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Originally Posted by kronckew
that tis but a child's bat'leth
similar to the one used here in london
by the UK metropolitan police for crowd control.
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While we joke about it, it does make you wonder how far back such goofy blades go.
I'm not talking about the Chinese wheel weapons, exactly. I've got a pair of modern deer horn knives myself, and once upon a time I even learned a set for them. The martial artist who made those famous (Dong Hai Chuan, founder of baguazhang) worked as a tax collector in China, and he carried a pair of deer-horn knives prominently wherever he went. People knew of him by reputation, and knew about those knives, and (apparently) didn't give him much trouble. That's a useful kind of weapon.
No, I'm more thinking of things like that bat'leth, which is basically an art-piece turned into a mass-produced "martial arts" weapon, whether it's useful or not.
How long has this kind of thing been going on? How often were smiths inspired by some story or picture or other to make a weapon? Or how about those Chinese weapons that incorporate seven stars, rings, multiple tips and piercings, because one of the heroes in
The Water Margin carried a sword like that? Has anyone got an old example?
F