Favorite one-handed weapon?

What's your favorite one-handed weapon, Veeky Forums?
My favorite has to be the Seax, if only in part because of the people who used, but also because it feels pretty wicked in hand, something like a gladius I'd imagine.

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Seax is pretty high up there for me.
I really like the look of early Chinese swords for some reason.

> 200s BC
> still making bronze swords

Why? Weren't Romans of the same time period rocking low quality steel short swords?

I'm an unashamed Rome booster all the way. But aesthetically the Chinese swords, especially the bronze ones really do it for me. Like the sword of Goujian, it's just really damn pretty.

Dunno about Anons pic but steel swords were cropping up in China by 500s bc and in common use by 200s.

Though China did use bronze the longest among the ancient civs since they werent dogged by problems that led to its decline in the Mediterranean.

Here is what those moonrunes say

I know! It's pretty cool. I really like the characters.

lord tier

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Nuclear football

Falcata cause it just gives my boner a boner.
Combat effectiveness wise it's probably the gladius

Schiavona, aesthetically.
For handling, can hardly be beat.

But ultimately I have wrist problems and one-handed weapons are kinda hard to control for me. Been doing longsword HEMA for a few years now and greatly prefer two-handed stuff.

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spear

I thought it was because bronze casting allowed them to make enough weapons to equip their enormous armies reasonably quickly, rather than taking the time to forge steel weapons.

>What's your favorite one-handed weapon, Veeky Forums?

Pic related. If you're insisting on blades, however, I'd take a smallsword.

Bronze is a superior material than iron for a sword, it can be hammered to become extremely hard and sharp in a way iron can't (it just gets brittle if you hammer it too much).

Granted steel is superior to bronze, but reliable formulaes for making steel weapons came along surprisingly late, even the Romans mostly relied on poor quality steel and iron.

This. Can also be used to chop wood and hammer nails.

Theres nothing wrong with bronze its just expensive as hell because tin is so rare. Not as good as steel obviously but at least on par with iron

I hope you have a shield handy user, because I'd hate to have to fight a duel with an axe but no shield.

>favorite weapon
>posts a tool

Git gud

I find one-handed fighting styles with either nothing or a dagger in the off-hand the coolest for some reason. Even if having a buckler/shield in the off-hand or another hand on the weapon would be more beneficial.

Swept-hilt and schiavona rapiers and sideswords are my favourites probably, followed by various sabers.

Falcata. Well balanced and great power.

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I hace a copy of the dagger Sultan Murad was stabbed with.

I don't know how it holds up in a fight but it's pretty good looking.

Only objectively correct answer.

The fedora is his off-hand weapon I presume.

Some people had this idea though. And admittedly it's not as idiotic as it sounds as long as you face a thrust-centric weapon.
Desperate times call for absurd measures.

Unfortunately wielding a fedora in each hand would be difficult to justify under any circumstances, as awesome as it would be.

>power

Top kek. Enjoy being stabbed thru the heart half an hour before your "powerful" swing connects.

Not even same time period. Also, it always depends on the skill of the user.

rapier daggers, gladius, whips, but favourite would have to be hoplite spear

hon mention pistols, flintlocks

also these guys would wear gloves 100%

I dislike exceptionally broad blades on straight blades (like for example gladius), but curved broad blades like that can look pretty aesthetic.

>to be hoplite spear
So you mean a Dory?

Rapiers are good on one-on-one against other sidearms, but smallswords are pretty crappy. You're going to have hard time parrrying heavier swords with them, they don't have the reach of a rapier, they are easy to grab because of no edge, they don't have power to incapacitate the enemy immediately the way cutting swords have etc. A similar length cut & thrust sword with a saber-like hilt would not be massively more inconvenient to carry but would be much better as a self-defense weapon.

Post pics.

