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Message: <blockquote data-quote="takyris" data-source="post: 1650032" data-attributes="member: 5171">Yeah, pretty much what you said. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  I got the chance to go to St. Petersburg a few years back and get a great tour of the Hermitage.  Their armory was gorgeous, beautiful.  Not their treasury armory, mind you -- although that was fantastic as well (swords with pure amber hilts, swords with photo-quality cameos on the hilts, swords a hundred thousand dollars worth of inlay or diamonds, all that good stuff -- but their "this is what you fought with" armory.  There were some gorgeous weapons there, high-quality blades that weren't just cleavers.It was honestly like looking at my dad's golf clubs.  Dad has this extremely expensive set of clubs he bought mostly for show and uses when he wants his picture taken.  And then he's got the clubs he plays with.  And they're not as pretty -- no amber inlay or buttercream finish or anything -- but they're still fantastically made and have great lines.  I saw a falchion -- or at least, a large curved sword that seemed to read "falchion" -- that had a line-art picture of a small town etched thinly into the blade with the same level of detail that you'd get in a good inkline drawing -- shadows and everything.  This wasn't a decorative sword.  This was somebody's work sword.  But it was still a beautiful piece of art, and it looked as well taken care of as any WORK katana would have been -- as opposed to the fabulous sword that sits on the pillow all day looking good, which is in a class by itself. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Also saw a few gun-swords that were pretty awesome on that trip.  I'd love to see a good writeup of those.  A flamberge rapier with a pistol built into the hilt, and a longer sword (a big longsword or maybe a hand-and-a-half) with a longer pistol attached to it as well.  Gorgeous craftsmanship.</blockquote>

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