Sword of knights. Antique edged weapons

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:46

Antique edged weapons leave no one indifferent. It always bears the imprint of remarkable beauty and even magic. One gets the feeling that one finds oneself in the legendary past, when these items were used very widely.

Of course, such a weapon serves as an ideal accessory for decorating a room. An office decorated with magnificent samples of ancient weapons will look more imposing and masculine.

Such objects as, for example, swords of the Middle Ages, are becoming interesting to many people as unique evidence of events that took place in ancient times.

Antique edged weapons

The armament of medieval foot soldiers resembles a dagger. Its length is less than 60 cm, the wide blade has a sharp end with blades that diverge.

Daggers a rouelles were most often armed with mounted warriors. These antique weapons are getting harder and harder to find.

The most terrible weapon of that time was the Danish battle axe. Its wide blade is semicircular in shape. The cavalry during the battle held it with both hands. The axes of the infantrymen were impaled on a long shaft and made it possible to equallyeffectively perform stabbing and chopping blows and pulling out of the saddle. These axes were first called guisarms, and then, in Flemish, godendaks. They served as the prototype of the halberd. In museums, these antique weapons attract many visitors.

The knights were also armed with wooden clubs stuffed with nails. The fighting scourges also had the appearance of a club with a movable head. A leash or chain was used to connect to the shaft. Such weapons of the knights were not widely used, since inept handling could harm the owner of the weapon more than his opponent.

Spears were usually made of very long lengths with an ash shaft ending in a pointed leaf-shaped piece of iron. To strike, the spear was not yet held under the arm, making it impossible to provide an accurate blow. The shaft was held at the level of the leg horizontally, putting forward about a quarter of its length, so that the opponent received a blow in the stomach. Such blows, when the battle of the knights was going on, were repeatedly amplified by the quick movement of the rider, bringing death, despite the chain mail. However, to be controlled with a spear of such a length (it reached five meters). it was very difficult. To do this, remarkable strength and agility, long experience as a rider and practice in handling weapons were needed. During 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 threw arrows over long distances and with great force. The arrow hit the enemy, two hundred paces away fromshooters. The bow was made of yew wood, its height reached one and a half meters. In the tail section, the arrows were equipped with feathers or leather wings. The iron arrows had different configurations.

The crossbow was very widely used by infantrymen, because, despite the fact that preparation for the shot took more time compared to archery, the range and accuracy of the shot was greater. This feature allowed this type of weapon to survive until the 16th century, when it was replaced by firearms.

Damascus steel

From ancient times, the quality of a warrior's weapons was considered very important. The metallurgists of antiquity sometimes managed, in addition to the usual malleable iron, to achieve strong steel. Mostly swords were made of steel. Due to their rare properties, they personified we alth and strength.

Information on the manufacture of flexible and durable steel is contacted by Damascus gunsmiths. The technology of its production is covered with a halo of mystery and amazing legends.

Wonderful weapons made from 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 kept in rich houses and passed from generation to generation, being a family heirloom. The steel sword made of Damascus steel has always been considered a rarity.

However, for centuries, masters from Damascusstrictly kept the secrets of making a unique metal.

The secret of Damascus steel was only fully revealed in the 19th century. It turned out that alumina, carbon, and silica must be present in the initial ingot. The hardening method was also special. A jet of cool air helped the Damascus craftsmen to cool the red-hot steel forgings.

Samurai sword

Katana saw the light of day around the 15th century. Until she appeared, the samurai used the tachi sword, which, in its properties, was much inferior to the katana.

The steel from which the sword was made was forged and tempered in a special way. When mortally wounded, the samurai sometimes passed his sword to the enemy. After all, the samurai code says that the weapon is destined to continue the path of the warrior and serve the new owner.

