LeMal
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Post by LeMal on Feb 14, 2024 15:39:52 GMT
What, nobody gonna chime in on cannabis strains? (And/or homegrown fungi?)
Let's just keep it legal, please...
S'il vous plaît. On me prête attention et je ne veux pas que d'autres personnes aient des ennuis. Je demande aux gens de ne rien publier d'illégal
Not to be that guy, but it is very legal (within certain bounds) in many places, including here in Nevada. (And before legality was still legal to discuss the botany of.)
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LeMal
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Post by LeMal on Feb 14, 2024 15:33:05 GMT
Looks exactly the same. Ever cut anything with it? A few light water bottles. Worked well. Yeah, pretty much the same, except--it's hard to see in the pic--the shaft is rectangular, as I said earlier an old hockey stick. Fit nicely into the socket just with gaps, so I filled them with my beloved analogue to pitch--high strength hot melt adhesive.
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LeMal
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Post by LeMal on Feb 14, 2024 8:37:17 GMT
That Hungarian axe is actually quite similar. Thanks for the link. LeMal did you take that pic? Sorry, took a little more digging through storage than I thought to get the thing out! But here's a quick pic. imgur.com/gallery/U1v53LQ
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LeMal
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Post by LeMal on Feb 14, 2024 8:23:20 GMT
I'd be curious of the results of trying pewter. (And seems a safer experiment.)
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LeMal
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Post by LeMal on Feb 14, 2024 8:18:53 GMT
No one mentioned that the person with the girlfriend in the bumper sticker might be a fetching woman as well. (And said husband be very, very happy with that.)
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LeMal
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Posts: 1,091
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Post by LeMal on Feb 14, 2024 8:14:36 GMT
What, nobody gonna chime in on cannabis strains? (And/or homegrown fungi?) ;)
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LeMal
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Posts: 1,091
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Post by LeMal on Feb 14, 2024 8:12:27 GMT
Yup. Buy one of the larger Xmas tree stands (or wait a few days, every thrift store will have a bunch cheap ) for a base and with a plastic pipe you're set, been doing that for almost 30 years. For portable versions, photo tripods are great, just have to give it a small flat platform at the top. I used a photo tripod with a piece of wood screwed to the camera mount. Worked great until I missed a cut, hit the metal of the tripod leg bracket and rolled the edge on my longsword and destroyed the tripod. In the garbage the remains of the tripod went, and I built a wood stand for less than $10. Sword was repaired by putting a new edge on it but dammit! At least wood wont roll an edge. Just as Stabby said, easily prevented by yanking the camera mount on and putting a piece of PVC pipe up from the tripod to a small platform. My PVC extensions are about 6-8 inches. Gotta really botch a cut to mistakenly hit that low. ;P
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LeMal
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Post by LeMal on Feb 10, 2024 19:31:18 GMT
Did the exact same thing a few years back! Will try to post a pic as soon as I get home to take one. (Also from a dirt cheap "BudK" style blade from a pawn shop, cost maybe 15 bucks.)
Also, good tip for those who don't like round handles and want something else for indexing the edge, it was the first polearm where I repurposed an old hockey stick. Since then I've realized they work great, and have become my go-to, especially with some added steel langets and/or a glued fabric or rawhide wrap.
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LeMal
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Post by LeMal on Feb 3, 2024 19:54:10 GMT
If you're dead set on an Albion Next Gen, on that front you're not going to beat the Caithness. I'm not set on an Albion, they're just more familiar and available. E.g., I'd love to get a Sulowski XII but there's not many around. I would prefer something I haven't had before. Past Albions I've owned were St. Maurice, Vigil, Templar, Caithness, another Sovereign, Squire, Knud, Ritter, Vinland, Gotland, Clontarf, Thegn, Jarl, Berskerker, and Huskarl. Right now I just have the Count, Tritonia, and this Sovereign. Most of my current collection are one-offs from A&A, Maciej, Sulowski, Helmes, McHugh, Miller, Pikula and some lower end blunts. I've been collecting for over 20 years. Guess I should show my collection here some time now that MyArmoury is...not what it used to be. Actually, my apologies! For some reason I realize I hadn't run the number on the Oakeshott, and it is a smidgen less. Probably the "lightest" of the Next Gens at that, but I'd have to either dig up some really old file or run them again to verify. :) (Not that it isn't, ahem, ridiculously easy to do, and an ongoing case among sword geekery of mountains out of molehills. There was an, er, rather contentious thread last year in which I was "disciplined" before I could mention that my little and very old "swingweight" method of [total weight/total length]*PoB was merely a slight adjustment to what George Turner's noted paper pointed out a little later is the simple algebraic method for tip inertia. I.e. [total weight/length}*PoB. Not that Turner himself mixed overcomplicating things at times, which is why I don't just jump to laud him either; but damn, it's not like anyone has to either use LeChevalier's "Weapons Dynamics Computer"--which still relies on a reference point if you want a MoI and might as well be tip inertia!--or go by fuzzy subjective impressions alone. :p )
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LeMal
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Post by LeMal on Feb 3, 2024 1:29:57 GMT
Have you thought about an Albion Oakeshott (Xa)? I have one and I think it’s light and really beautiful…not sure I’d want to part with mine, but might consider if you think it would fit your interests. (No scabbard with mine, so I’d throw in some cash or maybe an additional trade item.) Good luck! Yes, the Oakeshott is interesting, or Chevalier with same blade. Never had those ones and many people say they're floaters. What happened is I've developed a pinched nerve in my upper back. I'm having physio, but need to swing something sharp! If you're dead set on an Albion Next Gen, on that front you're not going to beat the Caithness.
