Spyderco Forums

Perhaps I should have posted this in the "what Spyderco is in your pocket.." thread, but personally find it so cool that I allow myself to make a little dedicated thread:

An acquaintance of mine is head of a small museum, and today he showed me some artifacts that are not exhibited for the public.

One of those was a knife from the later iron age ("Latene-Zeit", from about 500 to 15 before Christ). In this time period (ended with the Roman conquers) it was the Celts who inhabited the region I live in now, they did a lot of salt mining and had beautiful tools, weapons and jewelry.

I actually got to handle this Celtic knife that someone carried and used about 2300 years ago - of course just with protective gloves (protective for the knife, not for me... ). Quite a fascinating feeling and experience!

Of course I had to take a pic with the Spydie I carried today, which happened to be my REX 45 Manix LW.

Very cool! For some reason, I always associate Celtic history with Ireland, Scotland, etc. I forget they also resided over a significant portion of Europe. Sounded like a splendid day. Thanks for sharing the photo.

That's a great picture! Have to say that tip on the neolithic knife reminds me of the semi-blunted tip of a salt. Seriously thought, that blade shape is timeless. Thanks for sharing!

dlum1 wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 15, 2023 3:42 pm

Very cool! For some reason, I always associate Celtic history with Ireland, Scotland, etc. I forget they also resided over a significant portion of Europe. Sounded like a splendid day. Thanks for sharing the photo.

Thanks, and glad you like it.

I think the reason for why Celts are more associated with Ireland and Scotland is that their culture could persist a lot longer there, since the Romans never managed to conquer those regions. Differently to todays Austria (where I live) or todays France (there it was Julius Cesar with his rather famous Gallic wars who defeated the Gauls (who where Celts) in the end).

In the region of Salzburg, where I live, were several large Celtic settlements, the most important one on the Duerrnberg (roughly "Arid Mountain") - see here https://www.keltenmuseum.at/index.php?id=2721 and here https://www.keltenmuseum.at/en/exhibiti ... uerrnberg/ for example.

Bemo wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 15, 2023 3:50 pm

That's a great picture! Have to say that tip on the neolithic knife reminds me of the semi-blunted tip of a salt. Seriously thought, that blade shape is timeless. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks!

Who knows, perhaps some ancient b.C. Sal Glesser designed that knife...

Gernot, this is my favourite thing posted in the forum for some time. I'm a huge history buff + I love knives + you're the best Austrian I know!

Exceedingly cool. Thanks for sharing!

look at the differences in handle to edge ratio over the years.

Cool photo. Thanks for sharing, Gernot.

It's also exciting to wonder what condition LC200N and MagnaCut fixed blades will be in when archeologists dig them up hundreds of years from now.

Very cool! Thanks for sharing!

Wonder if someone will come across some Spyderco Salts 2,000 years from now?

They probably had smaller hands back then

Very cool, Gernot, very cool.

Love it.

Clearly we all need to be carrying knives larger than a Manix, if we want to keep up with what our forefathers were carrying.

I'm enjoying the Delica-esque "lowered tip" on the blade.

The real question is... was it tip up or tip down carry?

Very cool Gernot! Thanks for sharing.

Wartstein wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 15, 2023 3:35 pm

knife from the later iron age ("Latene-Zeit", from about 500 to 15 before Christ). In this time period (ended with the Roman conquers) it was the Celts who inhabited the region I live in now, they did a lot of salt mining and had beautiful tools, weapons and jewelry.

@Wartstein, on behalf of all the honorable citizens here on the forum, I wish to convey the deep pain we suffer at your accusation that our beloved leader, Sal, was making knives for those treacherous Celts over two millennia ago. I have it on good authority that he didn't design the Manix until much later.

Nevertheless, that's a very cool artifact, and even better that you got to hold it. I wonder what the original owner did with it. Maybe he used it to dismember a rabbit to stick in his stew pot. Or maybe he used it to slice an apple that he had for lunch as he sat in the forest while hunting rabbit. How did it come to be left in the dirt? Mabye he dropped it while running after a rabbit. And when he discovered the loss, he was heartbroken, because it was given to him by a very good friend. Come to think of it, the original owner probably wasn't much different than you and me.

Cool! FFG was popular back then too. I want to clean it up and put some micarta on it!

Thanks for this Gernot!

Also glad you resisted throwing this ancient knife!

Does not fold = can’t fidget. What do you do with a knife you can’t open and close 290 times a day?

Thank you Hernot . I love studying old knives spent a lot of time at museum in Chicago looking at Roman and Medieval hardware . Dan

Thanks for posting this, Gernot. This is really cool. I was struck at how modern the knife design looks. Some old knives just look old. The shape of this one look modern and useful.

Your Manix 2 looks rather small next to it. Are you going to donate your Manix 2 so they have a find from modern Austria?

That was epic Gernot, thanks so much for sharing…your are DEFINITELY an expert on European history and I thoroughly enjoy going to class…you should start a history thread more often…I would respond to some of the hilarious comments but that would fill up two pages so all I have is this for y’all