Drac - That was a fascinating read. The great reforming admiral Jacky Fisher, who launched the Dreadnaught revolution, joked once that he was looking for cutlasses on board ships, but military blades have survived even in this hi-tech era. Some close quarter fighting in the Falklands was with the bayonet. The Japanese attachment to their blades was such that pilots even took them into the cockpit in WW2. Sir John Hackett once wrote that at Sandhurst in the 20s they were taught to fight from horseback with a sword, but a few cadets nearly took their horse's ears off.

A sword can be a beautiful thing, but very awkward for most of us to manage most of the time. Give me a skean dhu to cut my haggis with instead. Always much admired.