[MR] FW: Of blade lengths, Cubits & Gomeds

[Jeanne]

>From a good friend

Soffya
http://community.webshots.com/user/atasetofcreole

"Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris."  (If Caesar was still alive, you'd be
chained to an oar.)



-----Original Message-----



I have been haunting & posting on the blade forums web site recently and
came across some information that I found absolutely fascinating.  Figured
I'd share it.  This is a post by forum moderator, Ken Cox:

"Let's begin with the qualities that make a blade, in our minds, a sword.

First of all, with a sword, we have no intention of using it as a large camp
knife.
We might use a sword as a camp knife, but we don't design it with that
intent.
We intend a sword for combat.

Secondly, a sword, regardless of dimensions, should have the ability to
thrust, hack and parry.

So, if we have designed a blade, not as a camp knife but as a combat weapon;
and, if we can thrust, parry and hack with it, then, in my mind, that makes
it a sword and not a large knife.

By my definition above, the Randall Model 1 All-Purpose Fighting Knife, with
an 8" blade, qualifies as a sword.
If to someone else it seems too short to qualify as a sword, I can live with
that.

Randall's site at one time said they would prefer not to make a #1 with a
blade longer than 8" because they had determined from experience that the
handling deteriorated past 8 inches.
I consider the #1 with an 8" blade and a 4.75"-5" handle the definitive
short sword.
I think the Bowie #2 (the second knife made for Jim Bowie by James Black and
the third knife made for Bowie over all) had dimensions similar to the
Randall #1, with a straight coffin handle on line with the hilt and the
point.
I think Jim Bowie fought with it spine/swedge down and edge up, and used the
spine to parry larger blades, and as a club, and the swedge for long
distance slashing; and I think he used the major edge to cut up between his
opponent's legs, up under his opponent's armpit, and for a wicked back cut
or draw cut.

I've discussed the Randall, so far, because of its perfect 13":8":5"
proportions.
It has a 13" total length with an eight inch blade and a five inch handle.

So from where does the 13" dimension come?

The ancients of several civilizations base at least two measurements on the
human body because, surprisingly, these two measurements remain very
constant in almost all men, regardless of their height.

The first measurement, the Cubit (18" on the average) equals the distance
from the center of rotation of the hip to the center of rotation of the
knee.
More conveniently, if one places his elbow on a table with his forearm
pointing straight up towards the ceiling, and if one curls his fingers down,
with his palm open, so that the first bone of the middle finger continues to
point towards the ceiling, the second bone parallels the table, and the last
bone points down; and, if one measures from the table to the top of the bent
middle finger, then he will in all likelihood find this comes out amazingly
close to 18", and this distance also exactly equals the length of his femur
(the long bone from hip to knee).

The second measurement, the Gomed, equals three quarters of a Cubit, or half
of a Cubit plus half of a half of a Cubit.

0.75 X 18 = 13.5

One can determine the Gomed from the human body by keeping his arm and hand
straight up, with elbow on the table, as described above.
One turns his palm towards his face and feels for where the bicep tendon
inserts into the forearm, and then he measures from that tendon to the
inside of his bent middle finger, and that almost universally equals 13.5
inches.
We base the PULL of a rifle, meaning the distance from the inside of the
elbow to the inside of the bent middle finger, on this body dimension; and
we make this the same as the distance from the butt plate of a rifle to the
trigger.
The word PULL, in this usage, actually comes from ancient archery but I
haven't found more of an explanation of the term written anywhere.

So, a Gomed equals 13.5 " and a Cubit equals 18 inches; and they have the
relationships to each other (inside and outside of the forearm, and a ratio
of three quarters to one) as described above.

Ratio of handle to blade, or five to eight, comes from Fibonacci's series.

1 + 2 = 3

2 + 3 = 5

3 + 5 = 8

5 + 8 = 13

8 + 13 = 21

13 + 21 = 34

21 + 34 = 55

34 + 55 = 89

and so on

See the pattern?

It gets more interesting:

34 divided by 21 equals 1.619

55 divided by 34 equals 1.617

89 divided by 55 equals 1.618

For the rest of the series, off into infinity, if one divides the larger of
any two numbers in the series by the next smaller, he will get the number
1.618, also called Phi, or the Golden Section.

Architects and engineers use this number, 1.618, the Golden Section,
whenever they desire an aesthetically pleasing appearance.
Almost all of the classical architecture, from the Great Pyramid at Giza to
the Parthenon atop the Acropolis, use the Golden Section over and over again
in their designs.

The Golden Section defines a spiral: if one draws a line through the center
of a spiral, the portions of the straight line in between the points where
it crosses the spiral, will have a ratio of 1.618 to one.

Phi has many other puzzling and amazing qualities.
For example, of all the numbers, only Phi plus one equals itself, squared.

X + 1 = X (X)

also written

X + 1 = X^2

What a trip, eh?

Anyway, if one divides the eight inch blade of a Randall by the length of
the handle, he will get a ratio of 1.6 to one.

If one wanted a perfect large fighting knife, or short sword, he would start
with either 13.5" or 18 inches.
Because the femur or thigh measures 18 inches, a man can actually carry an
18" blade on his thigh and do all sorts of athletic things without
interference from the blade.
However, 13.5" seems the limit for a blade in Western society, and so let's
look at a 13.5" Bowie Knife or Short Sword.

Thirteen and a half inches divided by 1.618 equals 8.34 inches for the
blade.
Subtract an 8.34 inch blade from a total length of 13.5 inches, and that
leaves a handle 5.16 inches long.
If one applies the same ratio to the blade in order to determine the lenght
of the spine and the lenght of the swedge, he would get a 5.15 inch spine
and a 3.19 inch swedge.

Notice how close the lenght of the handle and the spine come to each other.
If not for rounding off in the successive equations, they might have equaled
each other.

So, a 13.5" knife with an 8.34" blade, a 5.16" handle, a 5.15" spine and a
3.19" swedge."