Revolutionary War to Federalist period cutlass

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by kronckew

145: hinese: Chinese whotsit?


146: Turkish 'scimitar' - They did not use anything like that, in spite of Indiana Jones. Renaissance painters assumed Christians used curved swords like that. They didn't. European falchions sometimes did tho.


147: Dao - Actually a nepali 'Kora', sharp on the inside of the curve.


148: Sailor's Cutlass: What they heck is that?


OH NO!!! you mean Burtons book is not Gospel!!!!
and all the Victorian romantics describing flashing SCIMITARS are wrong? LOL!



19c Museums & authors were not the most accurate entities.

What? museums and authors make missteaks?????

The point was, this type of rebated blade WAS around in those times, and sailors and travelers in and out of exotic ports were known to acquire souvenirs, and were not exactly arms 'scholars'. There was also the case where weapons from many places were in use in non indigenous contexts, so assumptions sometimes happened.

I could write a book on these kinds of gaffes, and I've always particularly loved the term 'scimitar'......used in 'authoritative' description of Eastern sabers (?).