"tears of the wounded" swords...

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Bill Marsh

Jim,

This is may be correct, however, and I am running on memory here, the "piercings" I saw in these "tears" swords could be a channel in the blade, sometimes two parallel channels that were about 5 -6 inches long by 4 or 5mm wide.

Personally, I'd be a little concerned if I had to wield such a blade in battle, but, of course I'd rather be on a hilltop with a sniper rifle anyway!

Thanks for answering Bill. You're right, these were channels, and Philip Tom did make the suggestion it seems at some point that these would have a compromising effect on the blades integrity. However, it should be remembered as well that wootz blades did gain a certain disfavor as in combat they were prone to breaking as opposed to forged blades, if I understand the matallurgists correctly. For these reasons, the court, parade and presentation swords typically received the luxurious blades.

On the sniper rifle, saw a good movie on that last week.."the Shooter".