Zoë
Registered
Posts: 167
|
Post by Zoë on Apr 4, 2011 19:20:25 GMT
Hey all, Just wondering why everybody started sword collecting? Other than the fact that it's AWESOME.  Personally I've ALWAYS loved fantasy and that led naturally to swords. (My brother and I used to 'sword fight' with sticks in our backyard - soooo many bruises, but it was so fun!) I could never justify spending the money though, until I started getting more serious about writing. I can't write about using a sword unless I have in real life, now can I? (Granted, I've never flown on a dragon or been trapped in the body of a unicorn either. Crap.) |
|
|
|
Post by Adrian Jordan on Apr 4, 2011 19:37:30 GMT
I grew up on martial arts movies, games, books ect. and have always loved samurai's and samurai swords and just Japanese culture and history in general. As I got older my interest only grew. I also couldn't justify the expenditure as we are poor and always have been, but in the last few years the big boom in affordable, functional swords has made it possible to get them with out sinking the ship. Now I get them every chance I get, and love to come on to the forum to talk about them with others. Oh, and as far as scraps with brothers, I've got two and yeah, there were a few bruises/broken bones in there.
|
|
Talon
Member
Senior Forumite
Posts: 2,554
|
Post by Talon on Apr 4, 2011 19:43:06 GMT
good question ,and not so easy for me to answer,i collect swords for a lot of reasons,i always loved sword movies when i was a kid,so part of it is becuase now i can,(i always remember when i was 13 going into the local gunshop and handling what i thought was a real ninja sword) i dreamt about that sword for months,never got to own it ,just aswell it was a cheap 440 stainless slo,BUT, i loved it :lol: now i can collect real functional very accurate representations,the swords dead as a tool of war,but i love those times for the simplicity of man on man ,skill vs skill,the fact that (to me) the sword is both a deadly weapon ,and a consumate art object a simple piece of steel holds all the old values of chivalry,honour,and a time when things were settled in a much more honest (albeit hideously bloody way) i realise im looking through welders goggles here  and they are just so cool ,hell even the name sounds good , SWORD, sometimes i think i really should get out more |
|
|
|
Post by Vincent Dolan on Apr 4, 2011 19:46:21 GMT
Just 'cause I've never decapitated or violently gutted someone doesn't mean I can't write about it. :lol:
My reasons for being a fan of swords (not a collector yet, on account of being skint broke) are several, but mostly it's just because holding them just feels right. There's no real thinking about what to do with them. Plus, a properly made sword... It's a thing of beauty, no matter what style you like (Japanese, Chinese, Euro, Middle Eastern, etc.).
I know it's kinda cheesy, but I also grew up watching Power Rangers; when I was a kid, I could boast that, with a single exception, I had everyone of the MegaZords from every series, as well as most of the toy weapon sets. It may be super exaggerated and complete fantasy, but that show probably had the greatest impact on introducing me to swords. It got me wanting to see what real swords were like.
|
|
Zoë
Registered
Posts: 167
|
Post by Zoë on Apr 4, 2011 19:57:19 GMT
Riiiiiiiiight... there is that. My husband (a farmer) was talking about (I'm pretty sure he was joking) bringing me home a dead pig... lol. For sure you can write about things you haven't actually DONE, but it gave me an excuse to get a sword. And another one. And another one. And... :lol: I just know as somebody who grew up with horses, all too often the writing about horses in fantasy books is SOOOOOO bad and to anyone who actually knows what they're talking about you can't take the author seriously after that. I just didn't want to be like that with swords! |
|
ecovolo
Senior Forumite
Retired Moderator
Posts: 2,074
|
Post by ecovolo on Apr 4, 2011 20:01:02 GMT
Same here. Even since I saw "Conan The Barbarian" with Arnold Schwarzenegger, I always had a fascination with the fantasy genre-- this included swords, hand-to-hand weaponry, and their uses.
--Edward
|
|
Sean (Shadowhowler)
VIP Reviewer
Retired Moderator
No matter where you go, there you are.
