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Post by Bill Newton on May 3, 2022 17:13:52 GMT
I seem to recall having read something some years ago that there is/was rules regarding hanging a sword on your wall. It stated something to the effect there is rule dictating whether the blade edge faced up or down. I was an enlisted Marine and an officer of Marines and I want to hang my swords, can someone please enlighten me on this. Thanks.
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Post by randomnobody on May 3, 2022 17:26:16 GMT
I believe that's a matter of Japanese katana etiquette, rather than a rule for all swords.
Though a reason one might wish to keep the edge up is that, or the idea is, anyway, gravity will pull the edge into the core of the sheath/scabbard, which will damage the edge over time.
Otherwise, it doesn't really matter.
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Post by pellius on May 3, 2022 17:34:46 GMT
My anecdotal understanding is that the sword is displayed as it is worn. So tachi are displayed edge down, while katana and wakizashi are displayed edge up.
I’m not aware of any such specific tradition for European and American swords. If displayed horizontally, the hilts of non-symmetrical swords tend to make them hard to display edge up, though.
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Post by randomnobody on May 3, 2022 23:27:57 GMT
Ass side note, I have 13 swords currently up (horizontally) on the wall. Three katana, two double-edge European swords, two antique wakizashi, five "Khyber knives" and one yataghan. I also have four three-tier stands holding some old decorative katana from way back when.
All of the katana and wakizashi (tanto, too, for the decorative pieces) are on their racks edge-up, because that's the "proper" way for those specific swords, per Japanese etiquette.
As for the two double-edge swords, well, they're either neither or both, I guess?
My "Khyber knives" wouldn't fit in the rack edge-up, so they're edge-down. My yataghan wouldn't sit right, with its recurved blade and giant pommel, edge-up, so it's edge-down.
I have several other swords (a couple more katana, two shashka, two flyssa, and a seax) leaning against the wall, on the floor. Those I have oriented handle-up, edge to the wall, because that's how they balance best.
Sword display is ultimately a personal thing. Do it the way you think it looks best.
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pgandy
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Post by pgandy on May 4, 2022 14:43:07 GMT
It sounds like you were a mustang Newton and I invite you to join the forum and not to stand out there as a guest. You do not state the type of your sword(s). I can add nothing that hasn’t already been said about Japanese swords other than the tsuka is to the viewer’s left as. Others have chimed in on how they store theirs so here’s my 2¢ FWIW. I prefer storing mine sheathed in most cases as having those oversized razors all over the place makes me uneasy; that’s for the blade’s and people’s protection both. The exceptions are with steel scabbards as they dull a good cutting edge all too quickly. Space has become my main issue. My katanas and iaito stand vertically, the katanas in a stand and the iaito in a corner. My USMC sword sheathed, in its cloth sleeve lying flat onto top of my bookcase with others. Many are in wall racks. Two of my military sabres are edge up due to gravity w/o their steel scabbards. Six of my khukuris are on my desk, three in vertical stands and the others lying flat. Some swords and knives are hanging vertically on walls with cord from pegs. I have a machete sheathed behind me; the others are in closets along with more khukuris. There’s a bowie on the main dining table. The swordcanes are stored vertically in my cane racks along with the canes. There is a khukuri somewhere out there in never-never land leaving me with the question of where to put it on arrival?
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rschuch
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Sharp blades are good to have, if Shire-folk go walking, east, south, far away into dark and danger.
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Post by rschuch on May 4, 2022 17:28:49 GMT
At some point, it gets to displaying them as close together as possible, because it's not so much what's on display or how they're being displayed, but how much room do you have for what's NOT on display. I have a katana stand made for one that has three swords on it because I screwed brass hooks onto the base on either side. Desperate times, desperate measures.
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