Tag: sword

A sword is a long, edged piece of metal, used as a cutting, thrusting, and clubbing weapon in many civilizations throughout the world. Before firearms became commonplace, and fast enough to render other weapons pointless in the battlefield, they were the main kind of weapon for war and duels alike. A sword fundamentally consists of a blade and a hilt, typically with one or two edges for striking and cutting, and a point for thrusting. That aside, however, they may come in all sorts of designs: the medieval European swords used to be big, heavy weapons that did not actually cut but instead broke the enemy's bones under their armor; conversely, the Chinese jian sword (called "ken" in Japanese) attempted to exploit the armor's joints and perforate the enemy's flesh in those places, but was useless against the armor itself, and did not take the strikes, preferring to redirect them, to this day being considered a highly "circular" weapon and associated to taijiquan; on the other hand, the Japanese katana was a balanced all-purposes weapon that could be used even in an axe-like way, but which a master swordsman could use in many other, more elaborate manners.