Mineral Mountain ?

Six String Samurai

Six String Samurai

Joined
Jun 26, 2001
Messages
72
Can anyone tell me anything about swords made by Mineral Mountain?

or can some of you give me some suggestions for buying a first sword. What should I look for when evaluating a sword.

Just general principles...I know nothing right now.
 
Sorry, never heard of mineral mountain. But try searching at netsword and swordforums and I pretty much guarentee someone on there knows summat about them.

As for sword basics, a simple search on this forum will give you the name of reputable companies. Swords cover just as much ground (different styles, sizes, intended uses) as knives do. what do you want the sword for? Wallhanging? Swinging around/practicing? Stage combat? Actual combat/sparring? Test cutting? Are you interesting in Chinese blades? Japanese blades? Viking blades? Medieval? Rennaissance? Single hand? Bastard? Two hand?

As a rule, never buy anything made of stainless steel (great for knives, useless for swords), "Spring Carbon Steel" is often dubious too, but acceptable given it's usually 1095 or 5160 which are excellent sword materials. Again, checking on the above forums will give you reams of information whatever you want, or post a few more specifics and I'll help if I can.

Edit - had a look at Mineral Mountain's website. Good choice of steel, in-house heattreat can be excellent or terrible, they certainly look nice, but looks aren't always everything. Again, I can only really suggest locating people that own MM swords and asking them.
 
This damned posting system can be most frustrating! It would not let me repost a picture that I had posted some months ago and, by the time that I had located the correct address for the cross-reference, my name and password had been cancelled, so the entire damned post was lost!

Trying again, SSS, you should contact Patrick Barta at TEMPL in the Czech Republic. I just got one of his Roman Riding Swords and am extremely peased with it. It is historically very accurate and is extremely well made, and costs but $260US plus $40US for shipping, a remarkable price when you consider that it includes a very nicely done scabbard. Here is a url for a picture of my sword http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=196637 and here is TEMPL's url http://templ.host.sk/eng_index.htm I truly do recommend his work. He has several quite reasonably priced swords and some extremely pricey ones. The pricey ones are likely well worth it as they appear to be true works of art, as in the case of the German Spatha. He is wonderful to deal with and he actually got me my sword three months before his promised date.

Another Czech swordmaker of whom I have heard very good things is Lutel at http://www.lutel.cz/index2e.htm They make very nice items, so I have heard, so nice, indeed, that I would have ordered one of their Viking swords had I not already bought two swords since January. I need to save my pennies for a bit, but I am sufficiently impressed with the word on Lutel that I am going to order from them as soon as I can.
 
I have been dealing with Ted Frizzel of Mineral Mountain Hatchet Works since 1986. He has done a number of custom swords for me, usually variations on what he has listed in his production line. His stuff is not traditional or conventional, but follows the design maxim of form follows function. While I find most of his stuff attractive, many will find his designs minimalist and somewhat unadorned.

But, his products work, and most people like the fact that you can use one of his knives/swords/axes without worrying about sap, grunge, or (horrors) blood. He uses mostly 5160 or 1084(?)with a finish of black oxide and sheaths of kydex. If you want to see a sample of his stuff, go over to John Gonzales's Website: www.plan-a.org/mmhw/. This is definitely not the full extent of his catalog, and Ted does a lot of custom work. The "Hand and a Half Shasqua" (under custom) was the basis for my full size Shasqua, with a 26 inch blade. Looks a lot like a modern Shobu Zukuri!!

Oh, and while he charges more for his custom work, it usually isn't the userus and arm-breaking price that many makers want.

I like Ted, and consider him, and his brother, friends as well as good knife makers. I have his address if anyone is interested.

BTW, Ted has been been working on a contract for some dealers/buyers in Japan, so his knives must meet some pretty good criteria.

:cool:
 
Death Dancer,

This is getting off the subject of swords, but do you have any experience with MMHW large bowies? One thing I have noticed is that all of the MMHW knives have hollow grinds. For a large chopping knive, this is not appropriate. The hollow grind can weaken the edge, and cause the knife to bind in wood.

I was just wondering if you had used or know anyone who has used the large bowies, and had trouble with the hollow grind?
 
It's not appropriate for me to comment on the quality of MMHW (because I'm his internet dealer), but I would like to address this pesky hollow grind issue.

Hollow grinds can maintain a stronger, sharper edge than flat grinds. There has been some assertion that material is more prone to binding because in a flat grind the material slides up and through the bevels, but with hollow it will jam into the concave area. It seems fairly logical, but I've been trying to come to terms with why in my experience and many people I've spoken with, it doesn't seem true; or as true as many people believe.

I wonder if the reason is that the initial friction created along the sides of flat grinds creates more initial drag, while on the hollow, the concave area doesn't contact the material the way flats do. Of course once the material passes through this "void" in the steel, contact is suddenly made at the rising area of the grind. This is where the binding issue comes up.

Is it possible that the superior "slicing" action (less drag) counter-weighs the "hot spots" at the apex of the grinds? Maybe, maybe I'm just confused.

My main issue is that, for most real world users, a bowie knife is not meant to be justa chopper. You want an exclusive chopper? Use an ax. At least in my experience, people who use them are using them as a multi-use camp/outdoor knife. That means cutting up critters-turned-dinner, shaving kindling, etc.- various cutting jobs-on top of chopping wood. So it's possible that flat grinds will wedge and thus chop better, but many believe that an excellent cutting edge is equally important to a big blade. I know that I will only carry hollow grind bowies with me on hunting, camping and backpacking trips.

But that's just me... ;)
 
Hello John,

Thanks for the explaination. I had read some other posts by MMHW Bowie owners that had already convinced me that the hollow grind is not a problem.
 
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