Page 57 - History of War - Issue 25-16

FORGING THE ULTIMATE BLADE

axes and bows were
the irst instruments
h, the sword is

as the irst weapon
d solely to kill;
ting the deadliest
soon became a

of life and death

irst swords ever created are
mewhat shrouded in antiquity. From
ese irst bronze blades, swords evolved
a complicated fashion to become
e weapons we are familiar with. One
amples of these original weapons is
ped khopesh buried with the pharaoh
However, despite being buried circa
then, swords were already old.
ons were irst produced as status items
the Mediterranean basin, from roughly
wards, once the alloying of bronze
e creation of blades. To start with, they
narily rare, highly prized and a sign
ealth. As bronze technology spread,
e more common, and armies, such as
noans, were soon well enough armed to
r own empire at sword-point.
val of iron and steel brought another
vance in the ancient arms race. Iron is
e and readily available, unlike bronze
d tin – a relatively rare metal). Once the
emonstrated iron’s utility, when carving
empire from 1600 BCE, the general
on weapons became inevitable.
millennium BCE, the Etruscans began
nd steel to gain better tensile strength.
des that had good edge strength while
enough to absorb shock during combat.
s used and developed Etruscan
ombining it with carburisation (combining
ith carbon to make it harder), case
d on the outside, soft within) and plain
Armed with the gladius, the short,
pon of the legionary, the Roman war
ed out yet another empire. However,
tha, the longer sword of the Roman
utlived the empire. The spatha was
d by the barbarians serving as Roman
, after the Western Empire fell, it gave
glo-Saxon and Viking blades that are the
stern sword making.
d Viking armies of the 10th and 11th
itably led to homogenised weapons and
ay to quantity. In the following centuries,
lved to it the particular ighting styles of
came to pass.

RIVAL OF IRON AND

ROUGHT ANOTHER
ANT ADVANCE IN THE

ARMS RACE”

57