Clik here to view.
Thought the Economy Was Bad?
Private Sam Wilson’s Walker Colt and flask The all-time auction record for a Colt Revolver was made his week at James D. Julia, Inc. in Fairfield, Maine, when a Colt Whitneyville Walker, marked...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Really Big Bore Deer Hunting
Model 1841 12 pound Mountain Howitzer This web-site explains how to hunt white-tailed deer using a Civil War-era Model 1841 12 Pound Mountain Howitzer. This method of hunting seems likely to provoke...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Jefferson Davis’ Revolver
Jefferson Davis’ .44 (.54 bore) Kerr’s Patent Revolver A Kerr’s Patent Revolver with provenance indicating that it was one of two presented by Confederate President Jefferson Davis to the commander of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Paperweight Proves to be Live WWI Artillery Shell
British reporters are calling it a “bomb,” but it is clearly a small Naval artillery shell. Too bad no one bothers to identify it more specifically. Daily Mail: When a friend out diving found a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sotheby’s Sells Medieval Hunting Horn
[T]he olifant its echoing music speaks. – La Chanson du Roland—Sicily, c. 1100 A.D. Sotheby’s December 2nd Old Master Sculpture and Works of Art sale in London featured a remarkable relic of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Jacques Littlefield, 1949-2009
Talk about the man who had everything. Jacques Littlefield didn’t only own what every Silicon Valley executive wants: his own hilltop in Portola Valley. On his 430 acre Pony Tracks Ranch he kept and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Last of the Hand-Operated Machine Guns
Perhaps the most interesting find within the great arms cache released in 2003 from the Royal Nepalese Arsenal and imported to the US arms collecting market were a few ultra-rare examples of the Bira...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Confederate Veteran of the Civil War
click on image for larger picture This Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle-Musket bayonet was found by a neighbor of mine in 2004 lying on the west side of a stone wall in Snickers Gap overlooking the east...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Enthusiast Testing Replica Cannon Accidentally Hits Neighboring House
Replica cannon, cannonball, entry hole, house (Post Chronicle photos) 54-year-old William Masur, a resident of Georges Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania (about 35 miles/56 km. southeast of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Roman Army Knife
How old is the Swiss Army Knife? Conventional wisdom would hold that the multi-tool pocket knife was invented by Karl Elsener in Ibach Schwyz in 1896. But as this Daily Mail feature article proves,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Marine Corps Using New Rounds in Afghanistan
Speer TBBC bullet The Navy Times reports that the Marine Corps will be issuing 5.56mm ammunition loaded with 62 gr. “SOST” (Special Operations Science and Technology) bullets, a version of the Trophy...
View ArticleSkeet Shooting With a Tank
An Australian “Carlton Dry Dreams” commercial for Carlton Dry beer. 0:59 Video I think what they are doing is actually closer to Trap Shooting, but….
View ArticleClik here to view.
Robert Waldorf Loveless (January 2, 1929 – September 2, 2010)
Late period knives, featuring his optional Naked Lady stamp America’s greatest custom knife maker and most influential designer, Bob Loveless, passed away recently at the age of 81 of lung cancer....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bernard Levine, Harvard ’69 (!)
Levine’s Guide to Knives & Their Values is a key reference in any collector’s library and Bernard Levine’s earlier Knifemakers Of Old San Francisco is a classic book on a very special subject. Who...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Very Neat Escape Tools From German Prisons
Shiv disguised as a wooden crucifix; found in an inmate’s cell in Wolfenbüttel prison, Germany, sometime around 1994; intended for use in an escape or as a general weapon. At that time a lot of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Robert E. Lee’s Sword Being Moved to Appomattox
Lee is wearing the sword in this famous picture. (click on each image for larger version) The Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond is planning to re-locate a presentation sword made in Paris by...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bayonets, Horses, Subs, and Carriers
Derisive image from HorsesandBayonetstumblr Obama: “You mention the Navy, for example… That we have fewer ships than in 1916. ... We also have fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chinese Swords
2,000-year-old 100-layer sword, reputed to have been owed by Lui Bang (fl. circa 200 B.C.) first Emperor of the Han Dynasty, found originally covered with blood rust. The pattern shown in the bottom...
View ArticleSobieski Lancers
King John (Sobieski) Lancers of the 20th Uhlan Regiment demonstrate old-fashioned weapons and equestrian skills.
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Tiger of Malaya’s Sword
Gendai-to made in 1929 by Ikkansai Kasama Shigetsugu, formerly owned by General Tomoyuki Yamashita, Conqueror of Singapore, “The Tiger of Malaya.” Yesterday, one of the correspondents on a Japanese...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Gold Damascened Steel Bow
A 19th century Indo-Persian Steel Bow sold last year at Christie’s for £30,000 ($48,840). Apparently, steel bows began replacing composite bows in Central Asia in the 16th century. Steel bows were...
View ArticleClik here to view.
When Hollywood Needs Shiny Instruments of Death…
Wired profiles “Armourer to the Stars” Tony Swatton. Tony Swatton is the most famous blacksmith in Los Angeles. But he’s not forging horseshoes. Rather, Swatton has banged out a place in Tinseltown as...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Maid of Ghent
Attributed to Agnes van den Bossche, The Maid of Ghent painted battle standard, circa 1481-1482. The standard’s symbol of a maiden comes a 1388 poem by Bouden or Baudouin van der Loore, De maghet of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tipu Sahib’s Sword
Maine Antique Digest runs a monthly Letter from London column which describes some of the more interesting items appearing in recent sales. At Sotheby’s “Art of Imperial India” sale, London, October...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Medieval Sword Found in Polish River
Gazeta Krakowska has the story of the recent discovery of a medieval sword in southeastern Poland by a high school student. (roughly translated by me) During a Sunday walk with his dad and his Bernese...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Coppergate Helmet
The Coppergate helmet (York helmet) was found in May 1982 at a site where many Viking Age artifacts had been discovered previously during the archeological excavations. The Anglo-Saxon helmet was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Who Made These?
Dr. Yonatan Sahle, leader of a team who found stone tools older than expected, stands in front of an outcrop where artifacts were found. Motherboard Vice: Ancient stone-tipped javelins found in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rigby Back in Business in London
Steve Bodio reports that the famous Rigby gunmaking company has resumed London operations and is in possession of the original company records. He writes: I have owned one once, a “.275”. So did...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Bit Slow to Reload
A Very Strange Volley Gun, Patented and produced in 1837 by Henry Harrington, this bizarre volley features 37 barrels which fired a .22 caliber bullet. Each barrel would have had to be loaded by hand...
View Article