A sword (from Old English sweord; akin to Old High German swerd lit. "wounding tool", from the Proto-Indo-European *sver- "to wound, to hurt") is a long edged bladed weapon, consisting in its most fundamental design of a blade, usually with two edges for striking and cutting, and a point for thrusting, and a hilt. The basic intent and physics of swordsmanship remain fairly constant, but the actual techniques vary between cultures and periods as a result of the differences in blade design and purpose. The names given to many swords in mythology, literature, and history reflect the high prestige of the weapon.

History

Bronze Age

Humans have manufactured and used bladed weapons from the Bronze Age onwards. The sword developed from the dagger when the construction of longer blades became possible, from the early 2nd millennium BC. The hilt at first simply allowed a firm grip, and prevented the hand from slipping onto the blade when executing a stab. Bronze Age swords with typical leaf-shaped blades appear in around the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, and in Mesopotamia. Swords from the Nordic Bronze Age from ca. 1400 BC show characteristic spiral patterns. Sword production in China is attested from the Bronze Age Shang Dynasty.

Iron Age
Iron swords became increasingly common from the 13th century BC. The Hittites, the Mycenean Greeks, and the Proto-Celtic Hallstatt culture figured among the early users of iron swords. Iron has the advantage of mass-production due to the wider availability of the raw material. Early Iron swords were not comparable to later steel blades, being brittle and soft, they were even inferior to good bronze weapons, but the easier production, and the better availability of the raw material for the first time permitted the equipment of entire armies with metal weapons.

Eventually smiths learned that by adding an amount of carbon (added during smelting in the form of charcoal) in the iron, they could produce an improved alloy (now known as steel). Several different methods of swordmaking existed in ancient times, including most famously pattern welding. Over time different methods developed all over the world.

By the time of Classical Antiquity and the Persian Empire, irons swords were common. The Greek Xiphos and the Roman Gladius are typical represenants of the type, measuring some 60 to 70 cm. The late Roman Empire introduced the longer Spatha, and from this time, the term "long sword" is applied to swords comparatively long for their respective periods.

Chinese steel swords make their appearance from the 3rd century BC Qin Dynasty. The Chinese Dao (刀 pinyin dāo) is single-edged, sometimes translated as sabre or broadsword, and the Jian (劍 pinyin ji?n) double edged.

Middle Ages

The Spatha type remained popular throughout the Migration period and well into the Middle Ages. Vendel Age swords are essentially Roman Spathas decorated with Germanic artwork (not unlike the Germanic fibulae fashioned after Roman coins). The Viking Age sees again a more standardized production, but the basic design remains indebted to the Spatha. It is only from the 11th century that Norman swords begin to develop the crossguard. During the Crusades of the 12th to 13th century, this cruciform type of knightly sword remains essentially stable, variations mainly concerning the shape of the pommel

Single-edged weapons became popular throughout Asia. The Korean Hwandudaedo are known from the early medieval Three Kingdoms. Derived from this is the Japanese Katana (刀; かたな), production of which is recorded from ca. 900 AD.

Late Middle Ages and Renaissance
From around 1300, in concert with improved armour, innovative sword designs evolve more and more rapidly. The main transition was the lengthening of the grip, allowing two-handed use, and a longer blade. By 1400 this type of sword, at the time called long sword, and in Italy Spadone, today it is known as bastard-sword or "hand and a half sword", were common, and a number 15th century fechtbuchs teaching their use survive. Another variant was the specialization on armour-piercing swords of the Estoc type. In 16th century Germany, the large and heavy, and almost unusable, Zweih?nders concluded the trend of ever increasing sword sizes, and the early Modern Age returned to elegant and light one-handed weapons.

Modern Age
The rapier evolved from the Spanish espada ropera from the 16th century. Both the rapier and the Italian schiavona developed the crossguard into a basket for hand protection. During the 17th and 18th centuries, a smallsword became an essential fashion accessory in European countries, and most wealthy men carried one. Both the smallsword and the rapier remained popular duelling swords well into the 18th century.

As the wearing of swords fell out of fashion, canes took their place in a gentleman's wardrobe. Some examples of canes -- those known as swordsticks -- incorporate a concealed blade. The French martial art la canne developed to fight with canes and swordsticks and has now evolved into a sport.

The sword always served more as a weapon of self-defence than for use on the battlefield, and the military importance of swords steadily decreased during the Middle Ages. Even as a personal sidearm, the sword began to lose its pre-eminence in the late 18th century, paralleling the development of reliable handguns.

Swords continued in use, although increasingly limited to military officers and ceremonial uniforms, although most armies retained heavy cavalry until well after World War I. For example, the British Army formally adopted a completely new design of cavalry sword in 1908, almost the last change in British Army weapons before the outbreak of the war. The last units of British heavy cavalry switched to using armoured vehicles as late as 1938. Cavalry charges still occurred as late as World War II during which Japanese and Pacific Islanders also occasionally used swords, but by then an enemy armed with machine guns, barbed wire and armoured vehicles would usually completely outmatch swordsmen.

