[Jonathan Hopkins]

This topic might be as tired as a samurai vs. knight thread, but I'll go ahead and start it anyhow. I am curious to hear how everyone made the leap into the study and collection of arms and armour. I'll start with my story:

I became a collector quite by accident. The summer after 8th grade, my parents and I visited the UK for 2 weeks. I had decided that since my friends got katanas when they visited Epcot Center in FL, that I would one-up them by finding a knightly sword. I had a whole $120 saved to find such a sword while in England. I did not care if what I found was modern or antique--I just wanted a cruciform sword.

I was not finding anything in my meager price range (what a surprise). The Tower of London gift shop had some neat replicas, but they were made of fiberglass. I held out on spending since we still had a driving tour of the midlands ahead of us. Probably the most educational aspect of the trip A&A-wise, was visiting Warwick Castle. The armoury there was small compared to the Tower or the Victoria and Albert Museum, and I had not yet heard of the Wallace Collection. The armoury at Warwick had some fantastic swords and armour from the English Civil War. Back then it was news to me that the English also had a civil war. I really loved the swords from that era, and I remember picturing myself storming up the spiraling staircases of Warwick with a mortuary sword in hand. There was an elderly man who was seated behind the counter in the armoury room. I am not sure if he was an attendant, or a museum official, but he knew his stuff, and allowed visitors to handle and even wear certain items from the collection. One of my favorite memories from that trip is wearing and authentic troopers lobster pot helmet. It was fantastic!

My dad had a adolescent antiques business that he ran on the side (he was an art teacher), so we took some time to visit antiques shops and malls where ever we went. At the entrance to one of the antiques malls was a small booth that had a lot of Victorian rifles, and two swords. I knew nothing about the swords, but the prices were within my range. One was absolutely brilliant--it had a silver wire wrap on the grip, a beautiful brass shell guard and knuckle guard with scrolling folliage, and a nice clean straight single edged blade. It was 120 pounds, so it was more than I could afford, but not by much. The other was ok. It had a big black bowl guard and a long slender blade that had a small hole in it. it was 80 pounds. I almost bought the latter sword, but my dad encouraged me to go for the other, and I could pay him back with the money I made from lawn mowing and babysitting later in the summer. That British 1796 pattern infantry officer's sword was my first, and still one of the dearest swords in my collection. It fueled my interest in swords and in history, interests with which I am still happily plagued today.

Since graduating from college five and a half years ago, I have not been in a financial position to collect anything--antique or replica. Therefore, no matter how humble the sword, it is likely not affordable. The 8 years I had as an active collector were really great, though. I was really into the Napoleonic period thanks to Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series, and I also had a great interest in 18th century swords thanks to films like "Last of the Mohicans" and "Rob Roy". Without any real world expenses, I could save for a year and afford a $1500 sword. I still have a good deal of interest in 18th and early 19th century swords, but my interests are diversifying, and those 17th century swords are quite expensive! I would love to have a nice mortuary hilted sword (or two or three!), a hounslow hanger, an English rapier, and a schiavona. Those are long term goals for my antiques collection.

Since joining myArmoury and lurking on the WMA forum on SFI, I have gained am interest in learning how to use swords. George Silver's method is attractive to me as it is an English system and it is from a time period of interest to me, and uses swords of interest to me. Once I have raised the funds, I am hoping to get one of Darkwood's English basket hilts, probably II (1580) or III (1600). I would use this to self train until I can hook up with a group.

I am a Wisconsin native, and it pains me to know that I have left a state that has an active WMA, living history, and replica-making community! I hope we move back there someday. I just need to find a great job there so my wife can't argue! That is a few years away, but I can be patient!

Jonathan

[Chad Arnow]

Jonathan,
This topics comes up from time to time. Here's a link to some of those older threads:

http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=5407
http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=7367

[Jonathan Hopkins]

Ah, thanks. I'll take a look at them.

[Steve Grisetti]

[Adam Simmonds]

hey j.g

personally, there was never any 'leap' into a love of these things for me, but rather a steady burgeoning of interest. this interest probably began and was fostered by my parents reading many traditional folk stories from celtic, greek, norse sources etc, stories full of warrior heroes and their beautiful, powerful and often magical weapons. my brother and i used to spend hours making and fighting with wooden swords when we were young, though it was sometimes dificult to persuade the poor little dude that it was in fact 'fun', as, being five years younger then i , was usually at some disadvantage.

the sword, in the diverse cultures i have been influenced by, is depicted as an object of honour, power, beauty, adventure, courage, strength and magic etc. how could anyone not love these things?!

nice score for your first sword by the way, 120 quid seems like a good deal as well!

as far as collecting goes - i only have one real sword - a renaissance gem - a 17th C. cut and thrust half basket hilt. as a student, i am also financially impoverished and unable too xpand my 'collection' for now. however, i am more then satisfied with the sword i do possess, and would much rather have one excellent piece then a thousand mediocre ones.

adam