Antique edged weapons leaves no one indifferent. It always bears the imprint of wonderful beauty and even magic. It seems that you find yourself in a legendary past when these items were used very widely.
Of course, such a weapon serves as an ideal accessory for decorating a room. A cabinet decorated with magnificent examples of ancient weapons will look more impressive and masculine.
Such objects, such as medieval swords, become interesting to many people as unique evidence of events that took place in ancient times.
Antique Edged Weapons
The armament of the medieval foot soldiers resembles a dagger. Its length is less than 60 cm, the wide blade has a sharp end with blades that diverge.
The daggers of a rouelles were most often armed with horse warriors. Such antique weapons are finding it harder and harder.
The most terrible weapon of the time was the Danish battle ax. Its wide blade is a semicircular shape. Horsemen during the battle held him with both hands. Axes of infantrymen were planted on a long pole and made it possible to equally perform stabbing and chopping strikes and pull out of the saddle. These axes were first called guizarmas, and then, in Flemish, they were called godendaks. They served as a prototype of the halberds. In museums, these antique weapons attract many visitors.
The knights were also armed with wooden clubs filled with nails. The fighting scourges also had the appearance of a club with a moving head. A leash or chain was used to connect to the shaft. Such weapons of the knights were not widespread, as inept handling could do more harm to the owner of the weapon than to his opponent.
The spears were usually made very long with a shaft made of ash ending in a pointed leaf-shaped gland. To strike, the spear was not yet held under the arm, preventing the possibility of an accurate strike. The shaft was held horizontally at the level of the leg, pushing forward about a quarter of its length, so that the enemy received a blow to the stomach. Such blows, when the battle of the knights was in progress, was intensified many times by the fast movement of the horseman, bringing death in spite of the chain mail. However, to cope with a spear of this length (it reached five meters). it was very difficult. To do this, one needed remarkable strength and dexterity, a long experience of a rider and practice in controlling weapons. During the transitions, the spear was worn vertically, putting its tip into a leather shoe that hung near the stirrup on the right.
Among the weapons there was a Turkish bow, which had a double bend and throwing arrows over long distances and with great force. The arrow hit the enemy, two hundred paces from the firing. Onions were made of yew wood, its height reached one and a half meters. At the tail end, arrows were provided with feathers or leather wings. Iron arrows had a different configuration.
The infantryman used the crossbow very widely, since, despite the fact that preparing for the shot took a longer amount of time compared to archery, the range and accuracy of the shot were greater. This feature allowed this type of weapon to survive until the 16th century, when firearms replace it.
Damascus steel
Since ancient times, the quality of a warrior’s weapons has been considered very important. The metallurgists of antiquity sometimes succeeded, in addition to ordinary ductile iron, in obtaining strong steel. Mostly swords were made of steel. Due to their rare properties, they personified wealth and strength.
Information on the manufacture of flexible and durable steel is associated with Damascus gunsmiths. The technology for its production is fanned by a halo of mystery and amazing legends.
A wonderful weapon of this steel came from forges located in the Syrian city of Damascus. They were built by the emperor Diocletian. Damascus steel was produced here, reviews of which went far beyond Syria. Knives and daggers made of this material were brought by knights from the Crusades as valuable trophies. They were stored in rich houses and passed from generation to generation, being a family relic. Damascus steel sword has always been considered a rarity.
However, for centuries, craftsmen from Damascus have strictly kept the secrets of making a unique metal.
The mystery of Damascus steel was not fully disclosed until the 19th century. It turned out that alumina, carbon and silica should be present in the original ingot. The quenching method was also special. Damascus craftsmen helped cool the hot forgings made of steel by a stream of cool air.
Samurai sword
Katana was released around the 15th century. Until she appeared, the samurai used the tachi sword, which in its properties greatly lost to the katana.
The steel from which the sword was made was forged and hardened in a special way. With a mortal wound, the samurai sometimes passed his sword to the enemy. After all, the samurai code says that the weapons are destined for the continuation of the warrior's path and service to the new owner.
The katana sword was inherited, according to the samurai testament. This ritual is preserved in our days. From the age of 5 years, the boy received permission to carry a sword made of wood. Later, as the spirit of the warrior gained firmness, he personally forged a sword. As soon as a boy was born in the family of ancient Japanese aristocrats, they immediately ordered a sword for him in the forge workshop. At the moment when the boy turned into a man, his katana sword was already made.
