I don't recall exactly where I heard this, maybe talking to Jack, but there are basically two kinds of swords. There are cutting swords, like the Viking broadswords and Japanese Samurai Swords, and then there poking swords, like the ones used in fencing. The part that was new to me was that poking swords were developed to counter chain mail. Cutting through chain mail with the edge of a blade can be tough going. You have a much better chance with a thin, sharp point. If you can get the point into the gap between links, it will not take as much force to drive a narrow wedge between then and so open them up, which allows the point to sink farther in and do some damage.
I found the picture on a blog from a person who was taking a course on medieval sword fighting.
No comments:
Post a Comment