I've got a real soft spot for lawyers.

Over the years they have provided a good part of my income. I'd be a poorer man today if it wasn't for lawyers.

And hey, when the line is long....
 

At the supermarket check-out counter there's really nothing like a 15th century Muramasa daito to clear the riff-raff out of the way... I do it all the time, meself...

Although a good navy hanger is perfect for those moments when a longer sword just gets in the way, you know?

It's interesting to collect deadly weapons and be horrified at the thought of actually having to use it!

me niether Tim but I do like to find them at markets, junk shops, ebay uk etc as well as more specialist sources.

Ocasionly I also import the odd one . True they are all ww2 or earlier.

But without precise defintion it will all become rather more awkward I fear.

I agree with your sentiments Alan, but have seen to many laws blindy inforced without reason in the UK to be 100%certan it may not happen again.

Time will tell, Perhaps if I do a thread resurection next December it will proove my concerns unfounded. I certanly hope so.

I dont care about post ww2 swords myself but WW2 & earlier I do find interesting.

Luckily the press havent yet decided kukri are naughty. But the term "the thin edge of the wedge" does spring to mind as well..


Spiral

Spiral, there is no doubt that as long as laws exist they will be thoughtlessly enforced, carelessly enforced, and enforced in a discriminatory manner. This has ever been so, and I do not believe that things will change in the future.

The police have a job to do, and mostly they do it in accordance with their instructions. If there is any doubt, any possibility of an infringement, they enforce.

However, when the matter comes before the court it is an entirely different ballgame. At that point the person who has been charged has the opportunity to escape conviction, and to establish a precedent that can influence all further cases of a similar nature.

There is a problem, and that is the cost of mounting an effective defense, but that is an entirely different matter to having the opportunity to actually mount the defense.

The UK is not unique in this matter of thoughtless law enforcement. It exists in Australia, and I am sure it exists in all other countries. The important thing is this:- in the system under which you I and I live, we have the opportunity to change the way in which a law is interpreted. We can do this by employing a "champion", ie, a damned good barrister and his "squire", a damned good solicitor. We send these people in to fight our fight for us, and if we have chosen well, and there are chinks in the armour of the law, our champion will drive the lance of his argument right through those chinks.

In effect, our legal system is like a tournament where two knights go to battle, and a judge and jury decides who wins.

Select the right barrister for the fight, and you have a very, very good chance of winning.

Because we have the opportunity to use this system, if some matter of importance becomes subject to a law that can adversely affect us, we are probably well advised to test that law under circumstances that are favourable to us, at the earliest possible opportunity.

If we wait until our antagonists, the people who have fostered this law and nursed it into being, test the law, you can bet on it that the first case, or couple of cases will result in wins for our antagonists, the precedent will be established, and it will become much more difficult in the future to do anything about getting reasonable interpretations of the law.

just thought i'd update this older thread as well as the two newer ones. it might be a good idea for a moderator to merge these into one thread.

anyhow, for those not subscribed to the other two newer threads, there has been some backtracking by the politicians who now recognise they've jumped the starting 'noise production device' (no starting guns allowed here of course).

plastic cutlery next
 

it will be plastic cutlery for us all soon lol