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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Drifter Bob" data-source="post: 1763708" data-attributes="member: 17723">Thanks for posting the link, I have seen those before but I never really considered them relevant, maybe that's Eurocentric of me.  But as unlikely as that thing is, it's a dagger, not a sword or an axe.  Daggers have been made with spikes going in all different directions.  As to how functional they actually are, I have my doubts....I never said otherwise.  Some of the serration etc. looks a bit fanciful to me but essentially it's roughly equivalent to a rather short variation of a European Glaive.  Given that, I'm sure it's a pretty efficient weapon.IMHO, too many legends and myths of this type make their way into EMA as unquestioned fact, though undoubtedly the same will happen with WMA when it gets more mainstream....I'm active on several discussion forums with many of the same people, among others, and have been studying hoplology for about ten years... I would actually say you could take this a step further and say that almost no battlefield weapons in common use weighed more than about 5 lbs, and even the largest swords rarely weighed more than 4 lbs. A lot of the 6 and 7 pound two handers they have in Museums have turned out to be non-functional parade swords.  Several functional renaissance era six foot dopplehanders that were examined at a major auction house in Switzerland last year turned out to be around 3.5 lbs.Most single handed swords weighed from between two and three pounds to as little as a pound and a half for some cut and thrust types.Very true, the amount a soldier carries has remained remarkably constant over the years.  To me, understanding weapon weight is simple though.  Like I said, go to a hardware store, flex a 6 pound maul, and try to imagine fighting off someone with a machete, or a spear or a quarterstaff....  Swords, and even hammers and maces had to be as quick as the weapons they were likely to face, or else they were essentially useless.Real medieval swords, if you ever get to handle one, are remarkable, almost magical feeling things.  They are better made than you expect, they are usually longer than you expect, and they are so well balanced they almost don't seem to weigh anything.  The real thing are many, many times better than anything they can produce today.  The technology and artistry of our forbears was not nearly so crude and primitive as we have been taught to believe..DB</blockquote>

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