The Realm of the Dark Blade

Custom knife designers are known for thier off-the-wall creations. And some are more off-the-wall than others. And then there are those who just steal weapons designs from other sources. I’m sure you are all familiar with Death. Yes. Death.
You know, the tall, sombre, enigmatic figure, suffering from a rather extreme case of chronic bulimia, in the black robe with the over-sized scythe, that purportedly reaps our souls when we die? AKA the Grim Reaper? Well today we will be looking at a weapon, by crazy knife designer Tom Anderson, that, from the looks of it, was stolen from the grim reapers weapons locker:

The Kultovator

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Well what can I say. Lets take it from the top. This is a half size scythe, with a half sized blade, presumably to make close quarters soul reaping easier. And it’s got a lot of cool modern touches. The blade is wickedly hooked, beak like, almost like an oversized Kama blade. All the better to reap you with. And the head is just fantastic. The three rearward spikes, the futuristic black and white patterned cheek of the weapon, it’s all so very contemporary in a “Death for the new Millennium” kind of way.

Below that, however, it all goes freaky really, really, fast. The shaft of this scythe looks almost like someones spine was used as the shaft. And capped of by a skull. Quite possibly from the same unfortunate soul who became the shaft. All very gruesome. In a cool, dark kind of way, of course. Not that I’m trying to make light of a weapon of Death. I do, in fact, have a very well developed sense of self preservation. (In spite of how I may come across.)

Anyway, I don’t know about you, but it looks to me as though the grim reaper has been experimenting with a new Scythe design. And you can tell from the name that Tom Anderson TOTALLY ripped off the Grim Reaper. (Like how I did that little redirection? Sweet right? Yeah. Now old man Death can be mad at Mr, Anderson instead. Uh huh. I’m good like that.) Come on Kultovator? Like Kultovating Souls for reaping? OK, so that was reaching a bit. But I still say he stole a page from the reapers playbook…

The Kultovator by Tom Anderson – [Red Dragon Swords]

I am a big fan of computer games. My favorites are first person shooters. I like testing my reflexes and cunning against others on-line. Only one problem though. There are very few sword-based FPS games. RPG (Role Playing Games) such as WOW (World Of Warcraft), on the other hand, often have a dizzying plethora of bladed weapons from which to choose.

Axes, Swords, Knives, Spears, you name it, they have it. And given my love of variety in weaponry, I have more than once asked myself whether I was playing the wrong type of game. But after about an hour of walking around hacking away at peons, I’m quickly reminded why I don’t. They bore the living daylights outta me!!!

However, they are great fodder for creative weapon designers, as the Final Fantasy line of Busters and Gunblades has proven. And here is yet another entry in the video game weaponry arsenal:

Gaerts Sword

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Gaert is a character from the CORPG (Competitive/Cooperative Online Role-Playing Game) Guild Wars. And this is his sword. And what a sword. I think the thing I like most about it is it’s brute, raw, almost animalistic appearance. The blade has a rather wicked, organic shape to it, with a mean looking hook just before the point.

The grip has a criss crossed pattern, across it’s length, with a broad sweeping beak-like guard, and a similar birds head/beak theme for the pommel. At first glance I couldn’t really tell why i liked this sword so much, but after describing it, I think I have an idea. It looks like a great big bird of prey, rendered in cold, hard steel. I love these things…

*update*

A reader pointed out in the comments that this sword has nothing to do with Guild wars. After a little research, I found out, sure enough, that There was no such character as “Gaert” in the Guild Wars game, and this sword was a figment of an overenthusiastic sword designers imagination. While I’ll give the designer props for designing a a really cool sword, I am not impressed. This is not the first time that I have run into swords bearing references to game or movie characters they had absolutely nothing to do with. And I’m sure it won’t be the last.

However I do have a few choice words to say to all you sword designers who like to make a blade and then slap whatever unrelated but popular name you can think of on it in order to boost your sales: You suck like 3 month old rocky mountain oysters. There.

*end update*

Gaerts Sword – [Red Dragon Sword Co.]

Not too long ago, I posted about an interesting sword, the Dragon Scimitar which had the most notable distinction of having a red blade. I was suitably impressed with it, but didn’t expect to come across any other similarly colored blades any time soon. Boy was I wrong!:

Dragons Wrath

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Surprise! Another red blade. Now I found this particular sword is interesting for two reasons. First, because this sword design is a nearly exact duplicate of another sword I have posted about called the Mithrodin, save for the fact that this one has a polished grip and a dragon pommel. I won’t go into the reasons why I like this design here, as I went through it pretty thoroughly in the Mithrodin post.