The katana sword was inherited, according to the samurai will. This ritual continues to this day. From the age of 5, the boy received permission to carry a sword made of wood. Later, as the spirit of the warrior gained firmness, a sword was personally forged for him. As soon as a boy was born in the family of ancient Japanese aristocrats, a sword was immediately ordered for him in a blacksmith's workshop. The moment the boy turned into a man, his katana sword was already made.

It took up to a year for a craftsman to make one such weapon. Sometimes it took 15 years for the masters of antiquity to make one sword. True, the craftsmen were simultaneously engaged in the manufacture of several swords. It is possible to forge a sword faster, but it will no longer bekatana.

When going to battle, the samurai took off all the decorations from the katana. But before a date with his beloved, he decorated the sword in every possible way so that the chosen one fully appreciated the power of his family and male viability.

Two-Handed Sword

If the hilt of the sword is designed so that only two hands are required, the sword in this case is called two-handed. In length, the two-handed sword of the knights reached 2 meters, and they carried it on the shoulder without any scabbard. For example, Swiss infantrymen were armed with a two-handed sword in the 16th century. Warriors armed with two-handed swords were given a place in the forefront of the battle formation: they were tasked with cutting and knocking down the spears of enemy soldiers, which had a great length. As a combat weapon, two-handed swords did not last long. Since the 17th century, they have performed the ceremonial role of an honorary weapon next to the banner.

In the 14th century, Italian and Spanish cities began to use a sword that was not intended for knights. It was made for city dwellers and peasants. Compared to a regular sword, it had less weight and length.

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 handle has a length of up to 300 mm. The weight of such a sword is from 3.5 to 5 kg.

The biggest swords

A special, very rare variety of straight swords was a great two-handed sword. It could reach 8 kilograms in weight, and had a length of 2 meters. In order to handle such a weapon, a very special strength was required andunusual technique.

Curved swords

If in ancient battles everyone fought for himself, often falling out of the general formation, then later on the fields where the battle of knights took place, another tactic of conducting the battle began to spread. Now protection was required in the ranks, and the role of warriors armed with two-handed swords began to be reduced to the organization of separate battle centers. Being actually suicide bombers, they fought in front of the formation, attacking the spearheads with two-handed swords and opening the way for pikemen.

At this time, the sword of knights, which has a "flaming" blade, became popular. It was invented long before that and became widespread in the 16th century. Landsknechts used a two-handed sword with such a blade, called flamberg (from the French "flame"). The length of the flamberg blade reached 1.40 m. The 60 cm handle was wrapped in leather. The flamberg blade was curved. It was quite difficult to operate such a sword, since it was difficult to sharpen a blade with a curved cutting edge well. This required well-equipped workshops and experienced craftsmen.

But the blow of the flamberg sword allowed inflicting deep cut-type wounds, which were difficult to treat in that state of medical knowledge. The curved two-handed sword caused wounds, often leading to gangrene, which meant that the enemy's casu alties became greater.

Knights Templar

There are few organizations that are surrounded by such a veil of secrecy and whose history is so controversial. Interest of writers and historiansattracted by the rich history of the order, the mysterious rites performed by the Knights Templar. Particularly impressive is their ominous death at the stake, which was lit by the French king Philip the Handsome. Knights, dressed in white cloaks with a red cross on their chest, are described in a huge number of books. For some, they appear to be stern-looking, impeccable and fearless warriors of Christ, for others they are duplicitous and arrogant despots or arrogant usurers who spread their tentacles throughout Europe. It even got to the point that idolatry and desecration of shrines were attributed to them. Is it possible to separate the truth from the lies in this multitude of completely contradictory information? Turning to the most ancient sources, let's try to figure out what this order is.

The order had a simple and strict charter, and the rules were similar to those of the Cistercian monks. According to these internal rules, knights must lead an ascetic, chaste life. They are charged with cutting their hair, but they cannot shave their beards. The beard distinguished 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 changed his gloomy life to the service of God, full of light and purity.

