Over the last couple days, several people have asked me if I'm going to start to support the discussion of non-European swords. This confuses me, because there's nothing on the forums now that has the word "European" in it.

So let me answer this publicly:

The forum named Historic Arms Talk is described as:
Discussions of historic reproduction and authentic arms and armour from various cultures and time periods

This forum is meant to discuss all cultures of arms and armour including, but not limited to: Japanese, Chinese, Korean, European, Islamic, etc. etc.

The myArmoury.com forums are small. I expect they'll stay that way. We'll most likely continue to be a tight community that doesn't draw the traffic seen by the big boys who cater to larger audiences. Our audience is targeted to the collector, and though that happens to overlap many other parts of the community, the target is only a single piece of a larger pie. We're here to try to augment that piece of the pie, not own it.. and certainly not take on more than that. There's a lot of resources on the 'net that do an extremely good job at taking on those tasks, and I really don't see how myArmoury.com could improve upon it much.

More than that, and this is just my personal observation: I don't see any reason to bring together separate communities into one place and then segregate them into their own rooms. In fact, I very much like the notion of people sharing lots of things which each other. Despite these things being quite different form one-another, they all share a common foundation. I'm hoping that those of us with a narrow focus or area of knowledge will be exposed to many new things: new cultures, new ideas, new forms of arms and armour.

At our core, we're all the same. We're collectors. There are many of us who are very much focused on a single culture or time period, and those that are interested in a variety of these things. But again, at the end of the day, we all share the common passion of collecting and learning about the artifacts that history has brought us. We're not so different, and that's what I want to try to bring out on these forums.

Hope that helps clear things up...
Thoughts?

Nathan, don't see anything there to disagree with. Happy I very much don't like the separation of some other forum systems, myself. I realize it was supposedly to save time and to be more convenient for those of tightly focused interests, and I'm sure in that regard it works well. But, somehow, I always enjoyed a bit of crossover between interest groups. I think it served at least in a small part to 'broaden horizons' to a degree.

Good for me to get to know the rules.
I think it is a good thing to keep the forums small and the topics broadened.
I myself am interested more in what I can do from a traditional design without going overboard with anime (Yiiiikes :eek: ) stuff.
I believe that if we all visit each other's posts there will be plenty of exchange of views :)

Amen , brother Nathan , amen !

I'm known as the big Scot basket-case on many a forum, and I do tend to focus on that aspect in my collecting , study, & discussion , but ..... truth be told .... I luv learning about all swords , all cultures ! So do enlighten me, please !

Eastern swords are so interesting to me, and beautiful, though my confidence, & knowledge, in discussing them tends to make me less likely to jump in ....... I'm sure many times guys like Keith Larman wonder if anyone (beyond the Japanese crowd) is listening to their infomational posts , and the great sharing of knowledge that is being passed on .... ?
Well we are , and I do my best to take alot of it in ...... So do keep it up , please, it's very appreciated !

Mac

As an example, you probably won't see people like Mac or myself start discussions on things that are not medieval or scottish, since that's where our own interests lie. On the other hand, that doesn't mean that we don't wholeheartedly support discussions of other topics.

My best advice to everyone is that if you want to participate in a discussion involving your field of interest, step up and start one! Follow Manouchers excellent example and start a thread of your own.

As I've said before, it's all good :D

All of the above posts have been well said. I like the small number of forums, you just don't have to jump all over the
place-who has the time to do that?

My interest are in the Scottish and early Celtic times, I like the weapons but also the clothing, yes I even make my own.
Its all interesting-friendly and warm is what I'm look for.

Quality not quanity-I'm really looking forward to this!

dave

That seems fine by me. :cool: That has a lot to do with why I registered to take part. Please do not change your site into an unwieldy leviathan. Thank you!

JH

I have been very pleased at the way this forum "works". My interests run the gamut from Eastern to Western, Ancient to "modern" and all things in between! It's very refreshing to be able to have input from so many people with different focuses on such a wide range of topics.

Regards,

I very much appreciate the attitudes expressed in the above posts. I too have a broad range of interests. what drew me to this board is real knowledge, expertise and personal experience. It is refreshing to find a forum that is not just full of 13 year old boys who think that a 'ninja katana' could cut a car in half. or the other extreme of elitists who deal only in the arcane and obscure.

Hi Robert,

I've been ill and recovered only to face a mountain of work in front of me.
It's 1:18 am here and I'm still working.

The idea was a group contribution, remember? The value of it was to exercise a virtual citizenship and global communication and joint group effort :)

I'm the less knowledgeable on Euro swords anyway.

He he :)

Nope. It would be nice to see the exercise being built here in the Forum though.

well I made a post about katanas a day or two ago with 0 replies. maybe it was just a stupid post, but I think that there is not much interest about asian weaponry in this forum. It may be allowed, but I think most people here are here to escape that stuff and get eurocentric for a change. besides if people want to talk asian, there are dedicated forums for that as well.

Well, I'm really new around here, but let me say this is far and away my favorite forum on swords. I have learned SO much here. I'm not so much into swords on one time or place as into the sword itself, as an ideal, from all times and all places. I am in seek of the perfect sword, though such a thing does not exist and never will exist and I would never entertain a discussion as such. Maybe you should mark me down as being into the Zen of swords. There are many manifestations of the perfect sword, all are perfect in their way, but none are perfect, and only when taken together as a whole are they truly the Zen.

If that doesn't make any sense (and I'm fairly sure it doesn't) then I CAN say I like double edged swords with agressive points, and thus I've been into late Medieval longswords. I will be reading all of your posts with zeal and adding my comments if and when I feel I have something to add, or a humorous point to make.

And Zach, I for one definitly include Kats in my list of interesting swords, but you are right, there are other forums so choked with eastern sword lore that it is a bit refreshing to *me* to find one that isn't. If your interest runs along the lines of the others here, I hope you hang around.

Walt

I was not complaining about eastern sword forums. some are quite good. I was just saying that most of the pple here seemed not to be interested in Eastern swords. that suits me fine too. this is an excellent forum and I can go elsewhere for info on asian arms.

but, while I am on the topic, anyone know anything about those Indian gauntlet-swords?

Hey Zach! I have only been on this forum for a month or two myself but I think the interests here are very general regarding swords and everything contemporaneous to them. I know we have gotten into Eastern bows and Lancelot Chang posted a substantial article on Hozoin sojutsu in a forum dedicated to a Swedish polearm. As regards your katana post perhaps no one has an answer or even a rough idea. I certainly have a love affair for Japanese weapons that I think fully compliments my love of the European. Kenjutsu has an especially strong appeal to me but I am clueless to respond to your post especially in light of some of the four-armed guards that I have seen pictured on a few naginata and nagimaki. How many views has post gotten?