The second reason is that, compared to the original, the red blade is actually an improvement, perhaps even more so than a black blade might be, which is something I am actually surprised to find myself saying. I also find it interesting that so far, pretty much every single red bladed weapon I have come across, this, the Dragon Scimitar, and Zar’roc has featured some relationship with dragons, either in name or origin which, to be quite honest, is a little baffling. It’s not as if a Dragons would prefer a red sword over any other color. But I digress.

I am honestly looking forward to seeing a few more weapons with this blade treatment, though I doubt that it will be a common occurrence…

Dragons Wrath – [Red Dragon Sword Company]

Battle axes are some of the most brutish weapons out there. Their sheer size and heft makes them a match for even armored opponents, who can be damaged by the impact of the weapon alone, even if the edge doesn’t actually penetrate the armor.

But all of this comes at the cost of speed. Battle axes are not the fastest weapons on earth. But I love them anyway. I’m not sure why, but as far back as I can remember, every time I sketched a weapon design on a piece of paper, it was of a double edged battle axe, or D-BAX as I like to call them…

Which brings me to the topic of todays post. I found a D-BAX whose design looked remarkably like one I had sketched many years ago:

Double Edged Battle Axe

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Yeah. That’s pretty much what it looked like. Except that the variations I created always either had a simple flat, rounded or pointed pommel. I really like this design. Probably because it looks like a horned bat. I always had a thing for organic looking weapons. I also had a variation with just one point in the middle.

Anyway, I thought I would post this becuause it is actually a very good example of the kinds of DBAX I would make, right down to the finish on the steel. Though i might use wood or synthetic scales for the handle. And actually, with the technology available today, I would probably also make it jet black. (Of course!) But the basic shape would remain the same.

Some day, I think I’m going to start a little knife shop and make one of these myself…

Double Edged Battle Axe – [Swords of Honor]

Actually more like dragon knuckle talons, but whose keeping track? In the tradition of finger weapons like the Iron Reaver,  I present the Dragon Ring:

Dragon Ring

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Now I really like the aesthetics of this weapon. The little dragons head is well done, and the blade itself actually looks fairly sinister. And whose to say there weren’t vicious blade headed unicorn dragons back in the day?

My only gripe with this weapon is that, sadly, the ring is too small for anyone to have any real control over the blade. You could prbably cut someone if you back handed them, with it, (and you might cut yourself in the process) but forget stabbing and such, unless you have really, really, strong fingers. You’d probably hurt yourself worse than whatever it is you were trying to stab or claw at.

But it looks pretty cool. ‘Nuff said.

Dragon Ring – [Collectors Edge]

A few posts back I introduced you to the shirasaya, which, for all intents and purposes, is an exercise in Japanese sword making minimalism. My kind of design. Well just happened to come across another stunning example of a black shirasaya, that I felt deserved a post. I present to you, one of the coolest designs I have ever seen in a shirasaya:

O-Ren Ishii Shirasaya

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The dark, lithe and lovely blade above is a reproduction is of the beautiful shirasaya used by the character O-Ren Ishii, a Japanese mafia boss, in the movie “Kill Bill”, played by equally stunning Lucy Liu. Now this shirasaya is special in quite a few ways. Let me count the ways…

The most noticeable is it’s shape. You can see the mild s-shape that this shirasaya takes when sheathed. Sweeeet. And then you have the almost elven sword like blade, with a large ricasso. A ricasso is unusual for a Japanese swords, but here it adds a more organic feel to the blade, much like the sword of Arya, which I found equally alluring.

And of course, the black laquer treatment of the scabbard and blade is just superb. All and all, I really like the elegance and simplicity of this swords design…

O-Ren Ishii Shirasaya- [True Swords]

Today I encountered a rather unique blade:

Dragon Scimitar

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 As you can see, this weapon in unique in many ways. Where to start. Ah. The business end of any bladed weapon. The blade, of course! In case your not sure what your eyes are telling you, yes, the blade is in fact colored red. A deep, deep red. becoming almost black towards the edges. This by itself is an unusual design. In fact I think the only other red bladed sword I have blogged about has been Zar’roc, from the movie Eragon. Though I have to admit it works much better better here.

As if the red treatment weren’t enough, the overall design of the blade is absolutely wicked. I’m betting this is the work of an elven swordsmith. Just love the sweeping curve of the blade. And then we have the guard. What a guard. This guard is designed with two blades, one on either sides, colored to match the blade. What’s even wilder is that it is attached magnetically, and can be removed and used as an impromptu hand weapon, thanks to some built in finger holes. Don’t know how practical it would be, but it’s crazy enough to get my vote!

