Re: F&SF that I Read in 2007: W

On Mon, 12 May 2008 14:35:03 +0000, Par wrote:

> John F. Eldredge <john@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>:
>>  If no one makes swords anymore, what do you call the long pointy
>>  weapons still used with some military dress uniforms?
> 
> Archaic, symbolic dress items.
> 
>>  You also see them in im****t/ex****t stores (mostly cheap versions,
>>  without much of an edge), and at various Renaissance Faires.  The last
>>  actual use of them in combat that I am aware of was by some Japanese
>>  officers in World War II, mostly as a last-ditch weapon.
> 
> I suspect that once you get up close and personal (as in
> grappling/wrestling) knives are still usefull. But swords work best at
> handgun/sawn off ahotgun distances, and there they loose almost all the
> time to the firearm.
> 
>>  Various terrorist organizations have been known to use them for
>>  beheading hostages, but I class that as murder, not combat.
> 
> Again, symbolic uses.
> 
> /Par

However, you didn't state that no one made them anymore except for 
symbolic uses; you stated that no one made them anymore.  Obviously, they 
are still being made.

-- 
John F. Eldredge -- john@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 key available from http://pgp.mit.edu
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria