A Sword is a knife, wide, Straight, sharp and cutting, with curbs and handle. The sword comes from the Latin word spatha (also, used as a long straight sword Roman cavalry), and this, turn from the Greek spathe. Etymologically the name of Sword remains today in the French and epee, spada in Italian and English and the sword.
Being an early appearance (Fourth millennium BC), the swords were made with copper foil (very weak), then bronze, iron and mild steel end. The manufacture and swordsmanship remain constant over the centuries, but the techniques vary between cultures and periods as a result of differences in design and purpose of the road.
The Iron swords become more common since the thirteenth century. C. Blacksmiths finally learned, adding a certain amount of coal (added during the reduction in the form of charcoal) iron, could produce an improved alloy (now known as steel). The type spatha still remains extended in the Middle Ages. The swords were decorated with Germanic. The Viking Age again provides a more standardized production but the basic design remained indebted to the spatha.
From the eleventh century Norman swords begin to develop the hawks or the cross. During the Crusades of the twelfth century (the XIII) this type is stable cruciform, with variations only affect the shape of the pommel. These swords were designed as cutting weapons, although effective points were becoming common to counter improvements in armor.
During the Renaissance changed the sword hilt mainly manufacturing more elongated, thus allowing the use ambidextrous and a blade longer. Llamada Long Sword (German
long sword) or Greatsword, was common to 1400. Another variant was the specialized sword pierce the armor of the type sword. Rapier Blade type (stock) evolved from the Spanish Rapier in the sixteenth century. El Rapier(estoque) differs from the most ancient swords that is not a military weapon but for civilian use. Both Rapier(estoque) stock Schiavone developed as the cross-shaped basket to protect the hand. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Smallsword, shorter, became an essential accessory in Europe and the New World and most wealthy men and military officers carried one.
The sword began to lose its importance as a weapon in the early nineteenth century due to the proliferation of firearms. The swords are still in use, but increasingly limited to military officers and dignitaries ceremonial uniforms. Despite this, many armies retained their heavy cavalry armed until after the First World War.
Types of swords
| Alfanje | Broadleaf Espada curve, sharp on one side (or its last third contrafilo). |
| Bracamarte | Sword, used in the Middle Ages, from a single wire bend lightD y en la part superior, near tip. |
| Claymore | Viperus Claymore (great sword in British sense) were swords which needed to use both hands to be wielded (the amount Espadon), sharpened on both sides of the road, possessing a very long handle (at least one quarter of the total weapon), allowing the user to support it without forcing maneuvers, or grasp the leaf base. |
| Scimitar | The scimitar is a weapon refined, thin and light. It is decidedly sharper, with a single blade and a protective handle. |
| Rapier | The term rapier sword (now also known as sword) emerges in the Renaissance in Spain to designate some kind of sword and long straight blades, wielded a hand. Original Spanish name of the sword is rapier Tizona (not to be confused with the sword of El Cid), Rapier called because they carried as an attachment to clothes, generally used for fashion and like personal defense weapon. |
| Espadín | Today sprat, is known as the predecessor of the sword weapon, one of the three sheets that are used in fencing. Originally, sprat was a hard weapon, light, with a blade that weighed 750 g. |
| Stock | A medieval sword is a narrow-bladed sword (that tapers from handle to tip) and always finished in a sharp point of three or more tables (sides of the road), more used to cutting edge. |
| Falcata | The falcata is a type of knife, an iron sword native of Iberia, and related to indigenous Iberian pre-Roman conquest, was widely used among peoples Celt Iberians or adjacent to the first, be the sword “antennas” more common in the most Celtic Peninsula. |
| Jineta | Nazari Espada was introduced in the peninsula from the Muslim era by Zenetes. |
| Foil | The foil is a long sword, flexible, Stainless steel, 500 g and 110 cm, with a rectangular sheet. |
| Gladius | Roman Gladius is the term used to describe the sword. Today is applied to the typical sword used by ancient Rome's legions. It had a length of about half a meter (but could be made as user), and a straight blade and wide double-edged. |
| Iaito | Iaito is a long sword that is used for the practice of Iaido, Japanese martial art consisting of unsheathed and sheathed the Iaito. |
| Jian | The sword Jian is the straight-bladed knife par excellence of the Chinese people. Moderately long, double-edged and virtually no cross, which has been used since historically since the 2nd millennium BC. |
| Khopesh | A khopesh, jepesh kefresh or a sword or saber is curved blade, as “you” or sickle-shaped (depending on the period) with the edge in the convex part, used in the ancient Near East and in the area of Canaan and Ancient Egypt was popularized. |
| Forms | A machete is a large knife but shorter than a sword. Typically measuring less than 60 cm and has an edge only. |
| Sum | The Montante, broadsword is a very long de Gavilanes, teachers who handle weapons with both hands to separate battles in fencing. |
| Twohandsword | (The Mon, hand, and double.) Slash or big hit given brandishing the weapon with both hands. Great sword. |
| Bastard | The Bastard Sword, or sword in hand and a half is a generic term used to describe many varieties of European swords long, straight blade, that can be wielded hand half (used his left to grab the blade in the first third, or in support of the right hand on the handle) or both hands. |
| Espadón | The term broadsword is a modern slang and call the amount (Castilian correct voice). But both refer to great swords of medieval and Renaissance. |
| Ronfea | It's a longsword. |
| Sand | The saber is also a curved sword and a single edge, designed to cut, commonly used in cavalry and officers in the nineteenth and even twentieth. |
| Sica | Curved sword originating in Thrace region. His only cutting edge, the internal, is very sharp. |
| Spatha | The Spatha was a knife used by the Romans during the decline and barbaric invasions. It originated in the first century from gladius used by infantry, granting it larger (70-100 cm sheet) so it could be effectively used by the cavalry. |
| Verduguillo | Estoque very thin as that used for wild bull. |
| Schiavona | It is a sword with basket hilt. Drift de los Schiavoni, mercenaries |
