I am a maker of historically-styled medieval swords, knives and daggers as well as modern knives. You can find pictures of my work at Http://www.Tinkerswords.com.
I currently live in Seattle, WA, with my wife Linda. We are engaged in animal resue and have several cats and dogs of our own, as well as our horse Sylvester.
Hobbies include Living History, Western European Historical Martial Arts, Classic Cars and riding our horse.
I regularly participate in online forums abiout swords, custom knives and Classsic cars and have written a book, "The Medieval Sword in the Modern World," available though Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Lulu.com, or as an ebook through my web site.

My passion is ...

my wife, Linda

I know too much about ...

A lot of things. Wind me up an' watch me go...

My parents always told me ...

that I did a lot of stupid things... sadly they were correct, but I'm muuuuch better now!

My childhood ambition ...

was to be an 'automotive stylist.'

My favorite memory ...

um... I forget...

Why I write ...

I write because I can't talk 24 hours a day. No kidding; I've tried.

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

Currently reading the Dresden Files novels, watching shows cancelled by FOX (IOW all the good ones...) and constantly listening to NPR.

My first job ...

Was picking cucumbers. No, really.

My best moment ...

Um... this is a family web-site, right? Never mind...

My inspiration ...

is, corny as it sounds, my wife Linda.

Sports & Recreation > Martial Arts An overview of the medieval sword

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This article deals with medieval swords of Western Europe; curiously folks in the western world often know less about the swords of our ancestors than we do about the swords of the far east. This is due in part to the surge of eastern-asian martial arts that started in the 1960's and 70's.

Let's not get all philosophical here. A sword is a tool for killing people. Currently it is an obsolete tool -that's pretty simple when you get right down to it. A tougher question is what makes a specific weapon a sword? It has a blade, a guard and a handle. Most have a blade more than sixteen inches ...

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