A sword (from Old English sweord; akin to Old High German swerd) is a bladed weapon, consisting in its most fundamental design of a blade and a handle. The blade is normally of metal and often ground to at least one sharp edge and usually has a pointed tip for thrusting. The handle, called the hilt, can be made of many materials, but the material most common is wood covered by leather, fish skin or metal wiring. The basic intent and physics of swordsmanship is fairly constant, but the methods of using those physics vary widely from culture to culture. Most of the variations can be understood in terms of the differences in blade designs around the world.
This kind of weapon has been in use from the Bronze Age when the construction of long metal blades was possible for the first time. Early swords were made of solid bronze or copper. Not until iron could be forged did the sword truly become an effective weapon. Eventually smiths learned that with a proper amount of charcoal (specifically the carbon in it) in the iron, an improved alloy called steel could be produced.
Several different methods of swordmaking existed in ancient times. One of the most famous is pattern welding. Over time different methods were developed all over the world.
In Pre-Columbian South America and Mesoamerica several cultures made use of types of swords without developing metallurgy; for example swords with obsidian “teeth” mounted along the “edges” of a wooden “blade”.
During the 17th Century and 18th Century, a smallsword was an essential fashion accessory in European countries, and carried by most wealthy men.
Having seen use for about five millennia, swords began to lose their pre-eiminance in the late 18th century because of increasing availability and reliability of firearms. With the invention of repeating firearms following the Napoleonic wars in the early 19th Century they became obscelescent as military weapons.
Swords were still used, although increasingly limited to officers and ceremonial uniforms, although most armies retained heavy cavalry until well after World War I. For example, the British Army formally adopted a completely new design of cavalry sword in 1908, almost the last change in British Army weapons before the outbreak of the war. The last units of British heavy cavalry were converted to armoured vehicles as late as 1938.
Cavalry charges still occurred as late as World War II during which Japanese and Pacific Islanders also occasionally used swords but by then they were usually completely outmatched by an enemy armed with machine guns, barbed wire and armoured vehicles. (via Wikipedia)
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