Posts: 8,828
|
Post by Sean (Shadowhowler) on Apr 4, 2011 20:08:11 GMT
Conan did it to me too... other movies followed... Highlander, Excalibur... and then there was being a comic book collector and artist (I used to produce my own comic book... thought I would break into the industry... till a tragic sadness changed that but that's another story.) RPG gaming... lots of D&D and Vampire and Cyberpunk. I also studied the martial arts and competed in tournaments for a time, but I was less interested in weapons and more in empty hand technique then. And of course books I read... the LotR's, Dragonlance, Anytthing and everything by Steven Brust... It all goes back to Conan tho...
|
|
|
|
Post by Neil G. on Apr 4, 2011 20:09:40 GMT
Having grown up on military bases in Germany I was exposed to the twin evils of Fantasy Roleplaying Games (you know the one, rhymes with Truncheons and Flagons) and lots of chances to see actual, honest to goodness medieval blades. So yeah, the attraction was immediate and I've been kinda infatuated with them ever since. My parents, god bless their insane lil' hearts, even went so far as to buy me a smallish wall-hanger copy of "Tizona" the sword of El Cid while on vacation in Spain... when I was 9 years old. It didn't have an edge at all, but it was awfully pointy. In retrospect I think it was just stamped out of sheet metal becasue it had no taper or blade profile that I can recall. Anyway, these days I'm pretty sure that giving a 9 year old something that quite easily can go through them qualifies as criminal negligence or something, but I'm happy that they did, 'cause I learned two important lessons: 1, I do so love swords, actual swords, not just the idea of them. 2, wall hangers are not beaters (or even functional for that matter). Oh and yeah, that sword lasted only a few months. First the cast crossguard started breaking, then the rat-tail holding the pommell snapped and the entire thing came apart. Ultimately it wound up with a bunch of duct tape wrapped around the bottom 4" or so of the blade to make a grip of sorts and it still kept me entertained for days on end.
|
|
|
|
Post by Bryn on Apr 4, 2011 20:15:30 GMT
For me, it was that a lot of the literature I read as a kid featured a sword as the chief tool of the hero. After enough Brian Jaques, Dumas, and Arthurian legends, I'm surprised I didn't get a sword sooner. Swords have always held for me that sort of romantic ideal, even as I've learned to objectively evaluate them for what they are (tools for butchering someone else).
Now I just appreciate them for their ability to be a symbol, as well as their raw potential. Holding a good sword is like a holding a coiled spring, it's just waiting to be used. That feeling is addictive.
Also, Nice avatar. Pella is one of my more favorite characters from LFG.
|
|
|
|
Post by Enkidu on Apr 4, 2011 21:01:01 GMT
I could almost copy-paste Shadow's answer, except the part where he was doing is own comic book ( i was collecting and selling them.. yeah, i was the comic book guy of my little town and instead of making a comic book i was editor in chief of a rpg related publication, God thats geek... ) and that martial arts career was pretty lame and ended at 10years old after a tournament where the 15 years old Sensei's kid knocked me out.
Always had a fascination for ancient history and warfare... so... it came naturally i guess as a logical pursuit of my past hobbies !
|
|
|
|
Post by chrisperoni on Apr 4, 2011 21:18:32 GMT
Like many Conan had a great influence on me. Even before that I loved medieval tales and collected knight figurines with interchangeable swords, shields, flails and axes. I would watch my older brother play video games with swords in them, and read his rpg books (mostly just look at the pics). As he began to get into japanese blades I followed.
SBG has brought me back to the euro blade and expanded my interest al around.
|
|
|
|
Post by LittleJP on Apr 4, 2011 21:28:40 GMT
I wanted to own a sabre after taking up fencing, one thing led to another, and bam, I've sunk several thousand into this hobby.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2011 22:32:58 GMT
Speaking of getting out of the house more... Zoe, I can't believe you've never been trapped in the body of a unicorn. Hasn't everyone?
