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Kit Carson Machete?
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Booshway
Picture of Deercop
posted
Been enjoying a good read..John S.C. Abbott's Christopher Carson:Familiarly Known as Kit Carson has been reprinted from the 1920s.
On page 133 it describes Kit's dress which includes "..and knee high leggings in which he carried his machete, or long two-edged knife in the Mexican style"
This has me intrigued. I've never heard the term "machete" used to describe a knife (or short sword) in the SW before.
By description, it is double edged. By conjecture, it couldn't have been very long..Kit was only 5'8".
I'm thinking this could just be a term used by the author to describe Kit's fighting knife..or was it an actual type of knife used in the SW?
I'm hoping maybe some of the knife people here at the Campfire might have some answers.
 
Posts: 649 | Location: Clovis, New Mexico | Registered: 21 March 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Notchy Bob
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¡Hola!, Deercop

My guess would be that he is describing an espada ancha. There is more information and some pretty good photos in the link. There was an article about this particular type of short sword in a back issue of the Museum of the Fur Trade Quarterly, also. I can look up the citation on that if you're interested.

Notchy Bob


"Should have kept the old ways just as much as I could, and the tradition that guarded us. Should have rode horses. Kept dogs."

from The Antelope Wife
 
Posts: 333 | Location: Florida | Registered: 24 May 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Hivernant
Picture of Willis Creek
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Book of Buckskinning IV, article entitled'Styles of the Southwest', by Cathy Bauman describes fairly well various styles of edged implements in use during the era in Mexico. Breed leggings or botas very useful and comfortable. I like um.


"touch not the cat without a glove"
"Much of the social history of the western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good. . ." Thomas Sowell
 
Posts: 143 | Location: South of the Arkansas, on the slopes of St. Charles Peak, Colorado territory | Registered: 25 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Deercop
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Notchy Bob,
I considered the espada anchas, but they are too long. If Kit carried one of these tucked into his legging, it couldn't have been longer than 14" blade. I'm 5'8", and anything longer than that would have the point into the ground!
 
Posts: 649 | Location: Clovis, New Mexico | Registered: 21 March 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of NWTF Longhunter
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Maybe a Spanish Belduque? This one has a 10" blade with a 6" false edge, 14 3/4" overall

 
Posts: 797 | Location: Michigan | Registered: 29 April 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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IMO - this is a case of an author not knowing his subject well and/or overusing Roget's...


aka Chuck Burrows
 
Posts: 616 | Location: Southern Rockies | Registered: 03 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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Hey Longhunter, that blade and sheath are things of beauty!!! How did you come by them? Have a Great Day, Flintlockjoe.
 
Posts: 45 | Location: Rockland County, NY | Registered: 29 May 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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quote:
Originally posted by NWTF Longhunter:
Maybe a Spanish Belduque? This one has a 10" blade with a 6" false edge, 14 3/4" overall



Beautiful knife and sheath.
 
Posts: 1487 | Location: Mountain Home, Arkansas | Registered: 08 October 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I agree with the others I like the knife and the sheath.

BC


"Better fare hard with good men than feast it with bad."
Thomas Paine
 
Posts: 649 | Location: Oregon | Registered: 27 June 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of Hanshi
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Actually it looks as if it just stepped out of a museum show case. I like.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3559 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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FYI - Ron's belduque (a copy of an original) is by Joe Delaronde - the sheath is by me.......


aka Chuck Burrows
 
Posts: 616 | Location: Southern Rockies | Registered: 03 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of NWTF Longhunter
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I just got home from a long weekend. Thanks for answering for me Chuck

I'm looking forward to seeing the sheath for my latest knife that you said you're sending out today. Smiler
 
Posts: 797 | Location: Michigan | Registered: 29 April 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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