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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Willie the Duck" data-source="post: 9827433" data-attributes="member: 6799660">And lots of the surviving manuals are for this kind of stuff (jousting and dueling during the unarmored eras, mostly, but still some of this). Interesting to see how much this ends up looking like that. At the narrow point in time when knights were (effectively, nearly) completely covered in metal plates, the function of most swords was 'for use against everyone except that.' On a battlefield, you never know what you'll end up being up against, and a sword is a relatively light and convenient. If someone were actually dueling (see above), such that your only possible opponent was another knight, perhaps foregoing the sword would be optimal. I guess the number of times having two daggers at your waist instead of one sword and one dagger would be pretty limited, and reach (even half-swording, you'll have more than a dagger) always counts for a lot as an option (as do options in general). Also apparently* they would sometime reverse the sword, grab it by the blade** and smash the other guy with the quillons like a hammer. I'm not sure how often this would be preferable to other options, but it seems to have been something of a thing. *Todd and Scholagladatoria keep referencing its inclusion in a lot of manuals**somehow. I don't feel like the insides of the gauntlets of the era would prevent you from being cut</blockquote>