To paraphrase one of my favorite bloggers: G’day readers! Every now and then I run across a weapon that has me scratching my head. Today is one of those days. Allow me to introduce you to a rather unusual “dagger”:
OOOOKKKKKKK… Interesting. Now I am all about weapon being art. It can be a beautiful thing. What I do not get is how the art can be allowed to completely dictate the form of the weapon, to the extent it it more a danger to the wielder than it is to an opponent. Am I confusing you? Good. let me elaborate. Lets take a look at this “dagger” shall we?
First off, your average dagger is a short, pointed, double or single edged knife with a fairly thick blade. What is this? I dunno really. It looks like… an upside down double Ulu (an Alaskan Eskimo chopping knife)…
Hey, that’s what it looks like… I’m just saying. Ok, so maybe I’m being unfair. It is a dragon themed blade. There are two blades representing the dragons outstretched wings, between which juts the head of the dragon. The dragons body is the grip of the blade. And the pommel is a curved piece with blades that represent spikes on the dragons tail.
Ah yes. The tail. Lets talk about that spikey tail shall we? the bladed spikes that point inwards towards the wielders hands. Yeah. Those spikes. That’s what I was talking about when I pointed out that this “dagger” was a greater danger to it’s wielder. But hey, it’s art right? And art is in the eyes of the beholder. Or so they say. I have no problem with art either way. It’s when they start calling art “Daggers”, and “fantasy axes”, and “ethereal swords” and whatnot that I start getting a little antsy.
What I am trying to say, in my oh, so, subtle manner is this: Dear blade art designers, this is not a dagger. It’s an art piece. In steel. Sharp, artistically rendered steel, yes. But nothing more nor less than an object d’art. And most certainly not a dagger. At least not in any traditional sense. Not trying to belittle the art or anything, but please, for the love of all that is holy, know the difference…
Flying Dragon Dagger – [Realm Collections]
The Realm Of The Dark Blade 
First off, I’d like to point out the Eskimo is actually a dirogatory term used by Dene tribes to refer to their bitter enemies to the north. The accepted term is Inuit. And just for reference to anyone wondering what a traditional Ulu looks like, here’s a picture of the one I have from my mother(small, generally used for sewing or cutting smaller pieces of meat).
It’s made of Caribou antler and an old saw blade.
Here’s a larger traditional Ulu, used for pretty much anything requiring a knife, clever, etc.
Jeez, everything is a derogatory term these days!! *Sigh*… Anyway, no offense meant to anyone, when I was growing up, this is the word I was taught to use, and there were no negative connotations attached to it. Actually this is the first I’m hearing that it had any other associations 😦 As much as these are not the kinds of things I like learning about, I guess you learn something new every day…
But anyway Sam, thanks for the education and the pics… I didn’t think to get any to illustrate what I was talking about. Somehow in my head I figured everyone would know what an Ulu looks like… LOL… 🙂
OH, Sam, btw, I saw your other two posts, the filter flagged them for moderation because of the pic links. I just approved the first one and killed the others, as they were essentially all the same post…
Thanks, I thought my computer was glitching so I posted it thrice. oops. lol
I think it is a really fancy pizza cutter. It might be pretty to look at, but I do not think it even deserves the titile of weapon. It is so completely dysfuntional as such.
LOL Pizza cutter eh? Actually I’m not even sure this would be safe enough for that… LOL…
Hehe yeah, sense you mentioned it looked like one of those Alaskan knives, we have one, that is great for cutting pizza
O.o Are those tail spikes… sharpened on the inside curve?
Maybe we should hand it to the designer and tell him to defend himself with it.
Seriously… That is a great idea… 🙂
Well let me first say that I am an amateur fantasy artist that collects swords. I prefer collecting functional, traditional, historical steel sword replicas over stainless steel wallhangers, and despite my appreciation of fantasy art I tend to stay away from “fantasy sword” replicas.
That said, I think I can speak somewhat for both sides. No offense, but I find this is akin to people who watch Final Fantasy 7 and can’t get over the fact that Cloud is wielding a gigantic sword, saying “No one can wield a sword that big!” Orrr, people who watch Star Wars and comment on how there’s no sound in space. So fake, I know. Just like light sabers and the Force. What were they thinking? They are bastardizing science FICTION! They usually follow the rant up with “Star Trek, now there’s a real Sci-Fi. They actually explain stuff.”
Anyway, while it’s clear that dagger looks very unfunctional, I think it is more important to just think of it as an art piece without getting wound up over the “stupidness” of it. Just like Final Fantasy 7, or Star Wars, fantasy is almost ALWAYS going to seem stupid when put in the context of reality. The degree of “stupidness” will vary with the vividness of the viewer’s imagination.
No one, including the artist, I am sure, is trying to pass this off for a legitimate weapon, but rather a creative work. You have to understand the way artists think. Most don’t think in terms of reality. I know I don’t. We imagine the wielders of our weapons to be of different worlds, different ability sets (ie supernatural) from what’s realistic. Other times, we just come up with wacky ideas just to break ourselves from creative ruts.
Would I trust my life to any of these weapons in self-defense? No. Especially not this one. But then again, this is reality. I’m not supernatural. That seems like pointing out the obvious, but then again so does the phrase “you just have to use your imagination”. 😉