Swords ?

[hso]

Must be to keep you from "blubbering" over the price. Ha,ha; ha, ha, haaaaaaaagh

 

[Don Gwinn]

Well, lash my flanks and call me Flicka--who'da thunk it? This'll teach me to be mildly amused at high-toned English traditions.

http://money.cnn.com/2002/12/26/pf/autos/stick_feedback/index.htm

Automatics break down a lot
This was once true, particularly in the mid-1970s. Blame all those "Save the Whales" bumper stickers.

Prior to the 1974 endangered species act, automatic transmissions were filled with fluid that was 95 percent sperm whale oil and it was just the stuff for the job. That oil lasted a long time, said Roger Kwapich, auto mechanic and host of the "Consumer Automotive Repair Show" (The C.A.R. Show) a syndicated radio show. Also, it had just the right properties, allowing transmissions to slip when they needed to slip and grab when they needed to grab, he said.

Ever since it became illegal to kill sperm whales for our motoring pleasure, automotive fluid makers have been trying to "reverse engineer" the stuff that poured out of those whales' heads by the gallon. Early attempts weren't so great and frequent transmission breakdowns were the result. But today's transmissions hold about just about as well as the old whale oil ones.

It just could be, boys and girls, that the same qualities that make modern ATF such a good quench medium are indeed found in whale oil. I never would have guessed it.
(ATF has a flash point just above a very good temper/critical temperature for most steel, so not only does it work well but the temperature is easy to control and it keeps rank amateurs like myself from screwing up too badly.)

 

[Dr.Rob]

You know I never got around to buying a serious edged weapon, but there is a costume-grade cutlass on my mantle.

Hey, I needed something to go with the rest of my Pirate Outfit.

 

[Don Gwinn]

Oh, well that explains it. . . . .

 

[Bruz]

Yea, thanks for posting those links...now I have the begining of, what I am afraid is, another adiction.

 

[Crimper-D]

Got one -

A Viking shortsword from Museum Replicas of Conyers Ga. Great for fighting with a shield when bording ships storming castles, etc.
It's a reproduction of a weapon on display in the British Museum called the Thames Scramsax dug up near the Tower of London.