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Old 27th January 2005, 12:44 PM   #36
tom hyle
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Houston, TX, USA
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You go, Jeff. I'm not sure what that detail you show is from. Is there a bigger shot at the end of page 1 or something? Yes, I'm checking page two first The "heavy" narrow reinforced point might be viewed as transposed from daggers or spears, and not neccessarily cross-cultural influence. Some discussion of terms may be helpful. An actual false edge is a rear edge meant to cut. It is a medieval European term, often applied to the use of double-edged broadswords;the front edge is "true" the back edge is "false" This can be dictated by the design of the sword, or by how it is held at the moment; either use is valid. A point where the spine suddenly comes down at an angle or concavity (as viewed from the side) is a clip or clipped point. If the back edge is bevelled wider than a peaked spine, but not for cutting (either a relatively obtuse angle or a rebated edge), this is spoken of as a swedged/bevelled spine (the term "swedge" is often incorrectly applied to a clip; this confusion seems to arise because clips are often swedged.). AFAIK yelman per see refers only to those that are "dropped edges"; ie that widen suddenly at the beginning of the part-length false edge. There are unsharpened widenings, as on Mexican cuchilla del (monte? costa? I forget) and some pseudo-yelmans that won't cut and can't be sharpened, and we could use a name for them, but I don't know that we have one. There are also, common on tulwar and other sabres, part-length false edges that are not "dropped" like a true yelman, nor clipped. BTW, in handling yelman swords it is my observation that they tend to be light-tipped, and it is not so much wieght or mass the yelman adds, but width to absorb vibration, instead of mass and thickness, as with daito. Also, of course, that back-hand cut is a killer.
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