We have dedicated ourselves to our customers by providing them with the largest selection and the finest quality swords and weapons at the lowest possible prices. Don't just learn about them, own a piece of history today!

World Of Swords » history

Posts Tagged ‘history’

Medieval Costume Choices

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

There are many choices when deciding on a costume for a party. One area to look at is a possible theme costume. This could involve selecting a specific time in history and discovering the type of dress wore during that period.

Costume from the Medieval Age: One great suggestion to pick a type of costume is something that belongs to the medieval period. What makes this attire outstanding is its uniqueness and wearing wardrobes connected to these times can easily be noticed. Moreover, it can worn by anyone, even by a child.

Knight Costume Most individuals when thinking about costumes related to the medieval ages select the knight as their first choices. That is why when choosing the knight costume, there should always be the presence of those swords and shields that you should be holding. Otherwise, your wardrobe would be incomplete. These items are usually found on stores selling different costumes. Furthermore, make sure to wear a shirt and black pants prior to wearing your armor for comfort.

Another knight costume would be wearing black and acquiring a silver-looking material as your cape. If you prefer using the material to serve as a chain mail, or something to drape around your head, feel free to do so. Furthermore, to intensify your costume to make it look like a true knight from the medieval period, you can procure a felt and place on your mail in a cross-shaped manner.

The Wizard Aside from the knight, a wizard is another good choice when picking a costume from the medieval period. Purchasing items to make this wardrobe is also facile since they are available on different stores as well. Surely you are insightful about how Merlin looks like: lengthy white beard, long robe and a wand would complete the attire.

The Court Costume The costumes of the kings and queens can also be considered as wonderful choices in the medieval period. They compose of numerous patterns to choose from and the wardrobes can also be bought or rented on various costume stores. For the women, they can go with those extended and narrow dresses while the men can select the long capes and hose. To acquire more help in getting the right costume related to the medieval period, several books are always available to help you get what you are looking for.

However, if you truly want to wear a medieval costume that can be more noticeable, try wearing the attires of those peasants and barbarians. Since wearing the wizard or the knight costume is somehow overused, your unique costume might catch the attention of the people more.

Finding the right medieval costume that is the right personality choice for you, may take some investigation, but in the end will be unique.

The author is a multifaceted writer. She writes articles for a number of subjects like marriage and relationship advices, handbags on sale and shoulder handbag , family and parenting concerns, fashion and beauty tips and a lot more.

categories: medieval costumes,costumes,medieval,halloween costume,theme party,costume party

Making Archery Equipment

Wednesday, December 8th, 2010

Archery has been practiced for a long time. Bows have been found from at least 2,500 years before Christ, so 4,500 years ago. It is also probable that archery goes back a couple of thousand years before that, but because most bows were made solely of wood, they have not lasted.

In the early days, bows were utilized for hunting and keeping raiders away. Nowadays, there are still some cultures that rely on hunting with bows and arrows to put meat on the table and there are also people who decide to do it that way for sport.

The equipment concerned with archery is basically a bow and an arrow, but it goes deeper than that. If you genuinely want to get involved in archery, you might want to think about making your own bow, your own arrows and your own practice butts.

There are excellent kits for making your own bows, but there are too many varieties of bows for us to go into all of them in this article. However, be assured that if you do want to construct your own bow, you will find a description of the materials and the techniques on the Internet.

You can also make your own arrows and that is an easier subject to deal with. If you begin with the shaft, it can be made of wood, aluminium alloy or carbon fibre, all of which can be bought easily. Then, at the sharp end, you can choose your tip or point.

The arrow head should match the job that the arrow is meant for. If it is meant to kill, then a broadhead, if it is meant to make a hole in a piece of paper, then a simple brass tip.

The flights can be bought separately too. You can feathers or plastic and with a little experience, you can use feathers that you have acquired yourself. Goose feathers were traditionally the ones preferred.

Finally there is the nock, which is the part of the arrow that connects with the string. The nock can be as simple as a 'v' or a 'u' cut in the arrow, or it can be a plastic or metal casting that is fitted over the end of the arrow.

The bow string is too difficult to make oneself, unless you really want to go into that technology. The bow string is more easily bought.

Archery targets, the round ones, you connect with target archery are a different kettle of fish, because you certainly can assemble them yourself. You first have to get hold of a load of straw and then grab handfuls of it. Truss these handfuls of straw into 'ropes' and make a circle like a Catherine Wheel out of them.

Sew these together until they form the size target you want. Place this on a stand or affix it to a tree and then pin the traditional archery target to the front of it.

You can paint the conventional concentric circles on cloth, canvas or paper. It does not have to cost a lot to take part in archery. Remember that 5,000 or 500 years ago, people had very little, yet they still enjoyed their sport or hobby of archery.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on several topics, but is presently concerned with archery bows for sale. If you would like to know more or for special deals, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

The Martini Henry Rifle That Rescued The Men At Rorkes Drift

Sunday, December 5th, 2010

The Battle of Rorkes Drift is without doubt one of the more well-known actions from the history belonging to the British Army. On 22 January 1879, just hours immediately after the Zulu victory at Isandlwana, approximately 4,000 Zulus assault the mission station at Rorkes Drift just along the Buffalo River in Natal.

With less than 140 men defending Rorkes Drift, you would be forgiven for guessing the soldiers had little prospect of survival, particularly taking into consideration what happened to their colleagues at Isandlwana. Nonetheless, together with in addition to being very courageous soldiers, the defenders of Rorkes Drift had a rifle that would give them an advantage over the Zulus. The weapon in question was the Martini Henry rifle.

This .45 calibre rifle was very effective at inflicting bad wounds and when fired at a range of less than 200 yards, a round could very well easily pass through a body injuring the person behind too. The Martini Henry was a single shot, breech loading rifle and provided the British an important advantage over the Zulus who were just armed with short stabbing spears (iklaws).

Even if the Martini Henry was held responsible partly for the defeat at Isandlwana, when properly taken care of, it had been a superb rifle. To single the rifle out for the defeat at Isandlwana is severe as there were a number of other factors that contributed towards the defeat.

At Rorkes Drift, the Martini Henry was essential for the British. As a store, there was a lot of ammo plus extra weapons plus the defensive area was a good deal more compact and so was less of a challenge to defend compared to the position at Isandlwana. Brought to the British Army in 1871, the Martini Henry could well fire up to 10 rounds a minute in the possession of a properly trained soldier. The rifle had a highly effective range of beyond 500m that resulted in providing the British could spot the Zulu warriors, they could possibly start killing them before they were close enough for hand to hand fighting.

Despite the overwhelming odds at Rorkes Drift, the British only lost approximately 10% of their men while at the same time, they buried roughly four hundred Zulu warriors and it was viewed a similar number might have later died of their injuries. The British had beaten back the Zulu attack and were grateful to the Martini Henry rifle

The best known action of the Anglo Zulu War of 1879 is without question Rorkes Drift. The British defenders were able to see off the Zulu warriors using the iconic Henry Martini rifile.. Unique version for reprint here: The Martini Henry Rifle That Rescued The Men At Rorkes Drift.

categories: anglo zulu war,rorke's drift,rorkes drift,south africa,africa,military,society,people,culture,history,reference