Information on CAINO blades

[Philip]

Originally Posted by Victrix

In the bibliography it mentions a book which sadly is in Italian: Gotti, R., 2011. Caino. Punto Marte, Soligo.

This is a spectacular, must-have book for anyone interested in Italian armes-blanches. It can be hard to find, I got my copy at a Czernys auction and find that it was published thanks to sponsorship by that firm; an inquiry with Czernys might lead to a copy for sale somewhere.

Why am I such a fan of it? Here's a synopsis of the subjects covered:
1. Geographical, historical context, with some guild documents verbatim in original Latin and Italian versions.
2. Descriptions of manufacturing processes and establishments, with period illustrations and photos of surviving workshops and residences of the smiths. The interested reader can make comparisons of the work practices described and illustrated herein with published material on equivalent practices in other societies in Europe and Asia prior to the age of mechanization.
3. Classification of the types of blades produced there, and notes on their design as applicable to combat techniques of the 16th-17th cents.
4. Metallurgical study of blades, with chemical analyses and photomicrographs of surfaces and sections of blades produced ca 1575-1630. While lots of attention has been devoted to Eastern sword metallurgy, especially Japanese and Indian, research on the European side has been scanty by comparison and this book, along with the excellent monographs and books by UK researcher Alan Williams, are welcomed steps forward.

Even if you don't read Italian, there is no shortage of illustrations and charts, and the captions in the section on metallurgy should be mostly comprehensible to someone with a reasonable exposure to the language of science.