# I Want a Guillotine. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 31, 2002, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-a-guillotine/121650 "2002-07-31T05:36:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2002, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-a-guillotine/121650/1 "2002-07-31T05:36:50Z")
I do. I’ve been re-reading one of my favorites books, _Guillotine: Its Legend and Lore_, by Daniel Gerould. It’s awesome fascinating. The book is a good secondary / social historical resource, busting with cool guillotine facts. Like for example, scientists tried lots of times over the years to see if people’s heads retained sentience after they’d been beheaded. In 1880, a Dr. Dassy de Lignieres actually had blood from a living animal pumped into the severed head of an exceuted criminal. Pretty cool. Anyhow, seeing as I’m a big fan of Gothic Guillotine Romanticism and the French Revolution _and_ the _Grand Guignol_, I have been hankering after a real guillotine for a long time. So I asked my father, who does terrific woodwork, if he’d build me one. He said no. Well, honestly, I didn’t think he’d say yes, for heaven’s sake, but I had to ask. So then I did a google search to see if there might be any close-to-life-size guillotine repros for sale online. So far, no soap. ( I did manage to order a tiny miniature one from some company called Tuscany or Tuscan or something, so at least that’s coming in 10 business days or less. ) But I really want a bigger guillotine. It would definitely have to be scaled down to fit in my apartment. And it would look very cool. I have an old department store mannequin that I could dress up like Madame du Barry, and put her neck in the little _lunette_ and whoa, baby, that’s _some_ conversation piece. Definitely mindless and pointless stuff. I just had to get this off my chest. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2002, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-a-guillotine/121650/2 "2002-07-31T05:48:53Z")
You could get a magic prop. [Here](http://www.tilfordillusions.com/frenchGuillotine.html) is a 7-ft tall guillotine for $495.00. ---
**Author:** ![leechbabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@leechbabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leechbabe)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2002, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-a-guillotine/121650/3 "2002-07-31T05:49:08Z")
With or without sharp pointy bit that does the cutting off of the heads? Cause you know there could be an accident in the waiting there. Be ye male or be ye female? Cause in relation to the accidents I’m hearing the word “bobbit” echoing very strongly around me head right now. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Forbin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5e9695/32.png) [@Forbin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Forbin)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2002, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-a-guillotine/121650/4 "2002-07-31T06:10:10Z")
The cobbler’s children have no shoes. Boy is that ever true. I build stuff, and I’m dying for a trebuchet, but I have never gotten around to building one. Dang! ---
**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2002, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-a-guillotine/121650/5 "2002-07-31T06:11:44Z")
**scr4** : thank you!! Man, that’s perfect. I never even considered magic props. You rock! I saved the page to my favorites. I have one of those “landmark” birthdays coming up in a couple of months, and I may ask for that guillotine. At “just under 7 feet”, it will fit my 8-foot apartment ceiling. And **leechbabe** : I be female, and I’m harmless, I swear! Just ask all of my amputees… er… friends! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2002, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-a-guillotine/121650/6 "2002-07-31T12:17:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by leechbabe \* > \*\*With or without sharp pointy bit that does the cutting off of the heads? \*\* Oh, she’ll want that…it comes in very handy in the kitchen, for slicing melons and cabbages and things like that. Ever had Guillotine Cole Slaw? Mmmmmmm! Hey, **Creak**! I love that book, too! ---
**Author:** ![RalfCoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@RalfCoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RalfCoder)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2002, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-a-guillotine/121650/7 "2002-07-31T13:04:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Forbin \* > \*\*The cobbler’s children have no shoes. > > Boy is that ever true. I build stuff, and I’m dying for a trebuchet, but I have never gotten around to building one. > Dang! \*\* **Forbin** … [here](http://www.spider-strands.com/trebuchet.htm) , or [here](http://www.tasigh.org/ingenium/index.html), or [here](http://members.iinet.net.au/~rmine/cheese.html) I built a small one sort of based on cheesechucker. It’ll throw a golf ball about 20 feet, but I think it’ll do much better than that. There’s a lot of tinkering and tuning that can be done still. ---
**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-a-guillotine/121650/8 "2002-08-01T02:35:55Z")
**Forbin** : that’s cool, that trebuchet. Is that like a small catapult? You could have a great time with one of those, for sure. Man, if only my dad weren’t so uptight! I mean, the world already has _more_ than enough Adirondack chairs… **Uke** … yeah, ain’t that book the berries? You wouldn’t happen to have read _The Thrill of Fear_ by Walter Kendrick or _The History of Hell_ by Alice K. Turner, would you? Also cool books. Anyhow, the next time I visit my folks I’m gonna ask for the guillotine. Thanks again, **scr4**. I’ll keep you all posted! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-a-guillotine/121650/9 "2002-08-01T03:57:21Z")
Yeah, I bought _The Thrill of Fear_ back when it came out, ten years or so ago…it’s pretty good, but not my favorite book on the history of horror fiction/drama/cinema/whatever. THAT would probably be David Punter’s _The Literature of Terror._ I’m not familiar with _The History of Hell_. Is that the same Alice Turner who was, until recently, the fiction editor at Playboy magazine? I KNOW her! ---
