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William F. Moran Dead at Age 80
William F. Moran, circa 1982 William F. Moran, a legendary figure in the world of custom knives, died yesterday morning in the hospital at Frederick, Maryland of cancer at the age of 80. Born in 1925,...
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Aotsu Yasutoshi Collection Exhibition
Aotsu Yasutoshi (1893-1984) Mr Richard Turner, one of Australia’s leading Nihonto collectors and authorities, has started a blog (Tosogu.com) devoted to the discussion of Japanese sword furniture...
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The Ultimate Swiss Army Knife
Outdoor Life reports Wenger is offering the ultimate pocket knife: a nine inch, two pound, Swiss Army Knife including every single blade and tool, all 85 of them. Who doesn’t need a cigar cutter next...
View ArticleTsuba on Tosogu.com
There is write-up on a tsuba (Japanese sword guard) for which we are temporary custodian on Rich Turner’s Tosogu.com. This one has a nautical motif. Tosogu means Japanese furniture in general.
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Merriwether Lewis’ Mysterious Air Gun
Dr. Robert Beeman, founder of Beeman’s Precision Airguns, has produced a fascinating paper on the intriguing question of the identity of the repeating air gun, mentioned 39 times in the expedition’s...
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Damascus Steel: Medieval Nanotechnology?
17th century shamshir by Assad Ullah Nature reports that scientists studying the technology of Damascus steel believe the material used in Arabic Medieval weapons may deserve to be regarded as an...
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Napoleon I’s Marengo Sword Auctioned
The press is reporting (a bit late) that the best surviving sword owned by Napoleon Bonaparte still in private hands was to be auctioned yesterday at Versailles by Osenat. The sword is a Mamelukestyle...
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Mrs. G.E.P. How’s Arms & Armour Collection
The late G.E.P. How enjoyed great wines, opera, fishing, shooting, edged weapons, beekeeping, cricket, cars, and mastiffs. On July 25, Bonham’s at its Knightsbridge branch will be auctioning Arms...
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Catalogue of European Court Swords and Hunting Swords (Metropolitan Museum,...
A copy of Bashford Dean’s Catalogue of European Court Swords and Hunting Swords including the Ellis, De Dingo, Riggs and Reubell collections, published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1929 would...
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A Relic of the Raj
Here is a recent acquisition: a boar spear blade made by Bodraj of Aurangabad, one of the preferred models of blade used for Pig-Sticking, the finest sport in Asia, by British officers and colonial...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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,...
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