Akanthus thank you for this description. It was helpful for understanding of what I am seeing. I live in an area where many people still rely on meat obtained from hunting (it is a common vacation or rather "staycation" for many people in the fall) or meat from their own cattle. It is interesting to see how the sport of hunting changes through the years and how it relates to class. In western society I wonder if now the elite gentry doesn't hunt as much, and the "sport" of the hunt is the province of the middle class and people who live in rural areas. Though I still have a few friends who make a living as hunting guides.
A botched shot or trying to hunt using the old methods are rarely pretty. The shape of the original blade grind and the angle that a blade is sharped at effect this process to an amazing degree. All razor edges are not created equally. A flat grind or a very gradual I call it Japanese style of edge (a very gentle channel grind) make things progress much more smoothly. Such practices as described in earlier posts also help us understand human interaction of the period as well, I believe. I have to wonder if such rituals didn't help harden the participants up to enable them to do what they must to keep their wealth and privilege through borderline sociopathic tendencies. As well as some echo to blood sacrifice rites that are not as remote as we would like to think. Dark thought I know, but what it takes to keep meat on the table is puzzling and removed in industrialized societies. Not to mention that many readers are beginning the celebration of what was supposed to be the last blood sacrifice. Anyway, I digress. That is a beautiful blade. The descendants of that stag motif lived into the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries if my memory serves me. Maybe even into the present with some elite manufacturers of firearms. I possibly had some relevant pictures if I can find them. The angle of the stag's neck fascinates me. At once it seems to show fleet movement and resemble the angle of repose of a fresh kill while it still in the flaccid, almost gelatine state just after circulation fails. Is the handle of this hanger porcelain? I had thought tortoise shell at a glance.
I apologize for any discomfort given. Sometimes I have trouble not viewing the world and our subject matter wholistically. I wish everyone a happy Holliday season.
-IP
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