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LeMal
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Post by LeMal on Jan 27, 2024 19:30:13 GMT
This quote seems apropos to this thread now... “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.” ― Oscar Wilde To which Billy Shakespeare (in anticipation/prescience) replied: "If there be nothing new, but that which is Hath been before, how are our brains beguiled, Which, laboring for invention, bear amiss The second burden of a former child... O, sure I am the wits of former days To subjects worse have given admiring praise." But then one might well argue that Billy, unlike Wilde, didn't as much posture about his own supposed greatness.
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LeMal
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Post by LeMal on Jan 26, 2024 16:05:58 GMT
How did this thread degenerate into a: "Let's bash on Peter Johnsson" session? For what's it worth I would say that he's one of the biggest contributors to the modern sword replica market and without his work, things might look different today. I have nothing but the greatset respect for his work and design skills. So I would say, if the man wants to complain in an online forum about some company doing a design very similar to something he designed, then let him vent. It's not like he's suing some manufacturer out of existence. I have been working as an industrial designer for over 20 years and I can tell you the devil is in the details. There's nothing out there that hasn't been done before so all you do is subtle variations on some already existing object, but those subtle variations are exactly what make a design good or mediocre and there's not exact way to quantify it, sometimes it's the volume distribution, or how a feature line transitions into a volume but the unique differences are there and they do matter. If you squint your eyes a sword is a sword (of symilar typology) but if you start analyzing the subtle differences I find myself liking the Peter Johnsson designs a lot more than other mass market manufacturer of a similar type. If anybody thinks that other manufacturers don't look at Albion swords and nudge their developmnet team to "take a good look" at what Albion did with this or that model they are sorely mistaken (that's how any industry works). I bought the Cold Steel Kriegsmesser exactly because it looks like the Albion Knecht which I would rather have but isn't available anymore (which I guess makes me guilty of supporting plagiarism... so call me a hypocrite if you will) but in the end I am fully acknowledging Peter Johnsson's right to complain if he feels like some other manufacturer ripped off his designs. (not that any complaining will stop future plagiarism at any time) "...those subtle variations are exactly what make a design good or mediocre..." Then, as I said above, are you asserting that what the alleged ripoffs that the other makers copied are the functionally, dynamically relevant ones that Johnsson himself had simply catalogued and copied?? OR... That his minuscule contributions that make them not a copy of any particular extant historical sword, that are merely aesthetic, make these artistically original--but the minuscule aesthetic changes someone then makes to his design don't make them "original" enough? Can't have it both ways, dude. Unless your argument is really "...he's one of the biggest contributors to the modern sword replica market..." and out of "respect my authoritah," for his time and efforts, even his miniscule-ly "original" swork should be sacrosanct. In which case, sure, he has every right of free speech to try to cry plagiarism. And those of us who see groundless whining on his part--and social issues of paying homage to an old big name "in the club" being the crux of arguments defending him--have every right of free speech to reply such.
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LeMal
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Post by LeMal on Jan 26, 2024 8:51:49 GMT
And let's not even get into the larger scale/longer term hypocrisy of "You're BAD. Your swords aren't real swords--they're inferior because you don't use the exact proportions for proper dynamics/handling as me."
"Ok, I'll improve mine by using the same proportions as you."
"You're BAD. For copying me."
