A collection of information, facts and history of the various types of Swords around the world.
Aikuchi: Small Japanese swords that have no guard.
Barong Swords: Used by the Moros of the Philippines as a weapon and sometimes a tool.
Bearing: These swords were made for ritual use at various ceremonies of importance.
The Bearing Swords were carried various insciptions that referred to the leader.
These Swords were carried by someone walking behind the leader who would point the sword in a skyward direction.
These Swords seems to have originated around the seventh century.
Black Swords: was a short bladed, single edged sword that had a straight or sometimes slight curved blade.
Bokken Wooden Sword
Coronation Swords: These are highly decorated swords that are connected with Monarchy.
Broad Swords: Was a military type of swords that had a wide blade with a single edge.
Chisa Katana Sword
Chokuto Sword
Cinquedea Sword
Claymore Sword
Cutlass Sword
Colichemarde Sword
Dao: Ancient Chinese single-edge broad-blade swords.
Dirk Sword
Dotanuki Sword
Epee: Was used in founding the sport of fencing.
Estoc Sword
Falchion Sword
Falcata Sword
Gladius: The word "Gladiator" derives from this Sword.
Double edge bladed Swords used by the Roman Legions as their standard weapon.
Hachiwara Helmet Breakers
Hanger Swords: Sometimes called "the shell" it gained its name because it was hung from the belt.
They were often covered with Navel Motifs.
Katana Sword
Karabela Sword
Katar: Short punching swords used in Persia.
Katzbalger Sword
Kilij: A Turkish Saber that dates back to the tenth century.
The Kilij was a military weapon and often had inscriptions of a military nature.
Kodachi Sword
Kopis: Although Kopis is a Greek word, it is thought these swords may have originated from the Egyptian khopesh.
It is a single edge sword that has a forward-curved blade.
Khopesh: A type of Egyptian sword that appears to have been developed from the sickle sword.
Kris: Malayan double-edged blade.
Kriegsmesser Sword
Mameluke Sword
Nodachi Sword
Pinute: Long, straight, Filipino swords.
Presentaion Swords: are given to those individuals that have earned them, "not simply inhereted them".
They are usually given for miliatry or political service.
The giving of Presentaion Swords was a long established tradition in Russia.
Rapier: The Rapier originated in Spain.
The Rapier was more of an ornamental sword that became popular in Britain.
Saber: One of the most popular swords in history it was widely used by the Cavalry in most countries.
Schiavona Sword
Scimitar: Hunting swords that eventually became popular with the Persions.
Seax Knive
Shashka Sword
Shikomizue Sword
Smallswords: Designed for the purpose of thrusting.
They are similar to the Rapier.
Spadroon: Developed in Britain the Spadroon turned out to be a poorly designed weapon.
It did however gain much use in the United States Army.
Spadroon Sword
Spatha: Straight swords used by the Roman cavalry.
Xiphos: Double-edged swords was used for war by the ancient Greeks.
Swordsmanship refers to the skills of a swordsman, a person versed in the art of the sword. The term is modern, and as such was mainly used to refer to smallsword fencing, but by extension it can also be applied to any martial art involving the use of a sword.
Tachi Japanese Sword
Uchigatana Sword
In Chinese culture the double-edged sword or jian is considered a masters weapon or a gentlemen's weapon, both from the considerable skill required in order to fight with one and from the fact that commanders of armies would typically not carry the long spears that formed the majority of the forces armament, favoring the jian in order to move easily amongst the troops.
Whilst many martial arts in China include training with both the jian and the single-bladed sword or dao (as well as many variant weapons), no well known art trains exclusively with the sword.
The sword has long held a significance in Japanese culture from the reverence and care that the samurai placed in their weapons. Kenjutsu is the term used for sword arts in Japan.
Kendo, a swordsmanship based sport art, and Iaido, the art of sword drawing, are of note here. There are also many schools that focus almost exclusively on swordsmanship that grew from the noble families patronage on certain teachers.
Some koryu, or ancient, schools still exist along with some more modern schools.
