The Sword of the Lord

In case you haven’t noticed, middle-school boys, high- school boys, college boys and many males in the 24 to 45 demographic love swords, and many of them are sword collectors.

What French term does most every American boy over the age of 5 know and use?

It’s en garde.

Granted, they may not know exactly what it means, but they know it’s something to shout as they leap toward an opponent, broomstick sword or plastic lightsaber in hand, for an energetic, if friendly, duel. (En garde means “on guard,” and in fencing, it’s used to warn an opponent to assume the position preparatory to a duel.)

The fact is, most young boys are fascinated by swords.

But did you know that for some people, the fascination continues into adulthood? Sword collecting has been and continues to be a popular hobby among some grown-ups. We haven’t been able to locate any figures about the number of sword collectors in the United States, but judging from the number of Web sites and blogs devoted to the subject, including darksteelreplica.com and 2-clicks-swords.com, it must be quite a few.

Sword collectors fall into two major groups. One collects historical swords. Some of these folks seek...