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Morphology of the Western sword
The blade functions as the cutting part of a sword. Single-edged swords have a non-cutting edge of the blade -- known as the back.
The blade may also have grooves or fullers with the purpose of lightening the blade while allowing it to retain its strength, in the same manner as an "I" beam in construction.
The hilt functions as the handle of a sword, and consists of the guard, the grip, and the pommel. It may also have a tassel or sword knot.
The name scabbard applies to the case which houses the sword when not in use.
The ricasso or shoulder identifies a short section of blade immediately forward of the guard. Most swords have no ricasso. The ricasso is not sharpened, which sometimes allows a finger to be wrapped around the blade for better control. On some large weapons, such as the German longsword, a leather cover surrounded the ricasso, and a swordsman might be grip it in one hand to make the weapon more easily wielded in close-quarters combat. The ricasso normally bears the maker's mark. On Japanese blades the mark appears on the tang under the handle.
The tang consists of the extension of the blade structure through the hilt and the grip.
In a rat-tail tang a nut screwed onto the tang above the pommel (in 20th-century and later construction) holds the sword together
In traditional construction the tang is peened over a nut on the end of the pommel in one of the weakest types of tang
In a "full" tang, the strongest type, the tang has the same width as the sword blade. As the blade doesn't narrow where it joins the handle, it maintains all its strength
The term CoP (Center of Percussion), also known as the sweet spot, identifies the part of the blade that can deliver the strongest blow with the least vibration. Most swords will have two of these points along the blade. The secondary one nearest to the hilt becomes a particularly poor point to have struck by another sword, if the user should make the mistake of believing popular mythology and using a sword edge to parry. Being struck at this point will subject the stricken sword to the maximum force of the blow, and may cause a sword to suffer catastrophic failure.
From the 18th century onwards swords intended for cutting, i.e. with an edge, have been curved with the radius of curvature equal to the distance from the swordman's body at which it was to be used. This allowed the blade to have a sawing effect rather than simply delivering a heavy blow. European swords, intended for use at arm's length, had a radius of curvature of around a metre. Middle Eastern swords, intended for use with the arm bent, had a smaller radius. Many European swords in the 19th Century suffered significantly from the use of metal scabbards which tended to make them blunt, and this consequently gave Eastern swords a fearsome reputation amongst European troops.
Swords intended for stabbing normally had straight blades, as this made accurate handling easier. European light cavalry (and infantry officers, who usually fought on horseback) invariably had curved swords for slashing rather than straight ones for stabbing, because if a thrust from a moving horse missed, then a rider would have difficulty in making a horse go backwards to repeat the thrust. This proved particularly important during skirmishes, the normal form of fighting for such troops. Heavy cavalry, which tended to charge en masse and not skirmish, usually had straight swords for thrusting.
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