Navaja with questions

[Chris Evans]

Originally Posted by Helleri

Time/place of creation I can't help with. Usage I can help with. You want a book called Manual Of The Baratero: The Art of Handling the Navaja, the Knife, and the Scissors of the Gypsies. It's the oldest and really the only exclusive old treatise on knife fighting, using knives of this type.

The MdB was a literary hoax. See my review of the English translation: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...anual+baratero

Cheers
Chris

[Helleri]

Originally Posted by Chris Evans

The MdB was a literary hoax. See my review of the English translation: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...anual+baratero

Cheers
Chris

Interesting read. Hadn't come across this notion before. Though I don't really see how any of that makes it a hoax. There are a lot of treatises that are basically just like this. Containing a lot of martial arts woo. Written for an intellectual audience. Some degree of plagiarism. Even some authors taking aside a few paragraphs to attack the works of other authors.

One is not well advised to read any old instructional with complete faith in it. You take what seems practical, applicable, and reasonable; You criticize and dismiss the rest.

An actual hoax would be if it were written say 10 or 20 years ago and is pretending to date from the period that it does; Not simply being below the standard one subjectively expects or questionable as to some of it's prescriptions.