> On May 1, 2017, at 2:23 PM, Fred Kiesche <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Well, it appears that my attempt at showing history with a picture dud not work, so here's my text:

Got stuck in the approval queue.

Here’s an article about the relevant sabre. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_1913_Cavalry_Saber>

>
> "My mother has my (paternal) grandfather's US Cav sword, which we can see him holding (from the front) in a 1918 picture of his unit. It is curved, not straight. I'll try embedding the image below (not sure if the list will accept that?) (He is fourth from the left)."
>
>
> On Mon, May 1, 2017 at 15:36 Phil Pugliese (via tml list) <xxxxxx@simplelists.com> wrote:
>
> --------------------------------------------
> 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.
>
>  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> 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.
>
> -------------------------
> [More snipping]
>  --------------------------
>
>  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.)
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> 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!"
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  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.
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> 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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> --
> F.P. Kiesche III
>
> Husband, Father, Good Cook. Reader. Keeper of abandoned dogs. Catholic Liberal Conservative Militarist. Does not fit into a neat box or category. "Ah Mr. Gibbon, another damned, fat, square book. Always, scribble, scribble, scribble, eh?" (The Duke of Gloucester, on being presented with Volume 2 of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.) Blogging at Bernal Alpha. On Twitter as @FredKiesche
>
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--
Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group

Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs