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Michael Curl




Location: Northern California, US
Joined: 06 Jan 2008

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PostPosted: Wed 03 Aug, 2011 9:36 am    Post subject: Kilij questions         Reply with quote

So I was under the impression that the yelman on a kilij moved the pob further down the blade, but recently I heard that the material is simply compacted in the center, and does not affect the balance. Which is true?
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Jeroen Zuiderwijk
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Location: Netherlands
Joined: 11 Mar 2005

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PostPosted: Thu 04 Aug, 2011 2:35 am    Post subject: Re: Kilij questions         Reply with quote

Michael Curl wrote:
So I was under the impression that the yelman on a kilij moved the pob further down the blade, but recently I heard that the material is simply compacted in the center, and does not affect the balance. Which is true?
Without a yelman, you have a thick spine. A yelman is (or can be) created by forging part of this spine to a thin cutting edge. This widens the blade there, without changing the amount of material, and thus not affecting the balance. This at least is the case on tulwars with a yelman that I own.
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Timo Nieminen




Location: Brisbane, Australia
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PostPosted: Thu 04 Aug, 2011 2:43 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Manouchehr, in his book, Arms and Armor from Iran: The Bronze Age to the End of the Qajar Peroid (Manouchehr Moshtagh Khorasani), gives POB. Comparing the wide-tipped "kilij" style swords with swords with slender shamshir blades, the POB of kilij-blade swords are not further out, for swords of about the same length. Indeed, it looks like their POB might be, on average, closer in. (I haven't checked to see if this is statistically significant. In any event, not much closer in.)

Why would one want to move the POB out? Yes, people say this about all sorts of swords that widen towards the tip, but it's a very two-dimensional view of a sword.

"In addition to being efficient, all pole arms were quite nice to look at." - Cherney Berg, A hideous history of weapons, Collier 1963.
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Mikko Kuusirati




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PostPosted: Thu 04 Aug, 2011 3:19 am    Post subject: Re: Kilij questions         Reply with quote

Michael Curl wrote:
So I was under the impression that the yelman on a kilij moved the pob further down the blade, but recently I heard that the material is simply compacted in the center, and does not affect the balance. Which is true?

Further down compared to what, exactly?

"And sin, young man, is when you treat people like things. Including yourself. That's what sin is."
— Terry Pratchett, Carpe Jugulum
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