Scary Steel

Better Than A Heated Cutlass, I Suppose.

Y'know, just looking at this kit makes my stomach a bit queasy...

Today's find at Collector's Firearms is a Civil War amputation kit.

Usually their militaria runs to things like uniforms, bayonets and the occasional pickelhaube, but this definitely qualifies as vintage military equipment.

This was state of the art medical tech in the 19th Century. Everything you needed to lop off a limb, except perhaps a bottle of laudanum or a jug of popskull.

If you want to see something similar to this in use, check out 'Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World', the Russell Crowe/Paul Bettany film adaptation of two novels in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series.