To master, to make one unit of such weapons, it took time to a year. Sometimes the masters of antiquity took 15 years to make one sword. True, the masters simultaneously engaged in the manufacture of several swords. It is possible to forge a sword faster, but it will no longer be a katana.
Going to battle, the samurai removed all the jewelry that was on it from a katana. But before a meeting with her beloved, she decorated the sword in every possible way, so that the chosen one fully appreciated the power of his family and male wealth.
Two-handed sword
If the hilt of the sword is designed so that it requires a grip with only two hands, the sword in this case is called a two-handed. In length, the two-handed sword of the knights reached 2 meters, and was carried on his shoulder without any scabbard. For example, the Swiss infantry were armed with a two-handed sword in the 16th century. Warriors armed with two-handed swords were given a place in the front ranks of the battle formation: they were tasked with cutting and knocking down the spears of enemy soldiers, which were of great length. Two-handed swords did not last long as a combat weapon. Starting from the 17th century, they performed the ceremonial role of an honorary weapon next to the banner.
In the XIV century, in the Italian and Spanish cities began to use a sword that was not intended for knights. It was made for residents of the city and peasants. He had less weight and length compared to an ordinary sword.
Now, according to the classification existing in Europe, a two-handed sword should have a length of 150 cm. The width of its blade is 60 mm, the hilt has a length of up to 300 mm. The weight of such a sword is from 3.5 to 5 kg.
Biggest swords
A special, very rare variety of straight swords was the great two-handed sword. He could reach a weight of 8 kilograms, and had a length of 2 meters. In order to deal with such weapons, it required a very special force and unusual equipment.
Curved swords
If in ancient battles everyone fought for themselves, often falling out of order, then later on the fields where the battle of the knights took place, other tactics of the battle began to spread. Now protection was required in the ranks, and the role of warriors armed with two-handed swords began to boil down to the organization of individual foci of battle. Being practically suicide bombers, they fought in front of the ranks, attacking the spearheads with two-handed swords and opening the way for the pikemen.
At this time, the sword of the knights, having a "flaming" blade, became popular. It was invented long before that and spread widely in the 16th century. Landsknecht used a two-handed sword with such a blade, called the Flamberg (from the French "flame"). The length of the flamberge blade reached 1.40 m. The handle of 60 cm was wrapped in leather. The blade of the flambergs was bent. It was quite difficult to operate such a sword, since it was difficult to sharpen a blade with a curved cutting edge. This required well-equipped workshops and experienced craftsmen.
But the strike of the Flamberg sword allowed to inflict deep wounds of the incised type, which did not respond well to treatment in that state of medical knowledge. A curved two-handed sword caused wounds, often leading to gangrene, which means that the enemy’s losses became greater.
Knights Templar
Few organizations exist that are surrounded by such a veil of secrecy and whose history is so controversially evaluated. The writers and historians are interested in the rich history of the order, the mysterious rites performed by the Knights Templar. Particularly impressive is their ominous death on the bonfires that lit the French king Philip the Beautiful. Knights dressed in white raincoats with a red cross on their chests are described in a huge number of books. For some, they appear to be a harsh appearance of the impeccable and fearless Christ warriors, for others they are two-faced and arrogant despots or arrogant money-lenders, spreading tentacles throughout Europe. It got to the point that they were credited with idolatry and desecration of shrines. Is it possible to separate the truth from the lies in this set of completely contradictory information? Turning to the most ancient sources, we will try to figure out what this order represents.
The order had a simple and strict charter, and the rules were similar to the rules of Cistercian monks. According to these internal rules, knights must lead an ascetic, chaste life. They are charged with cutting hair, but you should not shave your beard. The beard singled out the Templars from the general mass, where most of the male aristocrats were shaved. In addition, the knights had to wear a white cassock or cape, which later turned into a white cloak, which became their hallmark. The white cloak symbolically indicated that the knight had replaced a gloomy life in the service of God, full of light and purity.
Templar Sword
The sword of the Knights Templar was revered as the noblest of all types of weapons for members of the order. Of course, the results of its combat use to a large extent depended on the skill of the owner. The weapons were well balanced. The mass was distributed along the entire length of the blade. The weight of the sword was 1.3-3 kg. The Knights Templar sword was forged by hand, using solid and flexible steel as the starting material. Inside was an iron core.
Russian sword
The sword is a double-edged melee weapon used in close combat.
Until about the thirteenth century, the point of the sword was not sharpened, since it was predominantly hacked. Chronicles describe the first piercing blow only in 1255.