**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-a-guillotine/121650/10 "2002-08-01T04:08:27Z")
**Uke** … yeah, it’s she, at least according to the bio info on the book jacket. Well, ain’t it a small world!! Tell her for me that I love that book, and all of the plates as well. The bibliography rocks, too. I really do love that book. Again, it’s mostly a secondary resource type book (and in my opinion they’re more fun to read than primary resources like nasty ole Latin translations of medieval texts anyhow), but really interesting and informative in its own right. I bought it maybe eight or ten years ago. Incidentally, I’ll check out _The Literature of Terror_ and see if I can get it. I reckon even if it’s out of print, I could get it online. This is cool. ---
**Author:** ![Forbin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5e9695/32.png) [@Forbin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Forbin)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-a-guillotine/121650/11 "2002-08-01T05:42:56Z")
Thanks for the links **RalfCoder**. I’ve seen all those before though. Not trying to seem ungrateful, but I really think the trebuchet is neat, and have been dreaming about building one for a long time. I thought I might recruit my old girlfriend’s son as my “partner in crime”. He likes to visit me in my shop and build things with me. :smack: Hey! Another thing dumb me hasn’t made the time for. MD is too far **Creaky** , or I’d work out a way for us to do both projects in a production run. I’ve always sort of wanted to build the trebuchet as a cooperative project with some woodworker buddies. (tradesman/artisans bonding, and all that…) A Guillotine would be a splendid companion piece to build alongside the trebuchet. Try to imagine how a lumber or hardware sales rep would react upon entering the shop with production well along on _those_ two monstrous instruments of the Devil! ---
**Author:** ![Forbin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5e9695/32.png) [@Forbin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Forbin)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-a-guillotine/121650/12 "2002-08-01T05:46:12Z")
FWIW I’ve wanted to build a five or six footer. Something that could throw grapefruit sized rocks a looong way. ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-a-guillotine/121650/13 "2002-08-01T06:14:58Z")
Hee, **Forbin** , you’ve read my mind 😃 I’ve been looking at trebuchet plans for about a month, ever since I caught a show on PBS about [building a big 'un](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/trebuchet/index.html). Now if I can just get around to actually putting one together… .50 cal lead balls (think black powder rifles) should make excellent ammo for a table-top model, eh? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-a-guillotine/121650/14 "2002-08-01T06:25:06Z")
**Forbin** … that would be great, wouldn’t it just? I thank you for your kind thought, anyhow! Heh… now you’ve got the image firmly in my mind of people coming into your shop and gaping at a trebuchet and a guillotine under construction! Maybe you could give them a tour wearing excecutioner’s gear… Anyhow,If you ever do build the trebuchet or guillotine or both, let me know and e-mail me pics if you feel like it. ( Grapefruit sized rocks, excellent! Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, “Home Security System”! ) ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-a-guillotine/121650/15 "2002-08-01T12:17:17Z")
I get my hair cut at a place called The Guillotine. I’ve escaped with my head intact each and every time, thank Og. ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-a-guillotine/121650/16 "2002-08-02T06:32:58Z")
Someone built an actual guillotine for a history project last year. It was real, except the blade was silver painted cardboard. ---
**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-a-guillotine/121650/17 "2002-08-02T07:26:48Z")
**Green Bean** … that is a great name for a hairdresser’s!! I’ve got this great mental image of the lady who sits at the front desk at the place cackling as she checks you in, knitting your name into a huge afghan. All the stylists would be wearing Jacobin bonnets and scruffy, bloodied clothes. Instead of books full of hairdos to choose from, there’d be human heads stuck on pikes displaying a variety of fabulous coiffures…! You sound as if you’ve been lucky, though, Citizeness, to have escaped unscathed so far… **Mudshark** : now _that_ is cool. Too bad they wussed out on the blade! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-a-guillotine/121650/18 "2002-08-02T08:02:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Creaky \* > **scr4** : thank you!! …I saved the page to my favorites. I just wanted to clarify that that wasn’t a specific recommendation - I know nothing about that company. It just came up on my web site and I posted it as an example. If you shop around you can probably find a better deal. ---
**Author:** ![RalfCoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@RalfCoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RalfCoder)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-a-guillotine/121650/19 "2002-08-02T12:17:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Forbin \* > **Thanks for the links RalfCoder. > I’ve seen all those before though. Not trying to seem ungrateful, but I really think the trebuchet is neat,…** Not a problem, **Forbin**. I want to build a 6 foot model, too, but decided to start small first. Let us know when you get it done! ---
**Author:** ![CoderSlave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bbce88/32.png) [@CoderSlave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoderSlave)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2002, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-a-guillotine/121650/20 "2002-09-29T05:09:27Z")
Just a little bit O’ history a “catapult” in medievel times was something that shot a bolt (like a huge spear) not what we call a catapult. A “Springald” (SP???) was what we call a catapult. AND (IF I remember correctly) “catapult” was a generic term for what we would call artillery. BTW, although Gunpowder is considered to be what killed the castle (feudal) age, it is actually the Trebuchet that ended it, it was MUCH more acurate than the cannons of the age. Da Slave [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-a-guillotine/121650.md?page=2)