Rome provides the foundation for the widespread use of the sword as a weapon in its own right in the West. The Roman legionaries and other forces of the Roman military used the gladius as a short thrusting sword effectively with the scutum, a type of shield, in battle. Gladiators used a shorter gladius than the military.
The spatha was a longer double edged sword suitable for cutting and thrusting carried by some Roman military units. Over time, the blade became popular and was used throughout much of the Roman Empires legionary force.
Roman soldiers were heavily trained and prided themselves on discipline. This carried over to their training with weaponry, especially the sword.
Little is known about early medieval fencing technique but what may be concluded from archaeological evidence and artistic depiction.
What little has been found, however, shows the use of the sword was limited during the Viking age, especially among the Vikings themselves and other northern Germanic tribes. Here, the spear,axe and shield were prominent weapons, with only wealthy individuals owning swords.
These weapons, based off the Roman spatha, were made very well. The technique of pattern welding of composite metals provided some of these northern weapons superior properties in strength and resilience to the iron gladius of early Rome.
As time passed, the spatha evolved into the arming sword, a weapon with a notable cruciform hilt common among knights in the Medieval Age. Some time after this evolution, the earliest known treatises (fechtbücher) were written, dealing primarily with arming sword and buckler combat.
Among these examples is the I.33, the earliest known fechtbuch. The German school of swordsmanship can trace itself most closely to Johannes Liechtenauer and his students who later became the German masters of the 15th century including Sigmund Ringeck, Hans Talhoffer, Peter von Danzig and Paulus Kal.
During this period of time, the longsword grew out of the arming sword, eventually resulting in a blade comfortably wielded in both hands at once.
Armour technology evolved as well with the advent of plate armour, and swordsmanship was further pressed to meet the demands of killing a very well protected enemy.
During much of the early medieval period, the sword continued to remain a symbol of status. During later years, production techniques had become more efficient. While the sword remained a privilege, it was not so heavily confined to only the richest individuals, but rather to the richest classes.
The German school of swordsmanship, in general, faced a decline during the Renaissance as the other schools, stilted more towards the rapier and civilian dueling, took the forefront.
The compendium compiled by Paulus Hector Mair in the 1540s looks back to the preceding century of work and attempts to reconstruct and preserve a failing art. The treatise by Joachim Meyer, dating to the 1570s, notable for its scientific and complete approach to the style (it is suggested that Meyer's students came to him with less military knowledge and therefore required more basic instruction), is the last major account of the German school, and its context is now almost entirely sportive.
A separate Italian style of swordsmanship had been evolving from the 15th century, originally based on the concepts of the German school. Fiore dei Liberi's manual, the Flos Duellatorum dates to around 1410, and is noted for not only presenting a complete system of combat including for use of the longsword, and other weapons, as well as wrestling.
The use of the longsword continued to decline throughout the Renaissance period, marked by increased effectiveness of the arquebus and the use of pike squares as a powerful implement of battle. During this time, the civilian swords had evolved to side-swords, also known as "cut and thrust" swords, and progressed towards the thicker, tapering sword eventually becoming the 17th century rapier.
This new weapon was popular for both protection on the street and as a tool in the duel, but found little success on the battlefield. The Italian, French, and Spanish schools embraced this change in civilian armament and developed systems of rapier fencing. The German school, however, provides little on this weapon and ceases its prevalence thereafter.
After the demise of the longsword, the backsword became the last prominent battlefield sword. The backsword was not a new invention, but managed to outlast other forms of war swords, last used primarily by cavalry units and officers.
The power, accuracy, and reliability of firearms continued to improve, however, and soon swords had little place on the battlefield aside from ceremonial purposes. The preferred civilian dueling weapon shifted from the rapier to the faster but shorter smallsword, and eventually shifted totally away from swords to the pistol, following developments in firearm technology.
The civilian affair of dueling was banned in most areas, but persisted to some degree regardless of law.
As early as 1880, attempts were made to recreate the older German, Italian, and Spanish schools of swordsmanship. The lineage of Masters trained to teach the arts had been left to dwindle, however.
Sword Making
Mythology Swords
Knives
Paralumun New Age Village