Sword cut

“ When the child comes near the executioner, his sword trembles in its scabbard—an unmistakable sign that it thirsts for her blood. The huntsman's head, when it is cut off, flies towards her, and the teeth grip her frock. ”

“ This revival of the proto-historic celt and headman’s instrument is a plain, heavy wedge of steel, fixed on a light, tough wooden helve or heft, thus concentrating all the force in the head that strikes the blow. Here there is no uncertainty about the use; and, were it not necessary in swordsmanship to ‘recover guard’ and to save self as well as disable the assailant, it would be the best, as it is one of the oldest, weapons derived from the club. But the cutting Sword, which in the short curved form is its congener, has a long blade that allows a choice of cut—a good choice and a bad choice. ”

“ In cutting, the wrist should be well sunk, the upper knuckles turned up, and a firm grip of the sword maintained, particularly at the moment the sword strikes the lead.
The sword, with the edge leading, should not be turned in the slightest degree, but kept on a level line so that the cut will be perfectly horizontal.
When the lead is suspended, aim a little above, and when standing, a little below the middle.
It is dangerous for any one to stand on your right when you are practising this feat, as the pieces of lead sometimes fly to a considerable distance, and with great force. ”

“ The sword is sharpened to the finest degree, and the blade is protected for about six inches above the cross-hilt with thick string, bound tightly round so as to afford a grip for the right hand, while the left grips the hilt in the usual manner. This converts the ordinary blade into a two-handed sword, a blow from which will sever a naked man into two halves if delivered at the waist. It may be imagined that a quick cut from such a formidable weapon will at once divide the hamstring of any animal. ”

“ No matter how extended the arm may be when commencing the cut—and the more extended the better in the case of a long heavy sword—the “draw” should always come in towards the end of the sweep, the first part of which is merely intended to give the required impetus to the effective portion of the cut. ”

“ If the edge were at the back the tendency of the weapon would be to fall away from the line of cut, and this could be overcome only by a certain amount of wasted force. In nearly all curved Swords, except the Japanese, some contrivance is made to give the feeling which we express by ‘the edge leading well forward’; and this point has been carefully studied by nations whose attack is the cut. Usually the line of hilt is thrown forward so as to form an angle with the axis of the blade, and the former is made obtuser or acuter in proportion as the latter is more or less curved. ”

“ let not thy sword skip one:
Pity not honour'd age for his white beard;
He is an usurer: strike me the counterfeit matron;
It is her habit only that is honest,
Herself's a bawd: let not the virgin's cheek
Make soft thy trenchant sword; for those milk-paps,
That through the window-bars bore at men's eyes,
Are not within the leaf of pity writ,
But set them down horrible traitors: spare not the babe,
Whose dimpled smiles from fools exhaust their mercy;
Think it a bastard, whom the oracle
Hath doubtfully pronounced thy throat shall cut,
And mince it sans remorse: swear against objects;
Put armour on thine ears and on thine eyes; ”

“ The half of the sword blade next the hilt is called the “fort,” because it is the strongest place on which the cut of an adversary can be received. Always parry and guard with the fort of your sword, as, if you try to guard a cut with the “feeble,” which is the remaining half of the blade, your guard will be forced, and the cut take effect.
DRAWING CUT.
The drawing cut is made best with a curved sword, and is executed by placing the edge of the sword on the object, and drawing it over it until it is severed. A good large mangel worzel is capital practice. ”

“ Always deliver your cuts with a true edge and with the centre of percussion, which is generally about seven or eight inches from the point. It is the most effective part of the sword to cut with, and will not jar the arm like a cut made with any other part of the blade.
Never press upon your adversary’s blade after having delivered a cut or thrust, but recover as quickly as possible to guard the return. Should he press upon yours, disengage and return as quickly as possible.
Make all your cuts with the wrist; never throw your arm out of line, but always keep it in front of you. ”

“ There is more variety in the extremities of cutting-blades. The falchion of Ashanti, Dahome, and Benin, the murderous despotisms of western intertropical Africa, terminates in a whorl. This is also the shape of the Chinese sabre-knife, with which criminals were despatched. The old Persian Sword, often called by mistake the Turkish Sword, ends in a point beyond a broadening of the blade. The effect is to add force to the cut; the weapon becomes top-heavy, but that is of little consequence when only a single slash, and no guarding, is required of it. ”

“ Before the native sets out on a journey, or, indeed, as often as material is required, the old women of the house take down several of these sticks and carefully shape them into sword-blades. They then rest their knives in beveled notches cut in the flat sides of small pieces of wood, about three eighths of an inch broad, one eighth of an inch thick, and one inch and a half long, and the operation proper begins. ”

“ It is essentially a mighty sword, drawn from its scabbard and uplifted over the smaller blades around it, with which private individuals once cut each others' throats. Menaced by it, the smaller blades repose in their scabbards; they have become inert, useless, and, finally rusty ”

“ Although an infantry man I saw a good deal of sword-practice, because all the men who held the Secundrabâgh and the Begum's Kothee were armed with native tulwârs from the King of Oude's armoury, in addition to their muskets and bayonets, and a large proportion of our men were killed and wounded by sword-cuts.
In the first place, then, for cutting our English regulation swords are too straight; the Eastern curved blade is far more effective as a cutting weapon. Secondly, our English swords are far too blunt, whereas the native swords are as keen in edge as a well-stropped razor. ”

“ Comparing the three sections of the same blade (D E F) , which differ only in the angle at which the edge is supposed to meet the obstacle, we see the enormous gain of cutting power.
The difference between the direct and the oblique cut is still better shown by the annexed diagram: ‘Let A B C D (fig. 116) represent the portion of a Sword-blade, of which A B is the edge and C D the back, measuring about one-eighth of an inch in thickness. Now, if the object to be cut through is presented to the blade at right angles to the edge, as shown by arrow No. ”

