Welcome to Gaia! ::

Swords

The Broadsword - The earliest of the Medieval swords from the 6th Century. The Broadsword had a two-edged blade measuring 2-3 inches wide at the base and tapering to a point. The length of the Broadsword ranged from 30 - 45 inches and weighed between 3 - 5 pounds

The Falchion Sword - A Falchion sword was favoured by some Medieval Knights who had been on Crusade. This sword was similar to a heavy scimitar. The Medieval Falchion swords had a short, heavy blade with a single edge

The Great Sword - The Great Swords were large two-handed swords. The length of the Great Swords ranged from from 50 to 72 inches, with a handle that measured 18 - 21 inches in additional length. Great Swords weighed between 6 - 10 pounds. The Great Sword featured an extended handle that allowed the blade to be used in two hands

The Long Sword aka as the b*****d Sword - Long Swords (b*****d swords) are also known as Hand and a Half swords. The length of the Long Sword (b*****d sword) ranged from from 44 to 50 inches in length.

The b*****d Sword aka as the Long Sword - The versatility of the design of b*****d Swords prevented the sword from being specifically categorized as either a one-handed or two-handed weapon hence the name 'b*****d'

The Scimitar - The scimitar was a type of sword most commonly associated with the Saracens in the Holy Land who fought against the Crusaders. Scimitars had a distinct curved blade ending with a sharp point

Wooden Swords or Batons- were used for training as practice swords

The Cutting sword - These swords were at first used by early Medieval Knights and were also particularly favoured by the the Vikings. A slashing stroke would be used but this became ineffective against heavy body armour

The English Tuck (Estoc) Sword - Thrusting swords to penetrate armor. Estoc is the French word meaning thrust or point

The Badelaire - A French term for a short, broad, curved, and double-edged pointed sword

Backsword - A sword with one sharp edge

Cruciform - A generic term for any sword which when inverted point downward will form the shapeof a crucifix

Hand and a Half Sword - also called a Long Sword or b*****d Sword

Malchus Sword - Single-Handed Sword

Curve Blade Swords - German curved Messer, Grossmessr and the Bohemian Dusask

Storta - Italian curved storta sword

Messer - German machete style of sword

Braquemart - straight bladed but curved-edge

Recurve bow: a bow with the tips curving away from the archer. The curves straighten out as the bow is drawn and the return of the tip to its curved state after release of the arrow adds extra velocity to the arrow.

Reflex bow: a bow that curves completely away from the archer when unstrung. The curves are opposite to the direction in which the bow flexes while drawn.

Self bow: a bow made from one piece of wood.

Longbow: a self bow that is usually quite long, often over 5 feet (1.5 metres) long. The traditional English longbow was usually made of yew wood, but other woods are used also.

Composite bow: a bow made of more than one material

Compound: a bow with mechanical aids to help with drawing the bowstring. Usually, these aids are pulleys at the tips of the limbs.

Crossbow: the limbs of the bow, called a prod, are attached at right angles to a crosspiece or stock in order to allow for mechanical pulling and holding of the string. The mechanism that holds the drawn string has a release or trigger that allows the string to be released.[34] A crossbow shoots a "bolt" rather than an arrow.

Almost all of the information I provide can probably be found on Wiki, but I prefer to add some trivia and weaponry evolution that they usually lack.

First off, sword parts. It is important to know these if you ever plan to describe a sword.

Handle - where the sword is held. Usually, it is metal wrapped in small chains or leather, sometimes with studs, to prevent slipping.

Pommel - the end part of the handle that is not meant to be held. These can be decorative, having a family crest on them. If you see a sword with a polished stone on the end of it, that's the pommel. Early weapons had these attached to the handle, later ones can be screwed in.

Blade - the cutting or stabbing portion of the weapon. It is also another way to refer to the entire sword.

Hilt, or guard - the part of the sword used to protect the hand. They have various shapes.

Tang - Swords are actually three pieces - the blade + tang, the hilt, and the handle. The tang screws into the handle, with the hilt between.

