Sword

From TheBestLinks.com

A sword (from Old English sweord; akin to Old High German swerd) is a bladed weapon, consisting in its most fundamental design of a blade and a handle. The blade is usually of some metal ground to at least one sharp edge and often has a pointed tip for thrusting. The handle, called the hilt, can be made of many materials, but the material most common is wood covered by leather, fish skin or metal wiring. The basic intent and physics of swordsmanship is fairly constant, but the methods of using those physics vary widely from culture to culture. Most of the variations can be understood in terms of the differences in blade designs around the world.

Table of contents

1 History

2 Types of swords

3 Parts of the Western sword

4 External links

History

This kind of weapon has been in use from the Bronze Age when the construction of long metal blades was possible for the first time. Early swords were made of solid bronze or copper. Not until iron could be forged did the sword truly become an effective weapon. Soon, smiths learned that with a proper amount of coal (specifically the carbon in coal) in the iron, another metal alloy could be produced: steel.

Several different methods of swordmaking existed in ancient times. One of the most reputed is pattern welding. Over time new methods were developed all over the world.

In Pre-Columbian South America and Mesoamerica several cultures made use of types of swords without developing metallurgy; for example swords with obsidian "teeth" mounted along the "edges" of a wooden "blade".

Having seen use for about five millennia, swords began to lose their military uses in the late 18th century because of increasing availability and reliability of gunpowder weapons. Swords were still used, although increasingly limited to officers and ceremonial uniforms. Cavalry sabre charges still occurred as late as World War II during which Japanese and Pacific Islanders also occasionally used swords.

Types of swords

There are several hundred types of swords. Here is a list of some of the most famous:

Rapier - a longer european dueling sword, optimized more for thrusting than a slashing action
Small-sword - a very short and light descendant of the rapier.
Sword - a straight, pointed, two edged European sword held in one hand, normally used with a shield or buckler.
Long-sword - a straight, pointed, two edged European sword with a grip long enough for use with two hands.
Katana (刀; かたな) and Tachi (太刀; たち) - Japanese samurai swords - see also Wakizashi
Claymore - either of two types of Scottish sword, a two-handed design that is older and was used as an anti-cavalry weapon, and a more modern blade, famous as the "basket-hilted" claymore. This blade lent its name to the modern Claymore anti-personnel mine.
Sabre - (saber) a sword with curved edge intended for slashing or chopping
Jian (劍 pinyin ji�n) - a Chinese double-edged thin straight sword
Dao (刀 pinyin dāo) - a Chinese single-edged curved sword, sometimes translated as sabre or broadsword in English.
Gladius - a Roman legionaire's short sword
Scimitar - a strongly curved short sword from the Middle East that became widely-known during the Islamic and Osmanic conquests along with the Yatagan, another Turkish style of sword

Several modern sports and martial arts have components based upon older principles of swordfighting. Among these are fencing, kendo, kenjutsu, escrima, aikido and some variants of kung fu.

Many swords in mythology, literature and history are named by their wielders or by the person who makes them.

Excalibur - King Arthur
Kusanagi (Grasscutter) - The Japanese equivalent to Excalibur
Sword of Damocles
Tizona - El Cid
Szczerbiec - The Polish kings
Hrunting - Unferth, associate of Beowulf
Gram (in the Volsung Saga) or Balmung (sometimes in later traditions) - Sigurd
Tyrfing - a cursed sword from the Elder Edda
Durandal - the sword belongs to Roland, a hero of the medieval French epic "The Song of Roland"
Joyeuse - the sword of Charlemagne (Charles the Great), medieval king of Franks
Grus- the historical sword of Boleslaw Krzywousty (Boleslaus the Wrymouthed), medieval prince of Poland
Narsil (later And�ril) - The sword of Elendil, and later Aragorn in J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Stormbringer - The black sword used by Elric
Green Destiny Sword - The sword used by Li Mu Bai in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

A tool resembling the sword is called a machete (or, in Southern Africa, a panga) and is used to cut through thick vegetation. Indeed, the difference between a machete and a sword is mainly that of width and utilization, and several types of swords in history resemble the machete in construction, such as for example the scramasax, the dusack, and the falchion.

While a rigid classification is not feasible, the latter is usually referred to as a kind of chopping sword. The scramasax, usually lacking a cross-piece or any kind of guard, is more properly considered a war knife.

For a more comprehensive listing of swords types, see list of swords

Parts of the Western sword

The blade is the cutting part of a sword. In single-edged swords, the non-cutting edge is known as the back.

The blade may also have grooves or fullers, also known as "blood grooves." The purpose of these fullers is not to act as gutters for blood (as was once thought), but to lighten the blade while allowing it to retain its strength, in the same manner as an "I" beam in construction.

The hilt is the handle of a sword, and consists of the guard, the grip, and the pommel. It may also have a tassel or sword knot.

The scabbard is the case that the sword is kept in when not in use.

The ricasso is a short section of blade immediately forward of the guard. Most swords have no ricasso. The ricasso is not sharpened, which allows a finger to be wrapped around the blade for better control. On some large weapons, such as the German longsword, the ricasso was covered with leather and might be gripped in one hand to make the weapon more easily wielded in close quarters combat.

The shoulder is the short section of blade between the hilt and the start of the sharpened portion of the blade. The maker's mark is normally to be found on the shoulder. On Japanese blades it is found on the tang under the handle.

The tang is the part of the blade extending from the top of the blade through the hilt and the grip. In a rat-tail tang the sword is held together by a nut screwed onto the tang above the pommel (in 20th-century and later construction), or the tang is peened over a nut on the end of the pommel (in traditional construction). It is one of the weakest types of tang. A "full" tang is the strongest type. In a full-tang sword, the tang is the same width as the sword blade. As the blade doesn't narrow where it joins the handle, it maintains all its strength.

The CoP (Center of Percussion), also known as the Sweet spot, is the part of the blade that can deliver the strongest blow with the least vibration. Most swords will have two of these points along the blade. The secondary one nearest to the hilt is a particularly poor point to have struck by another sword, if the user should make the mistake of believing popular mythology and using a sword edge to parry. Being struck at this point will allow the maximum force to be transmitted and is how a sword may suffer catastrophic failure.