Templar Sword

The sword of the Knights Templar was considered the most noble among the types of weapons for members of the order. Of course, the results of its combat use largely depended on the abilityowner. The weapon was well balanced. The mass was distributed along the entire length of the blade. The weight of the sword was 1.3-3 kg. The Templar sword of the knights was forged by hand, using hard and flexible steel as the starting material. An iron core was placed inside.

Russian sword

The sword is a double-edged melee weapon used in close combat.

Until about the 13th century, the point of the sword was not sharpened, since they were mainly used for chopping blows. Chronicles describe the first stabbing only in 1255.

Swords have been found in the graves of the ancient Slavs since the 9th century, however, most likely, these weapons were known to our ancestors even earlier. It’s just that the tradition of finally identifying the sword and its owner is attributed to this era. At the same time, the deceased is provided with weapons so that in the other world it continues to protect the owner. In the early stages of the development of blacksmithing, when the cold forging method was widespread, which was not very effective, the sword was considered a huge treasure, so the idea of \u200b\u200bcommitting it to the earth did not occur to anyone. Therefore, the finds of swords by archaeologists are considered a great success.

The first Slavic swords are divided by archaeologists into many types, differing in handle and crosspiece. The wedges are very similar. They are up to 1 m long, up to 70 mm wide in the area of the handle, gradually tapering towards the end. In the middle part of the blade was a fuller, which was sometimes erroneously called "bleeding". At first, the valley was made quite wide, but then it gradually became narrower, andin the end and completely disappeared.

Dol actually served to reduce the weight of the weapon. The flow of blood 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 a special dressing, which ensured its high strength. The Russian sword weighed approximately 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 long and difficult. In addition, the possession of a sword required great physical strength and dexterity from its owner.

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 the melee weapons of high quality for close combat, damask steel is worth noting. This special type 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 steel and iron rods 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 make fairly thin swords without loss of strength. Often strips of damask steel were the basis of the blade, and blades were welded along the edge,made from high carbon steel. Such steel was obtained by carburizing - heating using carbon, which impregnated the metal and increased 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 capable of cutting sword blades that were not so well made.

Any specialist knows that the welding of iron and steel, which have different melting points, is a process that requires great skill from the master blacksmith. At the same time, in the data of archaeologists there is confirmation that in the 9th century our Slavic ancestors possessed this skill.

Science is in a frenzy. It often turned out that the sword, which experts attributed to Scandinavian, was made in Russia. In order to distinguish a good damask sword, buyers first checked 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 quality of the damask steel. Then the damask steel was subjected to a test of elasticity: whether a curvature would occur if the blade was applied to the head and bent down to the ears. If, after passing the first two tests, the blade easily coped with a thick nail, cutting it without dulling, and easily cut through the thin fabric that was thrown on the blade, it could be considered that the weapon passed the test. The best of the swords were often adorned with jewels. They are now the target of numerous collectors and are literally worth their weight in gold.

During the development of civilization, swords, like other weapons, undergo significant changes. At first they become shorter and lighter. Now you can often find them 80 cm long and weighing up to 1 kg. Swords of the 12th-13th centuries, as before, were more used for slashing, but now they have received the ability to stab.

Two-handed sword in Russia

At the same time, another kind of sword appears: a two-handed one. Its mass reaches approximately 2 kg, and its length reaches 1.2 m. The technique of combat with a sword is significantly modified. It was carried in a wooden sheath covered with leather. The scabbard 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 cost of the rest of the owner's property.

Most often, the prince's combatant could afford the luxury of having a sword, sometimes a we althy militia. The sword was used in infantry and cavalry until the 16th century. However, in the cavalry, he was pretty much pressed by the saber, which is more convenient in the equestrian order. Despite this, the sword, unlike the saber, is a true Russian weapon.

Roman sword

This family includes swords from the Middle Ages up to 1300 and later. They were characterized by a pointed blade and a handle 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 handle is put on the shank and can be wrapped with leather cord or wire. The latter is preferable, as metal gloves tear the leather sheath.