Sheath - the enclosure you put a sword, knife, or dagger in to protect yourself when it is not in use.

Scabbard - Exactly like a sheath, but for one thing: scabbards are sword exclusive. You never put a knife in a scabbard. Additionally, remember those Hollywood scenes where the hero/general pulls the sword out of the scabbard with a "shhhnnng!" and then brandishes it high? Yeah...nope. Scabbards for most weapons, especially broad swords, were leather on the inside so as not to damage and dull the blade as it was drawn. In most cases, they were just leather, with no metal at all.

Swords
Gladius
The sword used by Roman Centurions, it was of an unusual construction for swords: the blade near the handle was thinner than the further parts of the blade. Additionally, the sword was shorter than most swords, measuring only around 2 feet (24 inches, or about 2/3 of a meter) in its entirety.

Style - Gladii (yes, that's the plural) were stabbing weapons, meant to be used in close combat. As a result, the edges were generally kept dull. Roman army fighting was done with a Gladius/Tower Shield combination, with the thoughts of the entire unit moving as one. Stab the enemy, then step back. Repeat. By using this pattern, the enemies had to step over the wounded (losing footing) and into whatever excrement either side had relieved (and no, that wasn't unusual), while the Romans stayed clean and on stable ground.

Trivia - The word "gladius" also means "p***s." Gladiators derived their name from the weapon, and were in fact regarded as sexual icons. At least, the successful ones...

Claymore
Claymores aren't fully great swords, because of the piece of leather wrapped around the base of the blade. This piece allows the sword to be held by both the handle and it and converted into a stabbing weapon. Like great swords, claymores didn't actually weigh all that much.

Style - mostly swung, though once the enemy was close, it could turn into a stabbing weapon as needed.

Broad Sword
Style - The broad sword is swung. As the tip of the sword is left dull, it could not stab. So as to prevent dulling of the blade, a shield was used to block the opponent's sword without damaging your own. The primary targets with a broad sword were the gaps in the armor left for mobility, which became increasingly defended as blacksmiths got better. In turn, this lead to the placement of a finger on the base of the blade for better swing control.
To feel the difference for yourself, pick up a ruler or a remote. Grip it as if you were making a fist, and wave it around a bit. There's not really a lot of control in those waves. Next, extend your forefinger so it goes along wide part. Wave it around again. You can feel the difference between when you use your finger and when you don't. Now imagine that difference on a weapon about half your height.
Following that, to protect the finger, a ring was added to the cross hilt (the typical hilt that looks like a bar between the blade and the handle), and the base of the blade was thickened and dulled. As time went on, the blades became a bit thinner, and the guards developed even more, resulting in the rapier below.

Trivia - Broad swords tips were blunt. They were also kept in leather scabbards, as mentioned above.

Court Sword
Court swords were swords to be worn inside a noble's court. They were more for display than use, and as such, were blunt with no real edge.

Style - There wasn't really one.

Trivia - The sword of Gryffindor in the Harry Potter movies is actually a court sword. I have a version of it that predates the book series and is less decorated.

Rapier
Rapiers are a thin blade that fully came into development following the usage of guns. Their blade is about as long as a broad sword's, but thinner, usually between a half inch and a full inch wide. This enables greater control over the blade.

Style - Due to the importing of gunpowder and the successful making of guns, broad swords were considered clumsy and unnecessary. The thinner rapier, sharpened at the tip and along most of the blade, provided the ability to fight in narrow areas as well as slash. Following the guidance of the forefinger on the blade, the hilts were developed into what is known as the "swept hilt," which can be seen in the Disney's Three Musketeers live act movie (and in Princess Bride or Mask of Zorro 1). Additionally, bell guards were developed for some rapiers for better hand protection (the animated Three Musketeers has bell guards). Rapiers were not designed to kill as much as other blades were.

