

I also think that those 'short swords' were what our modern katanas came from ....

[kflach]

Delmonico,

Teach me...

I love the look of this knife. Is there something about the shape of its blade that makes it not period-correct, or is it the construction material and size? If I (in my wildest dreams) had someone make a 7-9" blade shaped exactly like this but with non-Damascus steel and maybe a coffin handle, would it be PC?

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Pistol1911,

The only thing I would comment about is that the snap is an obvious give-away. Snaps were not patented until sometime after 1900 ... I would talk to any of the excellent leatherworkers on our leatherworking site to have some kind of drawstring cinch put on as the safety on the knife .....

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

Pistol1911,

The only thing I would comment about is that the snap is an obvious give-away. Snaps were not patented until sometime after 1900 ... I would talk to any of the excellent leatherworkers on our leatherworking site to have some kind of drawstring cinch put on as the safety on the knife .....

  Wad , snaps came about in 1886, they were made in Germany, and were seen here before the end of the eighteen hundreds.


                     Regards

                   tEN wOLVES 

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Ten Wolves,

Thanks for the correction; I was under the idea that snaps were not patented until affter 1920 ... don't know where I got that ....

[pistol1911]

Well maybe not totally useless.I cut up a whole ribeye yesterday.Knife worked well.The only reason I bought the knife was price,$75.I can make a buck or two by selling it at the next gun show.

[Shotgun Franklin]

A nicer piece of leather work would help the price some.

[Delmonico]

Delmonico,

Teach me...

I love the look of this knife. Is there something about the shape of its blade that makes it not period-correct, or is it the construction material and size? If I (in my wildest dreams) had someone make a 7-9" blade shaped exactly like this but with non-Damascus steel and maybe a coffin handle, would it be PC?

Besides the Damascus being pretty rare in the time period, it's more of a fighting knife.  After the revolver got popular the knife as a back up almost died out and tended to get much smaller in most cases.  This is pretty much true with Cacasions, Indians and esp those in the SW of Hispanic desent did more often carry a knife and tended to fight with it rather than a pistol. 

As for a smaller version that would be about the right size and shape for what most folks call a hunting knife, a jack of all trades, master of none, but a useful tool.  Even though not the ideal shape for all tasks a decent one to gut a deer, cut it up into eatable pieces, peel a few taters, cut a rope, or poles to build a shelter.

[kflach]

Thanks!