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LeMal
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Post by LeMal on Jan 26, 2024 8:46:42 GMT
Yes, they are "fantasy", where they aren't direct copies of existing swords. Actually, all modern swords are fantasies, even the ones that claim to be museum reproductions, jut to a lesser degree. Let's look at the analogy in graphical design, something Peter Johnsson is actually trained as, and I think that's how he also sees his designs. Let's say you are commissioned to draw Saint George slaying a dragon. You look at medieval artwork as a reference, but mainly you use an actual existing armour, let's say Maximillian's KHM A62. And his messer and scabbard. You pose him similar to medieval examples, but you use your knowledge as an artist to actually draw it in that exact pose. Is that drawing your copyrighted work, or can anyone use it, since you used medieval elements, and not your own? Can someone just use your drawing, but change the helmet for an armet, change sword and scabbard, and claim it as his work? Could you defend it by saying you can't know every artwork featuring Saint George, so you can't prove the artist of the copy saw the original - although the original is a famous book cover? Must now every artist look at other drawings and deliberately avoid them before starting work? Yea it doesn't work that way. An artists rendition is not the same as a replica. Had that artist made a 1:1 copy of the orginal "mural" of St George then it is not fantasy or able to he copyright. Same with Peter or any smith's work that is set to replicate a historical original. Either or your argument further cements the opposite of what you're trying to prove. Because if Peter's swords aren't 1:1 replicas of historical originals as he and both Albion tout, then it's irrelevant regardless because each smith's rendition of said historical or historical based sword is skewed because each one has minor to major differences in shape, geometry and general design. Same can be said between the two Kreigmesser being debated here and claimed plagiarizing by Peter. Again if that's Peter's supposed defense and makes his sword "unique" then so is Balaur Arms model based on uniqueness and specifications. He can't have it both ways but I'm sure he would like that because it benefits him both artistically and monetarily... Indeed. And the most succinct way to put it is this: Johnson studies and catalogues a bunch of public domain works, then makes minuscule-- minuscule--changes to create a design that doesn;t 100% copy any particular one. (As far as we know! :P It'd be hilarious if a find in revealed in the storage bin of some museum that is exactly the same.) And preens that "I'm so original!" Then, when someone else makes a near-copy of his design, but with minuscule differences, gets furious and says minuscule differences don't count. I think that's the textbook example of "hypocrisy."
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LeMal
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Post by LeMal on Jan 25, 2024 15:46:31 GMT
tancred , you are correct regarding the Deepeeka Type XVa situation. It was literally the same as here with the BA Messer. I mean where's Windlass' or Hanwei's rants for LK Chen making Munich and Tizona replicas too? Or DC suing Marvel for characters like Hyperion or Sentry clearly ripping off Superman (or the whole Squadron Supreme the Justice League). Or Marvel suing DC for ripping off the Sun-Mariner with Aquaman? (I'll leave it at that, we all know that's just the tip of the iceberg in comics, the long ago Superman/Shazam thing notwithstanding. ;) ) I'm not talking about suing, which is it's own issue, and of course big boys with deep pockets will often enough pick on little guys legally with "cease and desists"--because they can. But we've established in this thread the question is of ethics of plagiarism--which then becomes to what extent is the first work creatively original? Is there TECHNICALLY some creative originality in, for example, splitting the differences between historical kriegsmessers to create something like the Knecht? Yeah, if you want to nitpick, it's more than zero. But I don't even think IF both parties had deep pockets it wouldn't be laughed out of court against a good lawyer. It's as far as I'm concerned, practically impossible to BOTH "design" an artistically original sword true to nitpicking on "authentic" form and function in all but the most trivial way. And then to play the whole plagiarism sympathy card is a contradiction; either stop strutting about and inflating the importance of tight historical parameters--or stop strutting about how original you are. In my book, the couple smidgens of differences don't impress me. (Then again, in insular little subcultures, the old joke about academia so sadly often applies: "The knives are big because the stakes are small." :P )
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LeMal
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Post by LeMal on Dec 24, 2023 20:12:44 GMT
I use polypropylene pipes, have hit on many occasions, didn't damage any edges on it. Wanted to add some struts so it stands on its own, havent gotten to it inn years and just ram it into the ground until it shands upright. Very cheap and effective. Yup. Buy one of the larger Xmas tree stands (or wait a few days, every thrift store will have a bunch cheap ;) ) for a base and with a plastic pipe you're set, been doing that for almost 30 years. For portable versions, photo tripods are great, just have to give it a small flat platform at the top.
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LeMal
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Post by LeMal on Dec 15, 2023 8:59:23 GMT
Cats have blades on their paws and like to use them?
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LeMal
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Post by LeMal on Dec 10, 2023 15:19:14 GMT
I've mentioned these wire shelving units a zillion times. www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-3-Tier-Steel-Wire-Shelving-Unit-in-Black-24-in-W-x-30-in-H-x-14-in-D-E356075OAK3RTHD/313360980Besides being able to display swords vertically in a compact space, using them allows great options on this topic. If you've got them somewhere in the open, voila, a nice blanket or sheet thrown over them turns things unthreatening and genteel for guests. If you, as I do when I have the living space, want to secure them you put the racks in a separate locked room, or even locked closet within a locked room. (Or in the garage or workshop for my "projects in progress" for rehilting etc.) I also personally, usually, have one or two swords out, horizontally on a stand on a credenza or the like, if I have the space. And then rotate which ones have the "place of honor." There's my low-key introduction to many guests. Combines the best of "swords are cool" conversation openers with "yeah, but I don't want to be a geeking possible nutjob who scares people." (An approach, btw, that most stuff but not all secured storage works just as well with my admittedly much smaller collection of guns--especially if the conversation opener out on display, as it is for me, is a blackpowder piece.)
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LeMal
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Post by LeMal on Dec 6, 2023 4:52:29 GMT
The Legend of Hell House. (Seriously, it DOES take place leading up to Christmas. And it rocks.)
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LeMal
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Post by LeMal on Nov 27, 2023 6:40:46 GMT
I'd say the bastard. I actually put one (fullered) on the guard I had left over from disassembling a Windlass Munich and using that blade somewhere else; loved the result.
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