Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

CharlesS · 15th January 2007, 03:30 AM

I collected Imperial German and Nazi militaria for years before deciding to sell it and collect exclusively ethnographic blades. The fact that a Nazi sword has appeared here I find both confusing and disappointing, even somewhat offensive....a 100% machine made sword that shows no hint of the nature of the original craftsman's touch(except maybe his politics!!)

Note the subdivisions of our title page....takoubas, koumayas, keris, shamshir, dao, dhas, etc.....each at some level with a hint of a human touch that distinguishes it as unique, perhaps one of a kind, and certainly characteristic of a genre of weapons from a certain geographical region.

The Nazi sword identifies a machine made piece, from a 12 year era, never intended to actually be used, and other than its politcal persuasion, nothing about it is particularly unique from any other dress swords from the industrialized world of the same period.

Is this really what we want here? I do not argue with the collection of such pieces, afterall, I used to do it myself, but I do argue that this simply is NOT the venue for it any more than it is the correct venue for an M-16 bayonet.

Sure, it was just an "example" of another supposedly ethnographic piece, but surely I am not the only one that sees the irony of a Nazi sword on this forum....just a little piece of history from a political mentality that would have seen the populations and producers of the weapons most of us collect as 2nd or 3rd class citizens of the world, most marked as "sub-human", and many marked for eventual extermination. Sure the Nazis were not history's only "haters", but thay set a standard for it that has yet to be remotely equalled.

Is this really a door we want to open?

I would be more sympathetic if I thought there were no other venues for modern, even Nazi pieces, to be illustrated, explored and discussed, but there are, and I see nothing wrong with us having our own humble "corner" of the world wide web to explore something else.

15th January 2007, 03:30 AM	#21
CharlesS Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Greenville, NC Posts: 1,855	I collected Imperial German and Nazi militaria for years before deciding to sell it and collect exclusively ethnographic blades. The fact that a Nazi sword has appeared here I find both confusing and disappointing, even somewhat offensive....a 100% machine made sword that shows no hint of the nature of the original craftsman's touch(except maybe his politics!!) Note the subdivisions of our title page....takoubas, koumayas, keris, shamshir, dao, dhas, etc.....each at some level with a hint of a human touch that distinguishes it as unique, perhaps one of a kind, and certainly characteristic of a genre of weapons from a certain geographical region. The Nazi sword identifies a machine made piece, from a 12 year era, never intended to actually be used, and other than its politcal persuasion, nothing about it is particularly unique from any other dress swords from the industrialized world of the same period. Is this really what we want here? I do not argue with the collection of such pieces, afterall, I used to do it myself, but I do argue that this simply is NOT the venue for it any more than it is the correct venue for an M-16 bayonet. Sure, it was just an "example" of another supposedly ethnographic piece, but surely I am not the only one that sees the irony of a Nazi sword on this forum....just a little piece of history from a political mentality that would have seen the populations and producers of the weapons most of us collect as 2nd or 3rd class citizens of the world, most marked as "sub-human", and many marked for eventual extermination. Sure the Nazis were not history's only "haters", but thay set a standard for it that has yet to be remotely equalled. Is this really a door we want to open? I would be more sympathetic if I thought there were no other venues for modern, even Nazi pieces, to be illustrated, explored and discussed, but there are, and I see nothing wrong with us having our own humble "corner" of the world wide web to explore something else.