Trivia - Despite not being designed for killing as much as other swords, rapiers ended up killing a substantial number of people. Duels with rapiers were common, and though they were nominally "to the first blood," such duels provided ample opportunity to kill an unlucky opponent, and stopping at the first blood was even considered unmanly.
Rapiers were the first swords that could easily be broken, however, breaking a rapier resulted in a smaller, faster rapier. I have a hilarious story about someone not knowing weaponry well that tried to write about this blade without consulting someone who actually knew about them. PM me for details, and tell me if you want the sexual joke that spawned from it or not (and please be 18 or older if you do).
There were several schools of rapier fighting, including the Spanish, the Italian, and I believe, the French. Either the Spanish or the French developed a technique called "the Magic Circle," that consisted of following an elaborately chalked circle on the ground. It was supposed to ensure victory, but against the Italian school, was largely useless.
The modern derivative of the rapier is the Epee, which is one of the three Olympic blades.
During the rapier's time period, men's calves were considered sexy. Just like girls stuffing bras, it wasn't uncommon for a man to use a pouch filled with sand to increase the size of his calf. To embarrass the men who did this, it was common practice to cut the tip of the scabbard off, leaving the rapier tip free to "accidentally" pierce the bags and cause the sand to spill.

Florentine
Not actually a weapon so much as a style, this was one of the few two weapon styles that is historically accurate. It consisted of using a rapier and one other object, either a dagger or a cloak wrapped around the arm so that only a small portion was left free (think matador, except the free part was only around 12 inches).

Style - Swords were still precious during this time, so the off-hand with the dagger or cloak was used to trap the opponent's blade so you could score a hit of your own. Again, these matches were to the first blood, just like the rapier. There were various techniques developed that also transformed the parry you made into an offensive strike. Others were developed so that the cloak became a weapon itself, capable of blinding the opponent.

Trivia - While two weapons seems good, the reality is that using two weapons exposed more of the body to being a target. While Florentine attempted to minimize this by turning the body such that the dominant hand (and thus the rapier hand) was held away from the opponent until time to strike, the fact is that the body had to be brought into full view for each strike. Single blade styles showed less target, with the blade being held out front and the off hand never being pulled forward. Additionally, see my comments on dual weapons below.
Florentine lasted about 60 years, at which point dueling pistols became prominent.

Samshir
A Persian weapon that was curved so as to increase the size of the cut.

Style - I don't actually know much about the style for this, but it is capable of both slashing and stabbing.

Saber
There are two main versions of sabers (also "sabre"), that being the historical kind and also the modern kind. Early sabers were often seen with basket guards, which were complete hand protection, but also had the downside of being able to hurt the wielder if they weren't careful - and it's hard to be careful in the middle of a battlefield with guns going off. The hilt eventually evolved into a single bar to cover the hand, which seemed to provide enough protection. By the time of the saber's existence, guns were far more common and owning a sword was an indication of military rank.

Style - Sabers could be used to slash or stab, and were for people on horseback (again, people of rank). Due to the chances of the wielder fighting others on horseback, the primary target area for the weapon was the waist and up - hit a person's leg, and they can still kill you before they die. This has carried over into modern sabers, which are one of the three Olympic swords. The modern main stance is with the saber held in the dominant hand, which is turned palm downward. This makes the guard cover the side of the hand, reducing the target area available to the opponent.

Trivia - In the modern version, a system of rules called "right of way" helps dictate who gets the point if both people manage to score a hit at the same time. Hitting the opponent's guard negates any chances you have of getting a hit in that particular attack.

Epee
Pronounced "ehp-pay." Derived from the rapier, it differs in one main aspect: it can only stab. The guards are all bell guards, and the full body is valid target. This leads to the arm being the primary target, but should the duelists get past each other's arm, it is not uncommon to see feints that try to force the opponent to perform two awkward parries.

Style - Since anywhere is a valid target, the sword arm is held out away from the body, not quite fully extended. Sword movements are very small so as not to expose the hand to the opponent. Good Olympic epee fencers make the matches boring, as the movements are so small it looks like almost nothing is happening.

Trivia - This is the only fencing weapon that does not have right of way. If two people hit at the same time, they both get the point.

