[A. G. Maisey]

Thank you Peter, that Cambridge article needs a close look.

I do understand forge work very well, and if the angled tang is simply reforged to a straight tang, then that is a quick, easy job and easy to reverse. My problem with the red jacket man in the pic is that the blade looks to have a socket rather than a tang, but maybe we're seeing a ferrule rather than a socket, in which case the blade could have a straight tang.

A quick glance at the Cambridge article shows that sometimes mechanical means were used to provide a blade mounting, this is something that did not occur to me, but I guess in desperate times it becomes a matter of whatever will fill the need is used, without too much thought of integrity or durability.

The idea that making a sword is complicated depends totally upon the quality of the sword. To make a functional blade that could be mounted as a sword is not at all a difficult nor a lengthy job, but to make a quality blade and then mount it as a quality sword is not easy work, nor is it work that takes a short period of time. Saturday night Specials are inexpensive, elegant weapons can cost a kingdom. Perhaps the reason for a small population of swords might be related to several reasons & could embrace both economic and hierarchical reasons?

Thank you for assisting my understanding.