Presentation:
The word hoplology comes from ancient greek, hoplo-: weapon, -logos: science, study, speech and has been invented by the very famous martial arts searcher, Donn Draeger. In a previous website, I used the neologism hoplophile (hoplo-: weapon, -phile : who likes) which since has been re-used by several people on the internet. So, hoplology is the study of weapons, both technically and historically.

My research:
Weapons families
Weapons can be divided in many categories. You can decide to classify weapons by their original country. You can also classify weapons depending on their types, this is my favourite way of evocating weapons. The first categorization divides cold/white weapons, fire-weapons, chemical weapons, bombs & missiles, and other military weapons. Until now, my focus has been mainly on cold weapons, and I started to classify them. Here is my own "10 Weapon Types Classification (10WTC)", elaborated after researches of other classifications made by weapons experts (including Christophe Frugier, Christophe Batilliot). I kept the French original terminology and tried an approximative translation between parenthesis:
- Armes de taille (cutting weapons)
- Armes d'estoc (picking weapons)
- Fléaux d'armes (flexible weapons)
- Armes contondantes (striking weapons)
- Armes d'hast (long weapons)
- Armes de jet (throwing weapons)
- Armes modernes (modern weapons)
- Armes combinées (combined weapons)
- Armes cachées (hidden weapons, dissimulated weapons)
- Les inclassables (exotic weapons)

I also distinguish among cold weapons, three types of weapons (3WTC):
- Martial arts traditional weapons
- Self-defence weapons
- Tactical fighting weapons

Weapons history
Since the beginning of mankind, weapons have been created and used. It is very sad to say, but weapons are and will always be associated with human beings, and peace is impossible. Everything started with stones and staff, used by prehistoric beings. Later, with the apparition of metals, new weapons were invented, and the concept of the blade appeared. Then the creativity of men has been very fertile and gave us a variety of weapons that are impossible to count. Try to imagine that today, a credit card can become a weapon...

For illustrative purpose, I wanted to show you two photos of old weapons.
The first one is a Ge in Chinese, it is the upper part of ancient hallebards. This one which dates from several centuries before Christ is the most beautiful (and modern!) design I've ever seen. It is stored in the museum of Shanghai.



The second old weapon I want to show you is neither Chinese nor Filipino, but French! It is the ancestor of the Filipino balisong, and I found it in the Museum of Thiers, France. It dates from approx. 1790 and was called Pied Du Roy. For more information about balisong, feel free to visit my website about these types of knives: www.balisong.net.



The tradition of weapons in Asia
Asia and particularly China & Japan are great places for weapons. In China, because of the strict laws, it is difficult to find weapons easily in commerces, and antiques are often fake. But a real tradition of weapons is still present, and it is easy to see the imagination of Chinese for weapons. Here is below some old weapons in an antiques shop in Hong Qiao market, Beijing, and on the right, a set of Yue (moon) weapons, originally traditional wushu weapons, but here they have been modified in a very strange way.



Now, because of the restriction on knives in the country, China does not make a lot of cold weapons, some cheap knives for export, some copies (quality is ok), Japanese swords (yes, Chinese can make Japanese swords which are ok), and very few traditional custom knives. In the province of XinJiang, in the far-West of China, they make the following type of knives, which really fits your hand, it is very pleasant to hold and handle.



In Japan, weapons can be seen everywhere in many museum, it is very pleasant. For instance an example of Bugukake (weapons racks) in Himeji castle. A sign says the castle used to have 280 guns and 90 spears.



In Iga-ueno, a traditional base of a middle-age Ninja clan, a museum shows you hundred of very imaginative traditional weapons, I really advice you to go and visit it. Some weapons really gives inspiration.




Weapons in cinema
Cinema is also a great source of inspiration for weapons. We can talk about the special weapons created for the Star Trek TV serie, particularly the Klingon weapons that, still today, can be found in shops!

In Kyoto, the Toei company has an amusement park where they show some of the weapons used in their ninja movies, it is fun.



The cinema is one of the future of weapons. I was exchanging with Mr Jody Samson, who is a very famous knife-maker in the USA, he was at the beginning of Pacific Cutlery the one who used to make what would become the most famous and best quality balisong on the planet, he also made the sword of Conan The Barbarian, etc. and he explained to me he was asked to do 3 types of swords:
- "real" swords, designed by the knife-maker himself, balanced, tremped, functional
- swords for the cinema, often heavy and unrealistic (the design is usually given to the knife-maker), and in this case you have to make several versions: a nice one for the close-ups, and aluminium ones for the fights (the sword is lighter, so that the actors can repeat for hours with them)
- swords for reen-acting
Reen-acting seems to be fashionable in the USA, it is slowly coming to Europe. These weapons consists of copies of old models, often in modern material to make them lighter (but they still have to be strong enough for fight simulation).

Fire weapons
Guns can also be part of Hoplology and they can be classified in various ways: in France the law distinguishes 8 categories of weapons (in French), or it can be by the type of weapon (rifles, handguns...) or by the type of ammunition.

My "first time" was with a Glock in the "LAX firing range" (Los Angeles)...