And since he ended up behind the Iron Curtain, in a different country, he even escaped the politically correct B.S. that imprints modern Germany…

"Small potatoes make the steak look bigger." Not in this case, they don't.

Good things come with small packages. Breslau University’s Fechter has been leaning on his blade for over a century now, pondering where he put his steroid supplements.

Designed by Hugo Lederer (1871-1940), Breslau’s Fechterbrunnen (Fencer’s Fountain) was cast in 1901 and installed in 1904. It even comes with a pious explanation why our muscle-bound Bender of the Épée Blade is nekkid as a jaybird:

“It is said the sculpture was a warning to the students not to gamble as one could be left naked with only one’s sword. “

A likely story, even for the literary over-interpretation biz… who wouldn’t take a gambler’s underwear and socks before taking his sword?

The statue was originally cast in two sizes by the Martin & Piltzing Foundry of Berlin. Various other sizes of the statue are in existence. And while the larger versions these days seem to have adopted épées, smaller samples feature foils.

Our mission is to discover to you the true Secrets of the Sword.

Revealed today: How did cavalry troopers make sure their blades had a perfect edge?

We don’t know when exactly this picture was taken, and what war our gallant hussars are preparing for. But since this British postcard was “Printed in Bavaria,” we feel safe to say it was before 1914, when Bavaria was a backward German state whose Catholic work ethic was deplored by Max Weber in his The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

Now, we promised to reveal a secret, not poke fun at our Bavarian countrymen (although there’s enough Saupreiß in us to justify it!) So what about the Secret of the Sharp Blade. How did these guys manage to keep their swords sharp?

Like most secrets—outside the magnificent mysteries laid out in, say, The Lazarus Smile—this one’s a bit on the skimpy side:

To make sure you had a sharp blade at hand when you went into action, you didn’t sharpen your blade until it needed to be sharp. Because nothing ruins a sword as quickly as grinding down an ever-new edge.

This was not just practiced in Britain, but in Germany as well. (Read up that in Swords of Germany 1900-1945 by John R. Angolia (1988).

Like every year since 1955, the Maryland Arms and Armor Collectors Association is putting on its sale and trading show on March 17-18, 2012 in Timonium, just north of the Baltimore Belway.

We hope to see you there!

An admission  price of $10 (Sunday: $5) buys you as much time as fits in your day gawking, handling (some), and bargaining for one or several of literally tens of thousands of antique swords and firearms. It’s like an all-you-can-eat buffet of blades from all countries and eras, dating from bronze-age swords to Nazi sabers.

We’d be the last to admit that prices for the most part have by now eclipsed the budgets of casual or novice collectors. But for the occasional bargain on a high-quality historical blades, nothing beats the “Original Baltimore Sword Show.” We’ve added hideously rare Schlägers (with “starred” blade and scabbard!) for aroudn $100, ancient foils and a rapier, an insanely underpriced dueling épée, several 1796′er sabers and other things that might put your eye out over the years…

Plus, you occasionally run into the secret celebrities of the sword world: We recall bumping into Jeff Forgeng one year and the late Hank Reinhardt  in a previous one.