Terminology

The sword consists of the blade and the hilt. The name scabbard applies to the case which houses the sword when not in use.

Blade
Three types of attacks can be performed with the blade, striking, cutting and thrusting movements. The blade is usually double-edged; when handling the sword, the true or long edge is the one used for straight cuts or strikes, while the false or short edge is the one used for backhand strikes. Some hilt designs define which edge is the 'true' one, while with symmetrical hilt designs, true and false edge may be inverted by turning the sword. The blade may have grooves or fullers with the purpose of lightening the blade while allowing it to retain its strength, in the same manner as an "I" beam in construction. The blade may taper more or less sharply towards a point, used for thrusting. The part of the blade nearer towards the point is called the strong of the blade, the part nearer the hilt the weak. The ricasso or shoulder identifies a short section of blade immediately forward of the guard. Most swords have no ricasso. The ricasso is not sharpened, which sometimes allows a finger to be wrapped around the blade for better control. On some large weapons, such as the German longsword, a leather cover surrounded the ricasso, and a swordsman might be grip it in one hand to make the weapon more easily wielded in close-quarters combat. The ricasso normally bears the maker's mark. On Japanese blades the mark appears on the tang under the handle.

In the case of a rat-tail tang, the maker welds a thin rod to the end of the blade at the crossguard; this rod goes through the handle (in 20th-century and later construction). This occurs most commonly in a cheap sword-like object. Traditional sword-making does not use this construction method, which does not serve for traditional sword usage.
In traditional construction, the swordsmith forged the tang as a part of the sword rather than welding it on. Traditional tangs go through the handle: this gives much more durability than a rat-tail tang. Swordsmiths peened such tangs over the end of the pommel. A modern variation of this method involves a pommel nut that holds the pommel on, thus allowing dismantling.
In a "full" tang (most commonly used in knives and machetes) the tang has about the same width as the blade. In European or Asian swords sold today, many advertised "full" tangs may actually involve a forged rat-tail tang.
The term CoP (Center of Percussion, also known as the sweet spot), identifies the part of the blade that can deliver the strongest blow with the least vibration.

From the 18th century onwards swords intended for cutting, i.e. with an edge, have been curved with the radius of curvature equal to the distance from the swordman's body at which it was to be used. This allowed the blade to have a sawing effect rather than simply delivering a heavy blow. European swords, intended for use at arm's length, had a radius of curvature of around a metre. Middle Eastern swords, intended for use with the arm bent, had a smaller radius.

Hilt
The hilt is the collective term of the parts allowing the handling of the blade, consisting of the grip, the pommel, and in post-Viking Age swords usually a crossguard. It may also have a tassel or sword knot. The tang consists of the extension of the blade structure through the hilt.

Typology

Swords can fall into categories of varying scope. The main distinguishing characteristics include blade shape (cross-section, tapering and length), shape and size of hilt and pommel, age and place of origin.

Double-edged swords
As noted above, the terms longsword, broad sword and great sword (and Gaelic claymore) are used relative to the era under consideration and do themselves designate a particular type of sword.

Single-handed
Bronze Age swords, length ca. 60 cm, leaf shaped blade.
Iron Age swords like the Xiphos, Gladius and Jian 劍, similar in shape to their Bronze Age predecessors.
Spatha, measuring ca. 80?90 cm, in use ca. 100?1100. The late medieval Swiss baselard and the Renaissance Cinquedea typologically also belongs in this category.
the classical Knightly sword of the Crusades, measuring up to ca. 110 cm.
light duelling swords, like the rapier and the smallsword, in use from Early Modern times.

Two-handed
the bastard-sword, the "long sword" of the 14th and 15th centuries
the 16th century Zweih?nder

Single edged weapons

One strict definition of a sword restricts it to a double-edged weapon used for both slashing and stabbing. However, general usage of the term remains inconsistent and it has important cultural overtones, so that commentators almost universally recognize the single-edged Asian weapons (dāo 刀, Katana 刀) as "swords", simply because they have very similar prestige to the prestige attached to the European sword.

Europeans also frequently refer to their own single-edged weapons as swords -- generically backswords, including sabers. Other terms include falchion, scimitar, dussack, Grosses Messer, cutlass, or mortuary sword. Many of these essentially refer to identical weapons, and the different names may relate to their use in different countries at different times. A machete as a tool resembles such a single-edged sword and serves to cut through thick vegetation, and indeed many of the terms listed above describe weapons that originated as farmers' tools used on the battlefield.

Training swords
Mostly wooden training swords were created to practice fencing without a dangerous sword. In Japanese Kendo and Kenjutsu, such Shinais or Bokken are used in competition fights. The Fechtfedern of 16th century Germany were blunt and flexible training swords made of steel, probably by grinding down sword blades that were too damaged for repair.