|
|
|
|
Post by xenobuzz on Apr 4, 2011 23:20:19 GMT
Lesseeee. . . Well, my list is really the usual suspects: The original Star Wars trilogy. "Excalibur" - I'll be haunting the classifieds for a previously owned Gen 2 version of this when I have the gold. "The Sword & The Sorcerer" Right, talon? Crazy design, but then the whole movie's crazy! "Rambo III" - with that massive but awesome Hibben design. "Predator" - love, luv, lurv that machete! Waiting to hear back from Chris at Scorpion Swords & Knives on a custom of it! The Lord of the Rings trilogy books and films. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" - The Green Destiny is a gorgeous sword, but so is that big, beefy monster Michelle Yeoh busts out in the courtyard battle. Probably my favorite sword fight of any kind in any film. If anyone can recommend comparable or even better choreographed and filmed sword action, I'd LOVE to know about it! That's all I can think of for now, but I'm sure more will occur to me later tonight! I've been taking a class at a fencing academy in San Francisco on stage combat using LED lightsabers for two months now, so swords have REALLY been on the brain a lot lately! Winning two Hasbro Force FX lightsabers in an online building contest at ThinkGeek.com is what put me on the lightsaber path. Here's a shot of all of them:   When I realized that these were pretty but not durable enough for dueling, I got these: .JPG) These were custom assembled by Ultrasabers using parts from The Custom Saber Shop. They have official Hasbro Force FX sound boards in them, so you get the groovy sound. However, even better is that the blade has no LED's inside. There is only one inside the hilt. So you lose the extension/retraction lighting effect, but you gain maximum durability. More than an even trade, IMHO. .JPG) There are SO many customization options if you've got the credits! .JPG)  Dave S. |
|
Greg
Senior Forumite
Posts: 1,800
|
Post by Greg on Apr 5, 2011 0:59:16 GMT
At a young age I fell in love with the romanticized Knight. Honorable, noble, helping tho's that can not help themselves. I've more or less build up my core self on these ideals. So owning and handling a sword reconnects me with that time of my life when everything was right or wrong and there was no grey areas or uncertainty.
|
|
Daniel Dacombe
Member
Company Representative - Ronin Katana
Posts: 4,162
|
Post by Daniel Dacombe on Apr 5, 2011 1:26:23 GMT
Like many others here it was the movies and books I was into... Dragonlance, D&D, but also some classics like The Once and Future King, LOTR, Beowulf, and the like. Hearing stories about family history that included knights in shining armour certainly helped too! I don't know if there is a single defining moment I could point to, but I do recall being shown pictures of castles that were still in our clan's possession and immediately asking for a Lego castle set. That could have done it.  |
|
SeanF
Member
Posts: 1,293
|
Post by SeanF on Apr 5, 2011 2:48:48 GMT
Video Games I grew up playing Final Fantasy games (which despite the name is considerably different than the Tolkien-esq 'High Fantasy' that most fantasy blades are modeled around) each of which involves your character going through like 20 different swords over the course of their adventure. So all my life I have been thinking swords are cool. I don't recall a time I ever wouldn't have been interested in sword ownership, but I had no idea they were so affordable. I knew all about the wall hanger katana sets you can buy, and although I didn't know anything about swords I knew that I wouldn't trust swinging something that cheap at a physical target. I was under the impression that a real good high quality usable sword would run me $1,000 or more. (A high quality crowbar at work costs $200) This was something I would have probably been willing to pay, but I am SUPER hard on everything I own and I really had no interest in wrecking a $1000 sword. Then I found SBG and three months later I own five blades with two more on the way. |
|
|
|
Post by Johan Elder on Apr 5, 2011 2:56:00 GMT
Much the same as many people. Elementary school reading The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, .. The Black Cauldron.
Moving on to the Dragonlance books, Drizzt series ...... has anyone here ever read Tros of Samothrace? Precursor to Conan I think. Of course there was the Conan graphic novels as well as heavy metal and a bunch of medieval stories and history. As well as lots of D&D.
My brother and i and friends did a fair amount of sparring with wooden swords we made and just sticks for several years, but not until recently having the idea rekindled, for the umpteenth time, did I do enough web searching to find out what's out there and get my first real sword.
And, as Greg mentioned, the code of the knight or samurai, honor and courage, upholding freedom and protecting the weak, were always very attractive.
I don't know if it genetic memory or something but a sword does feel right in the hand somehow.
|
|
SeanF
Member
Posts: 1,293
|
Post by SeanF on Apr 5, 2011 3:08:51 GMT
Oh, I guess I should have mentioned that as well. Lots of my friends and I whacking each other with sticks when we were younger. |
|
|
|
Post by armchairwarrior on Apr 5, 2011 4:31:52 GMT
Ever since I got The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the N64 when I was 12. The idea of just a lad, a sturdy shield, a trusty blade and his wits versus the world really struck a tone with me.
If it were possible today, I would totally become a knight-errant.
|
|