Finally we have the black grip, topped off with a dragons talon butt cap. Overall, the red dragon theme has been done pretty tastefully. The only area that I thought went over the top a little bit, was the guard, which for some reason, got very poorly treated on the grip side, in order to accommodate the little removable magnet guard gimmick. Totally unnecessary. There are a lot more secure mechanical methods of doing the same thing, that would have allowed for a more seamless aesthetic. But I’ll give them an “A” for effort…

 Dragon Scimitar – [Collectors Edge]

Given that I’ve been talking a lot about cool, stealthy staff weapons, I thought i’d throw one more sword type into the mix, designed along similar lines to the venerable shikomizue. Especially since I recently encountered a rather beautiful specimen of such a sword. It’s only fair that I share:

Mushashi Black Shirasaya

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The oh, so elegant sword you see above is called a shirasaya. The shirasaya, which means “White Scabbard” in Japanese, is a style of sword that features a minimalist theme with regards to the way the grip and scabbard is designed. A traditional shirasaya features a smooth grip with no fancy fittings, in hardly any fittings at all, save for the bamboo pin(s) used to secure the blade in the grip. No guard either. The scabbard is usually equally plain, though they sometimes have information about the sword written on them.

The shirasaya above is unique in that it is lacquered in black, which runs counter to the traditional “white scabbard” design theme, but it is still smooth, and devoid of all fittings, except, of course, for the bamboo pin used to secure the blade. A sleek, beautiful fusion of traditional shirasaya style in modern black.

The shirasaya, while beautiful, suffers from a flaw that is common to pretty much every other staff weapon I have mentioned in previous posts. No guard and a poor grip. This causes two problems. First, because there is no guard, your fingers/arms/etc. no longer have any protection from a sword strike that slides down the blade towards your hand. combine that with a smooth grip, and you no longer have a positive way to prevent your hand from sliding up toward and/or onto the blade should a mishap occur.

Both issues pose rather large problems from a combat perspective, providing all the ingredients for a rather nasty accident. However, given that staff weapons were meant foremost for stealth, and easy concealment, as opposed to uncompromising battle ability, I suppose they are flaws that a person using such a weapon could learn to live with.

I thought I’d also show you an example of a more traditional shirasaya. At least on the outside:

2 in 1 Shirasaya

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Now while the weapon above may actually look like a standard shirasaya when they sheathed, is actually rather unique, in that it has two swords instead of the single blade of a standard shirasaya. What is even more interesting is that these swords are sheathed at the same end of the saya, side by side. A very interesting, and quite useful design.

Based on it’s appearance alone, you might not guess that there were two swords hiding in that innocent looking piece of wood. I love stealth…

*Update*

A commenter (Muchas gracias, Miles!) recently pointed out to me that the Shirasaya design was intended primarily for storage, as opposed to stealth. I also discovered that it has traditionally been used to transport high quality blades to and from the polishers, or for shipping a blade to a collector who intended to install their own custom fittings.

Having never purchased a sword without the fittings attached, I thought this was interesting, as I have run across this design a gazillion times, but for some inexplicable reason, never really took the time to properly research it’s origins. Oh. well. I guess I’m slipping in my old age…

Anyway the light wood used (often magnolia) was usually specifically selected for the purpose and cured for many years to remove all moisture, and the lack of finishing, or more precisely, the lack of the traditional lacquer finish, was by design intended to allow the saya to “breathe” and allow moisture to escape, so that the blade would last longer in storage.

In retrospect, looking at the design, this all makes perfect sense, though I will also point out that the design is of such significant aesthetic value that it has been subverted for “practical” use by many sword designers, and even traditionally finished, such as the first blade featured above, which is technically a violation of it’s original intent.

So while similar in many respects to shikomizue, it was originally intended for a completely different purpose. Though aesthetically it’s still a sweet as all get out design… Even if it’s not really particularly stealthy…

• Musashi Black Shirasaya – [True Swords]
• 2 in 1 Shirasaya – [True Swords]

Having run into one of my favorite staff based sword weapons, I decided to go looking for a few more, specifically for one of the ones that I am going to show you today. I’m happy to say my search was quite fruitful. Today I’ve got two sightly different styles of shikomizue, that are a bit different from what I’ve shown you so far:

Dragon Katana Twin Swords

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Serpent Skull Twin Swords

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As you can see, while they are both of the same basic shikomizue design, they both bear a few significant modifications on the traditional shikomizue. The most salient difference being that this particular twin sword configuration is divided at the exact mid point of the staff.

