On 12 Apr 2018 at 10:51, Catherine Berry wrote:

> That's a great example of the rippling social effects of technology.
> The reason swords could shift from cutting to stabbing was
> improvements in metallurgy. To make a rapier that will hold a point
> and won't either bend or break on the first solid thrust, you need
> steel-making tech that wasn't widely available in Europe until the
> Renaissance. Most medieval swords were really more like edged clubs;
> the narrowness of the edge let you deliver a lot of force to a small
> area, but it wasn't "sharp" as we'd understand the term.

Many years back someone in the local SCA had a reproduction of a
bronze sword found in an archelogical site.

Not *remotely* sharp. but the rounded edge was good at focusing the
impact of the body of the blade.

One fun bit was that after banging on a pell (woden post used to
stand it for an opponent) You had to turn the blade in your hand to
hit with the other side as it was starting to *visibly* bend!

--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com