Foil
Foils were derived from a dueling weapon meant to kill, and as such, the only valid target area is the torso, where the vital organs are. It is the lightest of the three modern fencing swords, and also the easiest to break. Yes, that happens.

Style - The foil's guard is small, only a tiny bit larger than the soy sauce plates at a lot of American sushi places. Since the hand is not a valid target and the edges of the foil's predecessor were not sharp, the guard serves mostly to move the opponent's blade out of the way for long enough to start a riposte.
Due to their thin blade, foils are very flexible. As such, one technique for getting around a good defense is called the "flick." This basically involves a wrist-controlled whip-like motion with the sword that is stopped before so the blade curves in the air. If you have a flexible ruler, you can see this if you try it. Match portions that go to flicks can look very odd, with each fencer seeming to be swinging in the general direction of the opponent, rather than stabbing.

Trivia - Like sabers, foils have a "right of way" system that helps dictate who gets the point. Unlike with sabers, where the best offense is a good offense, Olympic foil matches can easily consist of a series of attack->parry->ripostes.
Foils are the weapon that most fencing centers (aka sallé, plural sallés) start people on.

Katana
Katana are one of the favorite weapons of anime and manga lovers, and very few of them actually know how to use them. While katana can technically stab, they are a slashing weapon, and there's actually a very particular style of slashing that is used for them. Going outside of that style of slashing results in a blade that dulls quickly, and that meant death for the wielder.

Style - Several styles exist for the blade, and the modern derivation is called "kendo" (the way of the sword). In almost all styles, the first hit mattered most, and was usually lethal. As a result, the guard was minimal, and parries were almost non-existent. When a parry does happen, rather than the swords meeting in a perpendicular manner like Western swords tend to, the side of the blocking blade is supposed to meet with the side of the opposing blade. This made for faster parries, ripostes, and fights as a whole.

Trivia - The correct Japanese term for more than one katana is still "katana." They do not have a plural like we do. Thanks to English, though, "katanas" is still acceptable.
Also, katana are held differently than most people imagine. The dominant hand is at the top, sure, but the bottom hand is halfway off the bottom of the handle, and is used as a pivot control. This produces a gap between the hands of about a hands' breadth.
Katana were sheathed with the blade facing up, not down, which means that the side-view curve is more like an n than a u. If needed, the blade could be flipped down, but that usually indicated an imminent attack. Yes, this means that Gaia's "sheathed" pose for katana is wrong.
Unlike with Western swords, katana were regularly sheathed without the wielder having to look at the scabbard.
As if that wasn't enough information, there's a small catch on the end of the scabbard. This is meant to hold the blade in should the owner stumble, but can be easily bypassed with the thumb and a direct movement. Ever wonder about all those scenes in movies, anime, and manga where the user has a thumb on the guard and pushes the sword out a bit? They're releasing the blade from the catch. Similarly, when they sheath it, they leave it out of the catch until they're sure they don't need the blade anymore.

Iaido
Also known as "iai," this was a style of killing on the draw with a katana.

Style - there are two main ways to kill on the draw, those being a horizontal strike and a vertical strike. The most common vertical strike involves turning the blade upside down (as mentioned above), but it can also be done overhand as well.

Zatoichi
Not the blind swordsman, the sword! Good movies, if you haven't seen them.
Anyways, a zatoichi is a katana that is disguised as a walking stick. Like katana, they have the catch, and were usually curved, but could also be straight. Unlike katana, they allowed for more variety in iaido strikes, mostly due to the fact that they had to be raised before they could be drawn.

Trivia - While it seems obvious to us that these walking sticks are swords, when zatoichis appeared in Japan, they did so because carrying katanas was illegal. Hiding the weapon in a walking stick was a way of keeping it out of sight, and it was considered rude to ask if a walking stick was really a walking stick or was actually a sword.

Other Weapons
Mace
A mace has three parts - the handle, the haft, and the head. The handle is just like it sounds; where the weapon was held. The haft is the pole between the head and the handle, and where the head is attached to. The head is the actual dangerous part of the weapon, with a variety of designs. Some were balls with spikes. Some were triangular shapes, with the longest side of the triangle being attached to the haft.

