Frederick Pollock and Hilaro W. Barlow

“ On the other hand, to deliver a bold thrust, while disregarding the uplifted sword of the adversary, and leaving one’s own body and head open to an impending blow, demands complete confidence that the thrust will get home before the blow can descend, or that the adversary’s cut will probably be weakened by a momentary uncertainty as to whether it would not be better to convert the intended cut into a parry. Such confidence, it is argued with much truth, can only be the fruit of long training, especially as it is the natural tendency of all men to cut when excited ”

“ The handle of a sword provides a grip for the hand that wields it, or sometimes for two hands; it may add protection, and in most patterns does so to a greater or less extent. Still it is altogether subordinate to the blade. For want of a metal-headed lance or axe, which indeed were of later invention, a sharpened pole or a thin-edged paddle will serve the turn. But a sword-handle without a blade is naught; and no true sword-blade can be made save of metal capable of taking an edge or point. ”

“ The steel can still be spoilt by over- or under heating, whether for rolling or hardening;, tempering and setting require much experience and skill, and blades can be easily injured both in form and temper by unskilful grinding. Sword-making, therefore, though not the somewhat uncertain art it once was, still requires skilled craftsmen for its successful accomplishment. ”

“ The leaf-shaped blade is common everywhere among the remains of men in the “Bronze Period” of civilization, and this was the shape used by the Greeks in historical times, and is the shape familiar to us in Greek works of art. It is impossible, however, to say whether the Homeric heroes were conceived by the poet as wearing the leaf-shaped sword, as we see it, for example, on the Mausoleum sculptures, or a narrow straight-edged blade of the Minoan and Mycenaean pattern. In any case, the sword holds a quite inferior position with Greek warriors of all times. ”

“ In tempering the blade the workman judges of the proper heat by the colour. Water is preferred to oil by the best makers, notwithstanding that tempering in oil is much easier. With oil there is not the same risk of the blade coming out distorted and having to be forged straight again (a risk, however, which the expert swordsmith can generally avoid) ; but the steel is only surface-hardened, and the blade therefore remains liable to bend. [This is disputed.] Machinery comes into play only for grinding and polishing, and to some extent in the manufacture of hilts and appurtenances. ”

“ Whatever may be the further discoveries of archaeologists, we know that swords are found from the earliest times of which we have any record among all people who have acquired any skill in metal-work. There are two very ancient types, which we may call the straight-edged and the leaf-shaped. Assyrian monuments represent a straight and narrow sword, better fitted for thrusting than cutting. Bronze swords of this form have been found in many parts of Europe, at Mycenae, side by side with leaf-shaped specimens, and more lately in Crete. ”

“ Early in the 18th century, the use of the edge having been finally abandoned in rapier-play, the two-edged blade was supplanted by the bayonet-shaped French duelling sword, on which no improvement has since been made except in giving it a still simpler guard. The name of rapier was often but wrongly given to this by English writers. About the same time, or a little earlier, the primacy of the art passed from Italy to France. There is still a distinct Italian school, but the rest of the world learns from French masters. ”

“ Asiatics to this day treat the sword merely as a cutting weapon, and most Asiatic swords cannot be handled in any other way.
The normal types of swords which we meet with in historical times, and from which all forms now in use among civilized nations are derived, may be broadly classified as straight-edged or curved. In the straight-edged type, in itself a very ancient one, either thrusting or cutting qualities may predominate, and the blade may be double-edged orHistorical Types. ”

“ We will only remark that the occurrence in objects of human handiwork of a form, or even a series of forms, intermediate between two types is not conclusive evidence that those forms are historical links between the different types, or that there is any historical connexion at all. ”

“ Similar needs are often capable of giving rise to similar inventions without imitation or communication. There are yet other varieties, belonging to widely spread families of weapons, which have acquired a strong individuality. Such are the swords of Japan, which are the highly perfected working out of a general Indo-Chinese type; they are powerful weapons and often beautifully made, but a European swordsman would find them ill-balanced, and the Japanese style of sword-play, being two-handed, has little to teach us. ”