This design has several practical ramifications. For instance, the fact that it is split in the middle means that the length of the blades for each sword must, at most, be slightly less than half the length of the overall shikomizue. Compared to a standard shikomizue of the same length, it doesn’t change your reach, but it does make drawing the swords a little faster. At the cost, of course, of shortening your effective blade length.

It also means that you do not need a separate saya, or scabbard. This is an advantage if you never use the saya as a backup weapon, and also in terms of not having to keep track of the saya whenever you unsheath your sword. But obviously it also means you don’t have anything else to defend yourself with if you happen to lose both of your swords. Not cool.

A much less obvious side effect of this design is that the balance of each sword is actually negatively affected. Because your blade is shorter, and your handle is longer, the sweet spot on the blade will be different from a regular sword. Also because the blades are designed to be sheathed side by side, you will also find that the blade of each sword is offset laterally from the center of the grip by a small amount.

These two small mechanical considerations may appear to be insignificant, but in practice, if you were to attempt to perform any clean, high accuracy cutting, you would find that the blade would have a tendency to rotate on contact, and you’d have to retrain yourself to make clean cuts properly! So this design is all about compromise. You gain a little stealth and speed, in exchange for some cutting efficiency.

But enough with all the technical mumbo jumbo! Shikomizue are cool regardless. And the two above are quite unique. My favorite of the two is the Dragon Katana set. For three reasons. First, it’s black. (And that’s instant win in my book). Secondly, it has these very sweet dragons carved into the black hardwood staff/grip/saya. Third, and most definitely not least, it is the closest to the originally intended design of the traditional shikomizue.

Unlike the Serpent Skull, you can see that on the Twin Dragon Katana, there are no external indicators that the staff splits into two. No external fittings, or anything. The split is a clean line that is not visible unless you are looking closely at it. It looks exactly like a fancy black staff. But, of course, by the time you get close enough to actually realize what it is, it will be too late to evade the Dragons deadly bite! MUA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAaaa…

*ahem* Sorry. I got a little carried away. I get that way sometimes.

Lets just say it’s the ultimate sleeper weapon, and leave it at that, mm’kay…?

• Dragon Katana Twin Swords – [Red Dragon Sword Co]
• Serpent Skull Twin Swords – [True Swords]

You’ll remember a while back I did a couple of posts about the proliferation of Vamp on Vamp crime in the media and such, and on the unique weapons they used. Well, I found yet another vampire-terminating sliver of soulless steel:

The Vampire Vanquisher

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Now I am not a professional vampire slayer by any means. They don’t come round these here parts. So I never had to learn. But if I were, this would be the sword I’d use. Why? Because it’s cool. Obviously the first thing you notice is it’s basic cruciform shape. Built-in Vampire repellent right thar. Until you meet one ‘o them super master vamps, at which point that keen edge would come in mighty handy for some quick decapitation work. Or you die. Depending on how much you suck. Or how experienced the vamp is at sucking the life out of hapless humans. But I digress.

What I really like about this sword is it’s aesthetics. As I mentioned before, It has a really neat cruciform shape built into the ricasso/guard, but even cooler is that there are some wicked looking curved blades at the ends of the guards. A rather practical design, I reckon, that also enhances the aesthetics of the weapon. The guard and substantial ricasso are also etched with a cool looking set of runes, which add to the overall appeal of the weapon. Though I’m betting they’d be a pain to clean, should you happen to get vamp juice all over them.

Now maybe I’m nitpicking a bit, but the grip and pommel don’t quite cut muster in my oh, so humble opinion. It’s not that they’re bad, they’re just, umm…, meh. I’m not a big fan of colored grips. Unless it’s black. Then I’m all about it. The red grip? It’s just not me. And I’d actually be fine with the pommel, IF it didn’t have those funky, dangly hook things on them. Looks like a prime way to get the sword hooked on your clothing or something. Definitely wouldn’t be a good position to be in while battling a really hungry blood sucker.

But those are the only areas I have any complaints. The blade itself is simple, bearing the slender, fairly straight lines that I find quite appealing for this kind of sword. This, in combination with the other aesthetic features of the guard and ricasso, make up for it’s other shortcomings. Which might just be me being nitpicky. Hey! No comments from the peanut gallery! Ya can’t can’t blame me for wanting perfection out of my vamp slaying weapons. Even if I might never use them…

the Vampire Vanquisher – [Collectors Edge]