Factoids of the day

HeirsOfDurin has a post about Everything you wanted to know about Orcrist (but didn't know enough about swords to ask).
Orcrist is "globin cleaver", suggesting it is sharp on one side only, and used to hack one's enemy:

The design is very unique, and I have not found an exact real-world match for it yet, but it shares elements of European falchions, and Chinese dao, both of which are single-edged and broad bladed.

Actually, it seems to resemble the infamous Filipine bolo knife, which was famous for it's ability to hack open a coconut, cut sugar cane or hack one's enemy...

Photo from Wikipedia, along with information on the bolo knife....


Durin has another link about replicas, and includes a link to a photo of Bombur's killer soup ladle:

and WETA has a short interview of one of the smiths making the weaons.
(via TORN)