Style - Maces were swung, though some had spikes on the tip to enable stabbing in narrow corridors. If an opponent had no armor, the weight of the mace would break bones and damage muscles, possibly piercing the opponent's organs if the tips were prominent. If the opponent had armor, then the mace would pierce holes in it, turning the armor into a grater for the wearer (think cheese grater). It wasn't the fastest of kill methods, as well as being gruesome, but it did have the advantage of not having to worry about being constantly sharp, and even when dull, the impact could sometimes be strong enough to break or bruise bones beneath armor.

Trivia - Unlike swords, maces weren't considered bladed weapons, so there wasn't a need or means to sheath them. They were often transported on a person's belt by means of a leather strap that came off of the handle.

Warhammer
Warhammers are like maces, except their design resembles a hammer. They, too, could pierce armor, usually with the single spike on the back, and were capable of causing bruises and broken bones to armored opponents. Unlike a lot of people imagine, actual warhammers resemble modern hammers very closely, not mallets.

Gauntlets
I mention gauntlets mostly because of the misconception of what they are. Gauntlets were armored gloves that cover the entire hand, and a portion of the arm. Gloves that cover only the arm are "bracers," and gloves that only cover the hand are not gauntlets. Gauntlets were also usually worn with another glove underneath.

Trivia - When being knighted, the knighter (often the king), would take a gauntlet and with the words, "May this be your last blow unavenged," would strike the knight across the face. This was due to the hierarchy in the time period, where delivering a blow to the knight was tantamount to delivering a blow to the king or queen, resulting in an escalation of offense that could prove dangerous to the offender.

Hand Ax
A hand ax is a single bladed ax, much like a hatchet. Very few axes were actually used as weapons, mostly being tools, however, there were developments in the ax department after armor became designed to defeat swords. Like warhammers and maces, spikes were often on the tip or back to allow for stabbing.

Trivia - Also known as battle axes.

Two Bladed Axe
These are the typical ax weapons you see in movies, particularly those with dwarves. They have two blades, and are meant to be swung, relying on momentum to increase the damage done. There is very little to be done in the way of defense.

Trivia - These weapons are mostly fictional - the real two bladed axes were almost exclusively tools.

Jousting Lance
As these were a sporting weapon meant to unhorse someone, they were not metal in design, instead being wood (which would usually splinter upon impact). They were designed with large shields to protect the jouster from being hit, and could not be used off the horse.

Battle Lance
Fiction. Swords, spears, maces, bows, and axes were used on horseback, not lances. They were too slow to follow up after an attack, leaving the wielder vulnerable to whatever mob they happened to be in.

Trident
These weapons - yes, they're weapons - were used by Gladiators alongside a weighted net. The three prongs could trap the opponent's weapon long enough to throw the net over them, and then stab the now disarmed and pinned opponent. Unlike spears, halberds, and glaives, these were used one handed.

Halberds
One of the "long" polearms, these were used mostly against cavalry. By planting the butt of the halberd in the ground, the tip could easily kill a horse or the rider before they got close enough to the halberdier unit to start swinging with a sword. On top of that, halberds had an ax blade that could be used for swinging, though without much room, there wasn't a lot that could be done.

Trivia - Halberdiers were in units much like Centurions, except they were anti-cavalry rather than defense against archers and close-quarter combat. They rarely carried shields, as halberds require two hands to use.

Parrying Dagger
There's actually two kinds of parrying dagger; the kind with one blade, which was simply longer than a knife, and usually had a developed hand guard (it was designed to parry, after all, and losing your hand while doing so defeats the purpose). The other was a three bladed kind, where the guard was less developed, but the blades (which looked like a down arrow) could be used to entrap and possibly break the opponent's blade.

Dueling Pistols
These are single shot pistols meant for a showdown between someone who is offended and their offender.

