War-sword
The term war-sword was historically used specifically for the post-Roman steel swords of medieval Europe. This was used to describe any primary "sword-of-war" such as the bastard-sword of the High Middle Ages; this is the more accurate term for what are today called long-swords or even more erroneously broad swords. Not included under this moniker were the overly large great-sword nor the smaller sized arming-sword. The final variation of the primary sword of war was the side-sword of the Renaissance.
For more information see long-sword.
Other Swords of War
While a sword by design is a weapon and not a dual-functioning tool as are some polearms, not all swords are/were built for the purposes of war. Exemplar is the rapier of the Renaissance which (contrary to some swashbuckling movies) was used strictly as a civilian weapon and had limited martial applications. Thus while some swords could be used both on the battle field and moonlight in a civilian setting, the reverse was not true.
The following is a list of some swords that were used on the field of war:
Ancient swords
Pre-industrial European swords
Middle-Eastern swords
Asian swords
- Chinese jian
- Chinese zhanmadao
- Chinese shoudao
- Chinese liuyedao
- Chinese wodao
- Chinese yanmaodao
- Burmese dha
- Japanese tachi
- Japanese nodachi
- Japanese katana
- Japanese zanbatou
- Siamese Krabi
- Siamese Daab
- Filipino kampilan
Colonial swords
Categories: Swords | European swords