“ The English blade, I am sorry to say, has never been famous for excellence of temper. Some two centuries ago, an attempt was made to improve the home-manufactured sword, by incorporating a company of sword-cutlers for making hollow sword-blades, in Cumberland and the adjacent counties. ”

“ In cavalry charges, etc., our soldiers too often forget that they have in their hands pointing and cutting weapons, and make slashing hits, which lead to a large percentage of broken blades. I should myself always place the point before the edge, as it is quicker and far more deadly; but [Pg 32] as there are numerous instances where cutting is necessary, it is as well to remember that a mere hit with the true edge of a straight-bladed sword is little better than a blow from a heavy stick having an oval section. ”

“ His armor, which had been splendid in the extreme, richly embossed and sculptured, was all defaced with dust and gore, broken and dinted, and in many places riven quite asunder. The surcoat which he had donned a few short days before, of azure damask, charged with the bearings of his proud ancestral race, fluttered in rags upon the morning breeze—his shield was gone, as were the mace and battle-axe which had swung from his saddle-bow—his sword, a long, cross-handled blade, and his lance, its azure pennoncelle no less than its steel head, crusted and black with blood, alone remained to him. ”

“ For instance, in one play the palace of Lord Hosokawa, in which was preserved the celebrated painting of Dharuma by Sesson, suddenly takes fire through the negligence of the samurai in charge. Resolved at all hazards to rescue the precious painting, he rushes into the burning building and seizes the kakemono, only to find all means of exit cut off by the flames. Thinking only of the picture, he slashes open his body with his sword, wraps his torn sleeve about the Sesson and plunges it into the gaping wound. The fire is at last extinguished. ”

“ It drew him as empty space draws a giddy man, to the very edge of the precipice. Steadily it gained in strength and massiveness until it had enveloped him completely in a silent, receptive atmosphere which he could not shake off, waking or sleeping; and, at the very core of it, at the flaming center of his love, strong yet soft, steely yet pliable, brutal yet loyal, was the sword—the ancient blade which had come out of Asia! ”

“ Pipe, and harp, and clash of battle-axe accompanied the war-songs of the warriors as they rode past in the rain; prancing stallions often added their notes to the din. There was a continual glitter of sword, pike, and javelin; a glare of saffron robes and purple cloaks—woaded limbs and faces. Here and there bronze lance-heads and bronze axes showed themselves, mingled with primitive, leaf-shaped swords of bronze, stone hammers, and hide-covered shields of wicker. Horse and man bristled with tough yew-bows and sheaves of arrows ”

“ These swords are simply flat pieces of iron, made narrower at the top to leave a place for the hand to grip them; there is no form of hilt of any kind. They are used to cut down trees, split logs, scrape sticks, and cut meat into joints. ”

“ The cuts are almost entirely downward or horizontal, the only upward cut employed being directed at the lower part of the adversary's fore-arm, and the only point a rapid lunge at the throat. Two swords are often used. Sometimes they are crossed, and in that position they occasionally pin an opponent's blade, creating a situation of great danger for him at the moment of release. ”

“ These were not the curved weapons with curiously modelled faces and wonderful trenchancy which became so celebrated in later times. Straight, one-edged swords, formidable enough, but considerably inferior to the admirable katana of mediæval and modern eras, they were sheathed in wooden scabbards, having bands and hoops of copper, silver, or iron, by means of which the weapon was suspended from the girdle. The guards were of iron, copper, or bronze, often coated with gold, and always having holes cut in them to render them lighter. ”

“ The next step would be to fashion the ragged staff with fire, with friction, and with flint knives, shells or other scrapers, into a cutting as well as a crushing instrument; and here we have one of the many origins of the Sword and of its diminutives, the dagger and the knife. Pointed at the end, it would become the lance and spear, the spud, spade, and palstave, the pilum, the dart, the javelin, and the assagai.
Not a few authorities contend that the earliest weapons, the most constant in all ages and continuous in all countries, were the spear and the axe. ”

“ Fig. 812.—Norway, real size. Silver mounting to a scabbard.—Horseus. It lay under a large clayurm filled with bones, together with a damaged double-edged sword, spear-point, arrow-point, shield-boss, all of iron, fragments of iron shears, and mountings to a drinking horn of bronze.
Swords seem to have been prized above all other weapons; occasionally their genealogy was carefully kept. Some swords caused death every time they inflicted a wound, from which we must infer that their blades had been poisoned, either during or after the forging.
74
Fig. ”

“ This composite weapon, uniting the club with the celt or hand-hatchet, and appearing in Europe with the beginning of the Neolithic period, plays a remarkable part in history, 89ancient, mediæval, and even modern; whilst its connection with the Sword is made evident by the ‘glaive.’ [308] The expansion of the edge and of the flanges developed two principal forms. For cutting wood the long-narrow was found most serviceable: where brute force was less required, the weapon became a broad blade with a long crescent-shaped edge. ”

“ Casting the weapon aside, he grips her and tries to hurl her down, while her claws and teeth clash upon his corslet but cannot penetrate the steel rings. She throws her bulk upon him, crushes him down, draws a short sword and plunges it at him ”

“ Action grew faster and faster, and swords lighter and more manageable, until by the seventeenth century the customary weapon was the court sword, with a short, single-handed hilt, a small flat guard often magnificently decorated in chiselled steel, and a relatively short, light blade having a needle-like point, and often without any sharp cutting edge at all (Fig. 30) .
Fig. 31. A rondel dagger with a silver handle.
Fig. 32. An outfit for a hunter: dagger, knife, awl, and larding needle, all fitting into one scabbard. ”