“ Mounted men in general wear cavalry swords, and swords are also worn by warrant officers and by certain staff-sergeants of dismounted arms and branches.
A good sword should be elastic, so as to stand bending or a heavy blow without breaking or permanent deformation, and yet stiff enough to deliver a powerful thrust without yielding too readily from the straight; it must also be as light as is possible consistently with strength, and well balanced. ”

“ The action of the curved edge in delivering a blow is to present an oblique and therefore highly acute-angled section of the blade to the object struck, so that in effect the cut is given with a finer edge than could safely be put on the blade in its direct transverse section. ”

“ Independence appears, on the whole, slightly more probable; the existence of specimens which might belong to an intermediate type is only an ambiguous fact without a more exact chronology than we have as yet, as it may be due to experiment or imitation after both types were in use. Strange as it is to a modern swordsman, representations in Minoan art seem to show that not only the bronze daggers but the long swords were used with an overhand stabbing action like a modern Asiatic dagger. ”

“ Special tools are used to form grooves in the blade according to the regulation or other pattern desired, but the shape and weight of the blade are fixed wholly by the skilled hand and eye of the smith. [Machine forging in the early stages is now common, and there is no difficulty in making the blade and tang of the same metal.] Measuring tools are at hand, but are little used. Great care is necessary to avoid overheating the metal, which would produce a brittle crystalline grain, and to keep the surface free from oxide, which would be injurious if hammered in. ”

“ On removal from the bath the blade is dead hard, and so brittle that it can be broken by a slight blow, and consequently has to be let down by tempering. This is accomplished by heating in a bath of molten lead until the steel assumes a particular colour, at which stage, while hot, the blade is adjusted for straightness and curve, this being a delicate operation, as it must be performed while the blade retains its temper and heat before finally cooling. ”

“ The question naturally arises as to which is the better plan to adopt, and it is improbable that a definite answer can ever be given to it The French, for instance, in 1822 adopted a curved blade for a short time for all their cavalry, and in 1882 again for a short time a straight blade, and in 1898 again a straight blade. In this much-debated matter the facts appear to be as follows: A determined thrust, especially when delivered by a horseman at full speed, is difficult to parry: if it gets home, it will probably kill the recipient outright or disable him for the rest of the campaign. ”

“ The growth and variations of the different parts of the hilt, curiously resembling those of a living species, would alone be matter enough for an archaeological study. One peculiar form, that of the Scottish basket-hilt, derived from the Venetian pattern known as schiavone, has persisted without material change. Quite different from the European models is the crescent- shaped Asiatic sabre, commonly called scimitar. We are not acquainted. with any distinct evidence as to the origin of this in time or place. Dr R. Forrer thinks the whole family of curved swords was developed from bronze knives. ”

“ The introduction of the system described above has greatly simplified and cheapened the process of manufacture, while the greater excellence of the product and the severe and certain tests applied, to it by mechanical means have increased the standard of efficiency of the swords in the hands of the troops. It is certainly true that, of old, excellent blades were occasionally turned out by hand, but they were exceedingly costly, and the average merit of sword-blades when turned out in numbers by hand was poor. ”

“ In the first half of the 16th century a well-proportioned and well-mounted cut-and-thrust sword was in general use, and great artistic ingenuity was expended, for those who could afford it, on the mounting and adornment. ”

“ This last-mentioned pattern seems, however, to be limited to a comparatively small region. When once the combination of a long blade with the gauntlet hilt was arrived at, any straight blade might be so mounted; and many appear on examination to be of European workmanship—German, Spanish or Italian. There are various other Oriental arms, notably in the Malay group, as to which it is not easy to say whether they are properly swords or not. ”

“ Daggers shaped from reindeer antlers occur among the earliest relics of man, and there are flint daggers of the Neolithic period, which may be supposed to have been the model for the first hand weapons made of copper. ”