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On Mon, 5/1/17, Bruce Johnson <xxxxxx@Pharmacy.Arizona.EDU> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [TML] What if the cutlass is not a cutlass?
 To: "xxxxxx@simplelists.com" <xxxxxx@simplelists.com>
 Date: Monday, May 1, 2017, 9:50 AM

 [Lot's of good stuff snipped]

 Swords designed to be used
 from horseback, for example, tend to all look alike: curved
 blades designed for slashing in an arc without the tip
 hanging up to dislodge the rider,  long enough to reach a
 foot soldier alongside a horse, short enough to be easy to
 wield from the saddle one handed.

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I recall reading somewhere that Patton, while still a jr officer & after he competed in the Olympics, managed to get himself assigned to the project to design a new cavalry sword for the US Army. I also recall it was before WWI.
Anyway, I remember the new sword was described as "a straight sword intended for chopping instead of slashing"<sic> which surprised me as I was accustomed to the sort of saber seen on most old westerns. Now that I'm thinking about it, I also recall reading an article about the army that Gustavus Adolphus brought into the Thirty-Years War. As I remember his cavalry was distinguished by using a straight 'chopping' sword.

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[More snipping]
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 Famously the cutlass was
 designed to be used by inexperienced sailors in close
 quarters; in truth, hatchets and short axes were used almost
 as frequently, as those were very common tools aboard a
 wooden ship (thus multiple use devices), and are as easy to
 wield (probably easier, since they get used a lot, so
 there’s muscle memory.)

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Heck even the good ol' belaying pin would come in handy during a boarding melee"
As my (retired vet) Dad used to say;
"hit'em on top of his head so hard he'll have three tongues in his shoes!"

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 There isn’t ‘one true sword design’.

 Frankly the imperial
 'cutlass’ probably looks as much like this <http://www.leevalley.com/us/garden/page.aspx?p=65248&cat=2,45794> as anything else.

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Hey! You've just discovered the KTLSS (commonly referred to as a 'cutlass').
The standard boarding weapon of the Imperial Marines.

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