Viking Sword

Olga patiently awaits Svens return from a hard day of rape and pillaging at the office.















Our knowledge about arms and armour of the Viking age (8th to 11th centuries Europe) is based on relatively sparse archaeological finds, pictorial representation, and to some extent on the accounts in the Norse sagas and Norse laws recorded in the 13th century.

According to custom, all free Norse men were required to own weapons, as well as permitted to carry them at all times. These arms were also indicative of a Viking's social status. A wealthy Viking would have a complete ensemble of a helmet, shield, chainmail shirt, and animal-skin coat, among various other armaments. A lesser off man, however, could only afford a single weapon, and perhaps a shield.
The spear and shield were the most basic armaments of the Viking warrior; most would probably also wear a dagger or knife of some description, commonly of the seax type. As an alternative, or perhaps in addition, to the spear a warrior might carry a bow or axe. The wealthiest Vikings would have worn a sword in addition to his primary arms and have had access to body armour, such as a helmet and a maille hauberk

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Twin Thai Swords

"Moooothraaaaaaaaaaaa..."



















The Sword of Victory or Phra Saeng Khan Chai Si (Thai: พระแสงขรรค์ชัยศรี) has an ancient history. In 1784, Chao Phraya Apai Pubek of Cambodia had found this fantastic sword in Tonle Sap, and gave it to King Rama I of Thailand. This sword has the meaning "The Wisdom of the King". The hilt has a length of 25.4 centimeters with the blade measuring 64.5 centimeters. When placed in the scabbard the sword has a total length of 101 centimeters and weighs 1.9 kg. Though fighting with two swords was rare, it was not unheard of. I believe these two are of Thai design They were apparently used by mercenaries in China also. I will do more reasearch on them. I mainly just wanted to get them on here so could put the pic of those HOT twins up!

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Dussack

How do you say "OOOOH!" in German?

A Dussack (also dusack, dysack, tesak, tuseckn, thuseckn, disackn, or dusägge, dusegge, dusegg) is a type of German practice weapon that originated around the 16th century. The dussack was intended to represent various short, single-edged weapons in a training environment. Using a dussack, one could train for the falchion, or cutlass, Hiebmesser or grosses Messer (which translates to English as "big knife").

As usage of the dussack became more widespread, various schools turned use of the dussack into a sport as opposed to training for a real weapon.
Based primarily on the Messer rather than the falchion, dussacks had a short, thick, single-edged blade measuring between 70 and 95 cm. A dussack was usually made of wood, although metal ones were also made. Additionally there is a single reference to dussacks also being made from leather. The dussack was gently curved and brought to a point at the tip. The dussack often lacked a hilt. Instead, the handgrip was merely a hole cut inside of the blade; without a pommel or upper guard, it looked something like a large hole for gripping scissors.
No wooden (or leather) dussacks are known to have survived; unsuprising given the perishable nature of the dussack, and only woodcuts and training manuals from the period document their existence. A single unusual iron dussack is known to survive.
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Long Sword

You aren't worthy!














Despite having several names - War Sword, Great Sword, Long Sword and even Two-Hand Sword - and causing some confusion among collectors, the largesword was quite a popular weapon. Its great length gave it both reach andpower, since the length increased the velocity substantially. However, withthe addition of the long ricasso, the sword became even more formidable. The ricasso allowed the sword to be gripped past the guard, thus shortening the sword and allowing it to be used as short spear. This made a thrust more solid since the blade is held securely at two separate points.

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Cutlass

Well shiver me timber...please!


















A cutlass is a short thick sword with a curved blade sharpened on the convex side, or a gross sabre. Best known as the sailor's weapon of choice, likely because it was also robust enough to hack through heavy ropes, canvas and wood. It is also short enough to use in relatively close quarters, such as in the rigging or below decks.

Another advantage to the cutlass was its simplicity of use. The cutlass required less training than the rapier or court sword, and was more effective as an infantry weapon than the saber. The cutlass is the sword most usually portrayed in films about pirates.
It was also used on land, particularly by cavalrymen such as the Mamelukes, since its curved blade made it useful for slashing and slicing combat. The typical European cavalry sword resembles a longer and thinner cutlass.

cutlasses aboard the frigate Grand Turk
A cutlass is as often an agricultural implement and tool, as a weapon (cf. machete, to which the same comment applies), being used commonly in rain forest and sugar cane areas, such as the Caribbean and Central America.
According to pirate myth, the cutlass was invented by the Caribbean buccaneers, and was originally a long knife made for cutting meat. As a historical fact, however, this remains dubious. It must be noted that the hey-day of corsairs and pirates were well over before the widespread use of cutlass. The weapons used by such were most likely to be falchions.
The word cutlass is probably derived from the Italian coltelaccio, meaning "big knife." This was the name of a short, broad-bladed saber popular in Italy during the 16:th century.

