I guess the other real pickle of a question is, are our modern metallurgical practices able to produce 'better' weapons, or is it simply labor-saving?
(snip)
For me, this is a intense and engrossing subject because the more questions I ask myself, the more questions it seems to open up. Maybe one of the problems is that I don't feel there's a baseline. Without anyone qualified as a master with antique weapons, we lack comparative insight.
I think you raise an excellent point here. I agree we dont have a comprehensive analysis of the true qualities of a representative portion of all available antique weapons, nor even for that matter of all modern replicas. But you can predict from trends of even very small samples, and my gut instinct tells me that the ancient weapons were MUCH better than the very finest replicas can even come near to.
On a purely factual level, consider the most basic issues of weight and dimensions. Until just a few years ago, almost all available replicas were considerably heavier than the antiques.
Perhaps more important to me though, are the subjective analysis. Every one of the several hundred comparisons I have seen online and in books such as those of Mr Oakeshott has indicated that the qualities of the original weapons were in maybe 90% of the cases VASTLY superior to those of the best modern reproductions. This has also been borne out by my own small number of personal experiences, including recently in France and the Czech republic.
Just as we humbly realize that we have a long way to go to
in relearning European martial arts, I think it is clear even from the limited evidence at hand that the modern smiths, as talented as they are, still have a very long way to go toward reaching the subtle balances of the ancient bladesmiths. I think this is even more so when we are talking about attempting to use modern methods (stock reduction etc.) to emulate the results achieved in more labor intensive methods by the ancients, who were constnatly modifying their craft in a direct feedback loop from the people who used their weapons on the battlefield, with their very lives at stake.
I think a very dangerous assumption that perfection has already been reached does crop up in this discussion, and with all due respect to the modern sword makers whos art amazes me, we should not fall into this trap.
Jeanry