Trivia - These pistols were often highly decorated, and kept in cases to preserve them. Often, bringing them out for a duel was indication enough of the offense, and killing or wounding the other person was more rude than the offense. The gentlemanly thing to do was to deliberately fire over the head.
These guns predated advanced rifling, so their accuracy was poor.

Shields
Buckler
Small, mostly leather shields that could literally be worn on the arm instead of held like most shields. Many of them featured a prominent spike in the middle that could be used to hold an opponent's weapon away or to attack the opponent. When worn on the arm, a dagger was often held in the hand. The small protection they provided was particularly dangerous for the user if the opponent happened to be a skilled archer (arrows could penetrate the shield), or using an axe or pretty much any non-sword or dagger weapon.

Greek Shield
These shields are large round shields, usually with a large metal bump in the middle. The Gaia items Soldier Rounded Shield looks similar to one.

Style - Similar to the Romans, the Greeks did close quarter combat with stabbing swords. The large shields covered most of the torso area, but lacked the sophistication of the Roman tower shield.

Tower Shield
Used by the Romans as a means of protecting the body in close combat (you can't easily aim above or below without exposing yourself to their gladii), they also were extremely useful in deflecting incoming projectiles. They had a slight curve to them, to guide the opponent's weapon away from the centurion, and like most shields, were put in front of the body while the weapon was held in the dominant hand behind the body. Thanks to the style of gladii, attacking didn't necessarily expose the centurion to incoming attacks as much as later shields did.

Trivia - Centurions were actually groups of 80, and marched in row and column groups called "phalanx" (plural "phalanxes"). The veteran fighters were placed on the right side of the phalanx (the shield was carried on the left), because of a presumption that they could defend themselves better.
Additionally, there was a "tortise" formation that could be done with the tower shields wherein the centurions behind the front held their shields over the heads of the centurion in front of them (and themselves; they were large shields, after all) which gave them a "turtle shell" of defense against incoming arrows and spears. The people in front could see over their own shield and under the other shield thanks to the curvature of the shields.
These shields were made of wood with some metal reinforcement.

Medieval Shield
These shields were large, usually angled at the bottom (enabling horseback usage, which tower shields were not good for), and almost always decorated with the familial crest on the front. They were usually curved to divert blades away from the body, and had to be held. Like the tower shields, they were mostly wooden, with some metal support.

Trivia - Heralds would use the crests to determine who had fallen in combat when they reported back to the military commander.


Style Notes
Using two weapons
I've seen many a writer and even more roleplayers declare their swordsperson a master at using two weapons at the same time. I fenced for around seven years, did kendo for about half a year, and let me tell you, using two weapons is beyond not easy, it's making yourself a bigger target - when it can be done.
Most of the time, the weapons get in the way of each other. You can't start a swing with the second until you've completed a swing with the first, unless you're trying to cut your arm off. Even after you complete the swing, you have to move yourself into another balanced position to start the second swing, and that loses time a single weapon opponent doesn't lose. Worse still, to get that second strike in, you're exposing more of your body as a target to the enemy.
Katanas are the worst offenders, as the style of slashing requires more movement from the body than most Western swords.
If two weapons are used, two daggers or a sword and dagger combination are the historical styles. Daggers are short enough, and meant to both parry and stab, that using two was possible without causing the body to become a burden. Sword and dagger was most notably used in florentine, but even in medieval periods, a dagger could try to be used as a substitute if a shield wasn't on hand.
Sword and gun is the only other style used, but during the time it was used, guns had one shot.

Throwing a weapon
Aside from weapons specially designed for it, a thrown weapon is another weapon for the enemy. Swords do not fly well, axes and maces aren't much better, and who in their right mind is going to throw their shield? Never have your characters throw their weapon unless you've held that kind of weapon, and can understand what it's like. Or the character is an idiot.

Other notes
Pulling your arm back to deliver a final strike is often unnecessary, but it gets done in Hollywood almost every time because it looks more dramatic than simply finishing a stab. Doing this gives your opponent time, and since you're probably trying to kill, giving them time to kill you first is, well, a bad idea.