Swords (Training)

The historical definition reads: „edged, straight hilted weapon with a doubled edged blade and a symmetrical handle, originally made for horsemen.”

The sword was primarily designed for slashing, which can be told from the dull point of the blade. Many swords were hollow-ground, the grinding commonly referred to as the “blood channel”. Yet, it served to reduce weight, and not to prevent the blade from getting stuck, as often supposed.

The rivet plate at the downside of the pommel developed into a disc-shaped attachment in the 6^th through 7^th century which was very common in western Europe up to the late Middle Ages.

From the late 13^th century on, swords with wedge-like, armour-piercing thrusting blades were forged in France. Those weapons became popular in Germany and the rest of Europe in the 14^th century.

The so called "parry bar" was changed for several times in the proceeding of the Middle Ages. The originally short protrusions of the pommel became a lengthly straight bar the ends of which were more and more bent up towards the blade during the 13^th and 14^th century.