Blade weapon

The blade is an extended metal warhead, the nature of the damage caused depends on the parameters of which. Depending on the shape of the blade, as well as the nature of the point and blades, a blade weapon can be chopping, pricking, pricking-cutting, chopping-cutting. Depending on the length of the blade, there are:

• Short-bladed - up to 30 cm.
• Sredneklinkovoe - 30-50 cm.
• Longblade - over 50 cm.

The first blade weapon was a knife. Then swords and daggers appeared.

Broadsword with technological advantage over double-edged swords turned out to be convenient for equestrian combat. In the 7th century, they acquired a slight bend, which gave rise to sabers . By the XIII century, they already had circulation in many countries of Asia and Eastern Europe, and later became the main type of blade weapons there.

In Europe, from the 15th century, the strengthening of the piercing properties of swords led to the appearance of swords , and then the rapier .

The typology of blade weapons is based on its design and purpose. Historically, the names of certain types have been applied to specific types of weapons.

Combat Knife

Knife - the oldest blade weapon piercing and cutting action. The oldest knives, known since the Upper Paleolithic , were stone and mostly cutting. Later appeared metal - copper , bronze , iron and, finally, steel knives, which received a piercing tip. Knives have been and are still used by almost all peoples.

Dagger

The dagger is a sharp-cutting and chopping-cutting weapon with a short or medium two-blade blade. The shape of the blade can be either straight or curved. Thus, a dagger is distinguished from a knife not only by its cutting properties, but also exclusively by its combat purpose. Occasionally there were two-blade daggers.

Stylet

A stylet is a piercing weapon with a short or medium blade, faceted or round. Similar weapons were used by different peoples and had a different origin. However, due to its small size, it was distinguished by the possibility of hidden wearing. For example, Japanese Kansashi was in the form of hairpins.

Dirk

Dagger - a piercing weapon with a short or medium narrow blade of a rhombic section. Only daggers in the direct meaning of this word belong to this type.

Sword

A sword is a stabbing and chopping weapon with a straight medium or long two-blade blade. The oldest swords dating back to the 2nd millennium BC. e. were bronze. However, in some cultures, bone and wooden swords with stone blades are known, possibly the predecessors of metal ones. Such weapons combined the properties of a knife and an ax. Over the centuries, some swords became the primary stabbing functions, while others - chopping. This led to the emergence of new types of swords and other blade weapons.

Broadsword

Broadsword is a stabbing and chopping weapon with a long straight blade, distinguished from the sword by one-blade. This weapon was initially distributed in the cavalry, to increase the effectiveness of the handle was sometimes located at an angle to the axis of the blade. However, historically, a broadsword was a weapon that was sometimes double-edged or curved, which, according to modern typology, is wrong.

Saber

Saber is a chopping-cutting and stabbing-cutting weapon with a long curved blade with a blade on the "convex" side. It appeared as a result of the broadsword modification - the bend of the blade gave the weapon cutting properties, which increased its effectiveness. The sabers were probably independently invented by the nomads of Eastern Europe and the Far East.

Checker

A checker is a sharp-cutting weapon with a long, slightly curved, single-blade blade, which, like a dagger, is the only representative of this type.

Sword

The epee is a stabbing or stabbing and chopping weapon with a long straight one-blade or two-blade three- or four-sided blade and a developed hilt . It appeared as a result of an increase in the pricking properties of the sword. Konchar is also a sword.

Rapier

Rapier is a piercing weapon with a long straight elastic blade and, as a rule, a cupped guard. In turn, comes from the sword.

Cleaver

Slicer is a chopping-cutting and stabbing-cutting weapon with a wide middle one-blade blade. As a rule, it is intended for applying predominantly chopping blows, and cleats can differ in a very diverse form of the blade. Historically, this name has been applied even to wide massive sabers. In particular, hatchets are false , machetes , copies .

Scimitar

A scimitar is a stabbing and chopping-cutting weapon with a blade having a double bend and sharpening on the inside. This form provided a cutting-cutting action with a “raking” effect. As in the case of a saber and a dagger, this type is equivalent to a specific weapon.

Pricking or piercing-cutting weapons, which is characterized in that it is attached to the muzzle of the barrel of a handgun. Appeared in the XVII century. The bayonets could be of various forms, which are classified in the same way as the rest of the blade weapon.

Some types of pole arms , for example, glaive , are distinguished by a tip in the form of a blade. However, despite this, they, as a kind of blade weapon, are not classified.

Bladed weapons can have basically two types of blades - curved (one or more times) and straight. As a rule, these types of blades are always designed to inflict specific types of damage, and the material of which the target (wood, leather, fabric, metal, organics) also plays a significant role.

Curved blades, such as Persian shamshir , have a fairly strong bend. Thus, an acute angle is formed between the target plane and the axis of the blade. The saber bent at 90 ° almost parallel to the target slides with its front part. This is enhanced by the fact that the blow is always delivered along a circular path. Moreover, finding the blade and the target at an angle increases the breakdown effect. Thus, the saber as such has its own damaging effect in the cutting “saw effect”, and this effect becomes stronger with increasing curvature of the blade. This sliding cutting movement provides the saber with good efficiency with its relatively low weight (0.5-1.5 kg), since the cutting effect compensated for a smaller impulse with a swing. However, at the same time, the cutting properties of a strongly curved saber are weakened, and this has one main drawback: the cutting effect is much less effective for metal and wood, so the sabers are usually distinguished by moderate curvature.

As a rule, a straight blade does not have additional curvatures, which excludes the automatic “saw effect”, therefore this type of weapon always required special equipment. Usually, a straight sword was simultaneously pulled back during the strike, creating a cutting component of movement, since a “pull” as such is needed so that any blade can cut. The popular notion of straight swords as an analogue of an ax is accordingly incorrect. The length of the straight blade and “pulls”, however, are not always able to give the desired effect, so the weight of straight swords is usually slack above saber (1.1-1.4 kg). The extra weight allows the blade to give a greater impulse than a lighter saber, which compensates for the weaker cutting effect of the blade. Felling with a sword is therefore more complex, but most effective when used against chain mail and wood, as a result of a higher impulse and application technique. Also, a sword is better than a saber adapted to pricks.

The concave blade is designed for cutting, but in this case it has an advantage over the direct one. When striking a target from top to bottom, the weapon moved not only down, but also slightly forward, which was ensured by concavity. The resulting “raking” effect gave the chopping impact cutting properties, which increased its effectiveness. Thus, “pull” was not required, since it was carried out automatically. For example, “ears” were made on the hilt of the scimitar so that the weapon would not come out of the hand as a result of this effect.

Thus, the chopping effect of a blade weapon is determined, in general, by the geometry of their blade and the technique of use, and not by brute force or weight. The saber is cut in large circular swoops, often with a shoulder, and with the sword with targeted blows with a pull back and turning the whole body. The sword is more suitable as a chopping weapon, capable of chopping off parts of the body of the enemy, and a saber for inflicting deep cut wounds. Most swords and sabers, however, are not their "pure" representative - sabers designed to fight with chain mail armor are usually weakly curved and have a pronounced edge for piercing attacks. Such designs (for example, slightly curved Tatar sabers or a relatively straight Turkish canine with elman) represent a compromise between the cutting effect of a curved blade and the chopping effect of a sword. Therefore, when cutting, an additional “pull” is often required. Famous examples of such a hybrid are the Caucasian checker and the Japanese sword .

• GOST R 51215-98
• TSB , articles "Knife", "Dagger", "Sword".