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Originally Posted by Ichihara Asako
The only sword I have now (gave away or sold most of my collection due to lack of use) is a simple ornamental longsword, though it isn't actually long (blade is only 75cm, not >90) with a Spanish decorative hilt. It's cast, not forged, though. Just made to look pretty, not be any kind of functional. But, due to that it doesn't require a license to keep (which I can't be bothered having any more, thus why I don't have any real blades these days.) so... yeah. I'm lazy. But it doesn't stop me appreciating blades of all types. ^_^;
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Haha...that's a shame. I would have loved to see a picture of your collection.
Here's an image of a rapier from my collection. It is forged but has a hand-carved bone handle which broke when I was trying to disassemble the hilt (more specifically, I was banging the tang with a hammer trying to loosen the bone from the blade):
Here's a picture of two of my three smallswords. They're plainer than the third, but the one on the right is alot more lethal than the other two. For anyone interested, I ordered the smallsword from Arms and Armor from the states. They handmake and handforge all their pieces:
And here's a sword I want to get hopefully in the near future:
http://www.armor.com/rapier215.html
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P.S. I wonder where does all the crap about the Katana comes from? Almost everyone I have asked says, that this sword is the ultimate, kickass weapon, etc, and saying that it can cut trough plate armor, slice other swords in half and more. And I hate that most Animes do nothing to prove that it's wrong.
And I also hate when movies display European swords (Especially two-handed swords) as heavy and unwieldy.
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There's a reason for its immense popularity. Now this is coming from a guy who also shares in your disdain for its overpopularity, but the Katana was metallurgically superior to its western contemporaries due to the differential tempering of the blade which led to the marriage of a hard cutting edge and a soft body for absorbing shock during the heating process. This coupled with the rich Japanese cultural idealizations of their sword makes the Katana appealing to a lot of people. The difference in battle performance with say an European counterpart however is negligeable.
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They weren't. An average "super heavy" two-hander weighs about 2.5 - 3 kg. Claymore info
And yes, swords were almost useless against plate armor. You had to go for the eye slits or joints and try to pierce the armor by thrusting. The most effective weapons against a knight in plate armor turned out to be War hammers, Maces and similar weapons, which killed the wearer with sheer strength of the impact without penetrating the armor. Concussion, ruptured organs and other results were achieved by the use of these weapons.
As for peasants - Pitchforks and Torches.
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You really did try to cleave your opponent's armor rather than cut through it. It wasn't until around halfway through the middle ages that the sword started developing with a piercing point for taking advantage of said armor chinks, and even then there are special swords used for this kind of tactic (the estoc comes to mind).
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There is a happy medium, though: The gladius. Sure, it loses a bit in length, but it more than makes up for it in versatility. It's fast, it's sturdy, it's good for piercing and stabbing as well as slashing, cutting, hacking and chopping. Unlike so many other swords, it wasn't made to look nice or to match some one's ideal of fighting, but was made to be practical. Despite their looks and common use, I don't find them as "unrefined" as their image often is, because its best use is very compatible with the elegant movements of kung fu that makes me love the jian. It's true, there have been other short swords through the ages, but small details that make a large difference in actual use, like the large pommel allowing for a better grip and allowing for a wider range of useful motion, increase my love of it.
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Well...the gladius is certainly an interesting one. I'll always think of it though as this big rectangle of sharpened steel (not even steel; iron, as it predates steel) that you can use to club people.