Killing elephants with swords

[nechesh]

Gee, Radu, while i would say that these links certainly could stir things up a bit, i can't see what they could possibly have to do with edged weapons or the subject at hand. Thanks for the wonderful imagery. I sure it will stick with me for a while. You might want to put a children's advisory warning on those.
As for the subject at hand, i can see a bit of both sides of the coin here. I abhor the hunting of these great beasts, especially since it's only purpose seems to be for the luxury trade of ivory and not to sustain the survival of these people ( the trophy hunts in Radu's links are even more abhorent). Still this is a part of the ethnographic history of the weapons in question and i don't see it's discussion as out of place on this forum. The weapons we collect were certainly made to kill (though some might argue in the case of the Javanese keris ) and i think it is important to have an understanding of that. Though i am basically a vegetarian (eggs and fish an exception) i appreciate those who hunt for their meat because they have a true understanding of what it is they are eating and the sacrifices involved, unlike those who buy their perpared little squares of protein wrapped in styrofoam and plastic at the corner supermarket. As collectors of these blades i think it important that we understand the bloody history of these weapons.
That being said, i don't think it is necessarily unfair to find the slaughter of the elephant to feed the ivory trade disgraceful in any age. Just this morning i heard a similar argument to GAC's in reference to a man who was defending his ancestor's ownership of slaves with the excuse that it was the time and everybody was doing it. But it was greed that drove the slave trade just as it does the ivory trade and mankind has been far enough advanced morally to understand the rights and wrongs of these issues for many centuries. It is all to easy to excuse a peoples actions by the times they lived in.
Ultimately, i think the vast majority of us collect these weapons based on their artistic integrity, and not on their ablity or history of taking lives. Unfortunately, much of the "art" seems to have disappeared in the making of weapons. I remember being at the Baltimore gun show years back and marvelling at finely crafted Turkish rifles with beautiful and complex inlays of mother-of-pearl and wonderfully engraved gun barrels and thinking that if only we made missles with this quality of craft no one would ever dare to launch them.