In the graves of the ancient Slavs, swords have been discovered since the 9th century, however, most likely, these weapons were known to our ancestors even earlier. It’s just that the tradition to completely identify the sword and its owner is attributed to this era. At the same time, the deceased is supplied with weapons, so that in another world it would continue to protect the owner. In the early stages of the development of blacksmithing, when the cold forging method, which was not very effective, was widely used, the sword was considered a huge treasure, so the idea of ​​betraying its land did not occur to anyone. Therefore, the finds of swords by archaeologists are considered a great success.
The first Slavic swords by archaeologists are divided into many types, differing in hilt and cross. Their blades are very similar. They have a length of up to 1 m, a width in the area of ​​the handle of up to 70 mm, gradually tapering towards the end. In the middle part of the blade there was a dol, which from time to time was mistakenly called "bloodletting." At first, the dol was made wide enough, but then it gradually became narrower, and in the end it completely disappeared.
Dol actually served to reduce the weight of the weapon. Blood flow has nothing to do with it, since stabbing with a sword at that time was almost never used. The metal of the blade was subjected to special dressing, which ensured its high strength. The Russian sword had a weight of about 1.5 kg. Not all warriors possessed swords. It was a very expensive weapon in that era, since the work of making a good sword was lengthy and complex. In addition, the possession of the sword demanded from its owner tremendous physical strength and dexterity.
What was the technology by which the Russian sword was made, which had a well-deserved authority in the countries where it was used? Among high-quality melee weapons for melee, it is worth noting damask steel. This special kind of steel contains carbon in an amount of more than 1%, and its distribution in the metal is uneven. The sword, which was made of damask steel, had the ability to cut iron and even steel. At the same time, he was very flexible and did not break when he was bent into a ring. However, Bulat had a big drawback: it became brittle and broke at low temperatures, so it was practically not used in the Russian winter.
To get damask steel, Slavic blacksmiths folded or twisted bars of steel and iron and forged them many times. As a result of repeated execution of this operation, strips of strong steel were obtained. It was she who made it possible to produce sufficiently thin swords without loss of strength. Often, damask strips were the base of the blade, and blades made of steel with a high carbon content were welded along the edge. Such steel was obtained by carburizing - heating using carbon, impregnating the metal and increasing its hardness. Such a sword easily cut through the armor of the enemy, since they were most often made of lower grade steel. They were also able to cut through the blades of swords, which were not made so skillfully.
Any specialist knows that welding iron and steel, which have a different melting point, is a process that requires great skill from a blacksmith. Moreover, the data of archaeologists confirm that in the 9th century our Slavic ancestors possessed this skill.
There was a stir in science. It often turned out that the sword, which the experts attributed to the Scandinavian, was made in Russia. In order to distinguish a good damask sword, buyers first tested the weapon like this: from a small click on the blade, a clear and long sound is heard, and the higher it is and the cleaner this ringing, the higher the damask quality. Then the damask steel was tested for elasticity: will there not be a curvature if a blade is applied to the head and bent down to the ears. If, having passed the first two tests, the blade easily coped with a thick nail, chopping it and not blunting, and easily cut the thin fabric that was thrown on the blade, it could be considered that the weapon passed the test. The best of swords are often adorned with jewelry. They are now the target of numerous collectors and are valued literally worth its weight in gold.
During the development of civilization, swords, like other weapons, undergo significant changes. At first they get shorter and lighter. Now you can often find them 80 cm long and weighing up to 1 kg. Swords of the XII-XIII centuries, as before, were more used for chopping blows, but now they have got the ability and stab.
Two-handed sword in Russia
At the same time, another kind of sword appears: two-handed. Its mass reaches approximately 2 kg, and its length reaches 1.2 m. The battle technique using the sword is substantially modified. He wore in a wooden sheathed leather. The sheath had two sides - the tip and the mouth. The scabbard was often decorated as richly as the sword. There were times when the price of a weapon was much higher than the value of the rest of the owner’s property.
Most often, the prince's combatant could afford the luxury of having a sword, sometimes a rich militia. The sword was used in infantry and cavalry until the 16th century. However, in the cavalry he was pretty much pressed by a saber, which is more convenient in equestrian order. Despite this, the sword is, unlike a saber, a true Russian weapon.
Romanesque sword
This family includes swords of the Middle Ages until 1300 and later. They were characterized by a pointed blade and handle cuttings of greater length. The shape of the handle and blade can be very diverse. These swords appeared with the advent of the knightly class. A wooden cutlery is worn on the shank and can be wrapped with a cord of leather or wire. The latter is preferable, since metal gloves tear the braid from the skin.