Gustavus von Tempsky

[admin]

Phil mentioned this chap, so I thought I'd go and read a bit more about him. This is a very good summary page:
http://bowieknifefightsfighters.blogspo ... s-von.html

More detail:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustavus_von_Tempsky

[admin]

For a Prussian serving in the British Army in the 1860's he sure had a strange taste in swords. That looks like an early-19thC French cavalry sabre to me... Perhaps a family sword?

[the_last_alive]

For a Prussian serving in the British Army in the 1860's he sure had a strange taste in swords. That looks like an early-19thC French cavalry sabre to me... Perhaps a family sword?

There was me thinking it looked fairly 1796 LCish.

[admin]

Not dissimilar, but note the less 'stirrupped' guard, the narrower blade and the eliptical langets that go right across the guard from handle to blade. If this isn't a French sword then I suppose it could be a Prussian sword that was modelled on a French sword. I don't know very much about early-19thC French or Prussian swords though, other than that the Prussians and other German states copied other countries' designs.

[Phil C]

Svord do an excellent repro of his Bowie design-
http://www.svord.com/pages/catalog/CK-VTB.htm

Review-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r4E2n83dmk

One day, maybe soon, I shall have one...

[Keith P. Myers]

I remember some hot debates about a decade ago about what Bowie Knife fighting technique would have looked like back in the day. One camp believed it would have been based primarily on military saber technique. That is what Jim Keating taught early on. But if you want to beat the hell out of your Bowie, just try using saber parries! I think Keating later modified things a bit, maybe based on feedback from Dwight McLemore, because he later seemed to put less emphasis on parrying. Lynn Thompson is the camp that uses the Bowie more like a rapier...very little to no parrying with lots of evasive in and out footwork and sniping blows. I think the best may be somewhere in the middle. I like what Dwight teaches.

As far as the Bowie design....von Tempsky's looks pretty standard and nothing special. But an interesting point....years ago Dwight provided me with a copy of a piece of artwork by Albrecht Durer that showed a robed man holding a book in one arm and a knife in the opposite hand. This knife looked almost exactly like the "typical" Bowie knife and therefore almost exactly like von Tempsky's knife. And this was from the mid 1600's! So while the Bowie design likey arose in the US independently, it had been around for awhile!

Thanks for the info on von Tempsky. I had never heard of him before, but he sounds like a very interesting fellow! I may have to get a copy of Kircher's book now!

Keith

[Tony Wolf]

Von Tempsky is kind of a folk hero in New Zealand - not from the politically correct perspective, but he was a very colourful fellow, and he shrewdly cultivated his romantic, larger-than-life image. His Maori adversaries during the Land Wars called him "Many Birds", apparently because he was so adept at forest warfare that he seemed to be everywhere at once.

[Jonathan]

This thread picturing a Forest Rangers knife might be of interest:

http://victorianwars.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=3458