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art-of-swords:

The Sword Dao

The phrase sword-dao is used herein, after the practice of Rawson (1968), to differentiate the subgroup of weapons considered on this page from the general purpose dao which, although of many forms, usually tends to be a broad, thin bladed axe somewhat like a fascine knife, which was used not only in war but as the Naga’s primary tool.

Variants of the sword-dao were found among the hill tribes occupying the foothills of the eastern Himalayas in what now includes Assam and Nagaland in northeastern India and among the Kachin of northern Burma (Myanmar). While these short swords were likely worn in many ways, some retain a hoop-like rattan belt fastened to the scabbard. In this case the belt appears to have been intended for the waist with the sword-dao worn diagonally at the front, edge up, with the hilt higher than the tip in ready position for the right hand.

The blades tend to be narrowest a short distance from the guardless hilt and widest at the far end. This does not make the sword-dao as blade heavy, as, through thickness manipulation, the smiths have set the balance points for each of the first two examples just shy of forty percent of blade length.

Much emphasis is found in the literature that, owing to blade cross-sectional geometry, the sword-dao, like the mandau, has a “chisel edge” that is only suited for a stroke from above on the cutter’s right to below on the cutter’s left. Like so much of weapons lore, this limitation is likely seriously overstated.

While bladas of sword-daos are, indeed, generally relatively flat on the side to the holder’s left with the blade oriented edge-down, this flatness should not be overemphasized, as, at least in all three of the examples illustrated here, the “flat” face tends to round subtly toward the edge as the edge is approached.

The opposite blade face in these examples shows a definite, though somewhat indistinct, bevel usually about two-fifths of the blade width back from the edge, which is where the blade reaches its maximum thickness. From this bevel there is also a subtle thinning approaching a generally squared spine. Classically the end is squared off, often with somewhat of a concave curve, however some examples, such as the third one, below, will have a true tip.

Source & Copyright: Viking Sword 

Photo source: Swords and Antique Weapons 

littlemure:

Me as an owl lady.

tenhoursinthelab:

wilwheaton:

inothernews:

Besides the hype, besides the technical fuckups of NASDAQ, besides the overvaluation and offering too many shares during their IPO, I think the reason Facebook’s stock is failing as much as it is right now is that people have come to realize that Everybody’s Favorite Social Network is just too obnoxious, intrusive, and data-scrapingly assholish in the way it treats everyone from its most ardent users to, sadly, people on third-party platforms like, I dunno, TUMBLR, that perhaps want nothing at all to do with the privacy black hole that is Mark Zuckerberg’s dickishness incarnate but wake up and log on to find THIS UTTER BULLSHIT.

I go on Tumblr to be on Tumblr, Tumblr.  Please leave the shitty Facebook tactics to Facebook.

Cosigned.

So Say We ALL!

bendydicks:

le-struudel:

thescienceofobsession:

#this looks like a musical #Sherlock is singing about all the wonderful things that would be in the world if he had Jim #he will woo him with song #and they’ll sing a duet #and then they will kiss #on the edge of the building at sunset

and then jim’s solo
 
 

#Sherlock on Broadway

collegehumor:

Five Generations of Batmobile Driving on the Road

They’re all honking at the oldest Batmobile in the front.

amazing! the batman in a time line on the road! 

;-) xxx

steampunkredpanda:

hollyjolly-loki-n-pie:

rydiahighwind:

this guy is legit my favorite oban character :|

contrary to popular belief, he is not cid pollendina, but he is pretty cool anyway

RUSH IS AWESOME~! *throws up arms*

Rush is like one of the coolest characters on the show, next to the main trio (Molly, Aikka and Jordan) and Spirit. Then again, I always had a soft spot for all of the Alwas Cycle characters.