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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Imperialus" data-source="post: 69273" data-attributes="member: 893">Re: Myths about european swords...Ok... First allow me to clarify my position.  European swords did break quite easally if used for a purpose for which they were not intended.  First of all european weapons in the 15th century were designed exclusively as that.  Weapons.  You were not expected to parry/ripost much at all.  You either got out of the way of incomeing blows, or your armour took it.  Two sharp swords pounding on each others edges would chip and loose their edge quite quickly.  The same thing happend if you were bashing a swords edge against a solid plate.  Cutting motions were generally used to quickly cut through unarmoured infantry and the like.Therefore what was done is the sword was narrowed to a point over the entire length of the blade, as can be seen in the second picture down here <a href="http://www.varmouries.com/weapons/deltin.html" target="_blank">http://www.varmouries.com/weapons/deltin.html</a> .  This allowed the tip of the blade to be used to try and find openings in the armour and you would try and stab through those gaps to kill a person.Also remember that most swords were simply made of a very high carbon steel which like I said before allowed them to hold an edge like a razor but made them quite brittle.  They are tough to come across these days but try this experiment.  Take a stainless steel blade and a carbon steel blade strike them both with a hammer.  I can promice you that the carbon steel will probably shatter.  It isn't because the carbon steel is of poor quality, it's because you are abuseing it.  It's like how moderen marines would be stupid to bury their M16's in the sand, or jump up and down on them.As for the comment about swords not being common I'l like to argue that too.  Why does nearly every surviveing fighting manual of the time focus on sword work?  Be kinda dumb to learn how to use a weapon you wern't going to actually use.</blockquote>

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