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Scimitar

Who needs oil? I do I do!!









The term scimitar refers to a sword with a curved blade from western Asia (Middle East).
While the name "scimitar" is quite prevalent when speaking of Arabian swords, in reality there is no such "historic sword" called a scimitar.

The word scimitar is a derivative from the Persian shamshir. This is indeed a deeply curved sword found in Middle Eastern history; however, "scimitar" has become a catch-all which often includes the Indian talwar and the archetypal Turkish kilij. Modern vendors sell scimitars which are in fact fantasy blades with no historical bearing. These often come from stylized artistic representation of Arab arms (paintings, and film); similarly the romanticized notion that these curved swords were used to combat the crusaders in the 11th to 13th centuries is inaccurate (swords of the time were mostly straight with a slightly curved tip).
Scimitars can be found in one or two handed variants, with blades typically ranging in length from 30 to 36 inches (76 to 92 centimetres), and the blades, while commonly depicted as being very wide (from cutting edge to the rear of the blade), seem most often to have been very thin.

A scimitar with a thin blade (shamshir)
It seems likely that scimitar-type weapons were developed from examples of swords brought by the conquering Macedonians under Alexander the Great, such as the kopis sword, itself derived from the ancient Egyptian khopesh sword. Further, it is possible that the falchion swords employed in the Middle Ages by Europeans were inspired by the scimitars of the Turks. Modern examples of similar blades are cavalry sabres and cutlasses of pirate fame.

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Rapier

Salma just seemed right for this one......


















A rapier is a relatively slender (blade 2.5 centimetres or less in width), sharply pointed sword with a blade at least 90 centimetres in length, often sporting an elaborate hilt and hand-guard. For most of its period of use, the rapier was double-edged, some later rapiers were single-edged (with a sharply triangular blade) or edgeless. A rapier is capable of both cutting and thrusting attacks, but the thrust is the main attack in all rapier fighting styles.

The term refers to a variety of blade and hilt forms depending on who is writing and when. It can refer to earlier "spada da lato" (much like the "espada ropera") through the high rapier period of the 17th century through the smallsword and duelling swords, thus context is important in understanding what is meant by the word. (It should be noted that the term "sidesword", used among some modern historical martial arts reconstructionists, is a 21st century translation in English from the Italian "spada da lato" and is not referred to the slender, long rapier, but only to the early 16th century italian sword with a broader and shorter blade that is considered its ancestor).

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The Katana

Yes..her name is Katana.

The katana (刀) is the Japanese backsword or longsword (大刀 daitō), although many Japanese use this word generically as a catch-all word for sword.

Katana (pronounced [ka-ta-na]) is the kun'yomi (Japanese reading) of the kanji 刀 ; the on'yomi (Chinese reading) is tō. In Mandarin, it is pronounced dāo. While the word has no separate plural form in Japanese, it has been adopted as a loan word by the English language, where it is commonly pluralised as katanas.

It refers to a specific type of curved, single-edged sword traditionally used by the Japanese samurai. The weapon was typically paired with the wakizashi, a similarly made but shorter sword both worn by the members of the buke (bushi) warrior class, it could also be worn with the tanto, an even smaller similarly shaped blade. The two weapons together were called the daisho, and represented the social power and personal honor of the samurai (buke retainers to the daimyo). The long blade was used for open combat, while the shorter blade was considered a side arm, and also more suited for stabbing, close combat (such as indoors), and seppuku, a form of ritual suicide. (In fact, seppuku was a right reserved for samurai in order to preserve their honor by taking their own life should the need arise.) The scabbard for a katana is referred to as a saya, and the handguard piece, often intricately designed as individual works of art especially in later years of the Edo period, was called the tsuba.
It is primarily used for cutting (although the chisel-like tip, called the kissaki, allows for thrusting) and can be wielded one- or two-handed, the latter being the most common mode. It is traditionally worn edge up. While the practical arts for using the sword for its original purpose are now somewhat obsolete, kenjutsu has turned into gendai budo — modern martial arts for a modern time. The art of drawing the katana is iaido (also known as battōjutsu or iaijutsu), and kendo is an art of fencing with a shinai (bamboo sword) protected by helmet and armour, additionally, iaijutsu is an older style of battle field type fencing. Old koryu sword schools do still exist (Kashima Shinto-ryu, Kashima Shin-ryu, Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto-ryu). Perhaps one of the more famous types of Japanese fencing was "Nitto Ryu" or the use of both the katana and wakizashi in tandem; a technique most famously used by Miyamoto Musashi.

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