The smallsword won out against the rapier because while it's fast enough to kill with the thrust, it's also sharp enough to open a vein with the slash or draw, too. It's both a sidearm and a duelling weapon, and has the extra bonus of being Veeky Forums as fuck.

ancientmilitary.com/spartan-weapons.htmt

Smallsword didn't "won over" the rapier because it was a better weapon but because of social matters. Gentlemen didn't want to wear a heavy and cumbersome weapon all the time as their role in the armies went down, but they still wanted a sword to proclaim their status and defend themselves and their honor, hence the much lighter and shorter sword.
Giving point was preferred to the cut because it was easier to train it with the tools of the days (jacket and foil) and because puncture woods are more classy than grievous slashes.

>sharp enough to open a vein with the slash or draw
A smallsword is in fact pretty terrible at cutting and even slashing because of blade geometry, rapiers are much better cutters and that's saying something...

Poor quality steel is still better than bronze.

Steel is really awesome tbqh senpai

Bronze is much better than people assume. It's chief problems are it's weight and it's cost but as a material it takes some beating.

>What's your favorite one-handed weapon, Veeky Forums?

Personal favorite

I'm not saying it's bad I'm saying that steel, being awesome and all, is better.

And it is. It's really cool.

In fact, steel is ridiculously better.

>A smallsword is in fact pretty terrible at cutting and even slashing because of blade geometry

In fact I think that by definition a smallsword can't really cut at all. If it can cut it is either a spadroon or some kind of transitional rapier.

The advantage of a smallsword is that because of the blade geometry it can be made both stiff and very light. But being light is not always an advantage because of worse leverage, and beyond certain point it doesn't even give any particular advantage in terms of speed, at least if the swordsman is strong enough. Except in the sense that in the long run using it would be less tiring, but unarmored fights with weapons don't last very long anyway.

>unarmored fights with weapons don't last very long anyway.
What if they're both highly skilled swordsmen?

>the extra bonus of being Veeky Forums as fuck.

Well it was considered Veeky Forums in its day. But compare it to for instance. I can't think of a prettier weapon than a swept-hilt rapier. Cup-hilt rapiers look pretty lame though, admittedly.

>it doesn't even give any particular advantage in terms of speed
It does give an immense advantage in terms of disengaging and cavazione though, that's why smallsword systems are parry/riposte and not single-time like most rapier ones.

>but unarmored fights with weapons don't last very long anyway.
That would depend on the psychology of both fighters. If they are overly cautious, it can last for a very long time (some recorded duels lasted half-an-hour because of that). Several tense minutes can make even a two and a half pounds weapon feels like a ton.

>some recorded duels lasted half-an-hour because of that

Source?

>Giving point was preferred to the cut because it was easier to train it with the tools of the days (jacket and foil) and because puncture woods are more classy than grievous slashes.

Sometimes I wonder if this was the reason rapier became the favored civilian weapon as well.

Poo

I don't think so, considering rapiers were already there in the early 1500's and none of this equipment existed and it was a period of turmoil and violent duels (before Council of Trente).
It probably has more to do with new forging tools, allowing longer blades, long blades for one-handed swords means thrust>cut overall and range is more important than anything when no shield and no armor are involved.

>Cup-hilt rapiers look pretty lame though

stop disarmerment

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Ehh I don't find it very appealing. Luckily there are pappenheimer hilts which are more protective than swept-hilts but more aesthetic than cup-hilts.

much better handled with a second hand tho

What do you mean they would wear gloves?

One of the reasons.

But that shit happened in the Middle East to but then all of the sudden bronze age collapse.

Colt 1911 .45 cal, killer of men

100kg opponent lifted up on ur dory tip all day ur gonna need gloves else ur grip strength gives out first

If only I could figure out how to hold it

reminds me of the obsidian weapons used by mesoamerica where the shards (also pacific islanders used equiv tech) break off on contact like they do in the pig demo in deadliest warrior episode, except thats iron and the side doesnt break off,looks gimic af

you just don't get it, bro

The ball at the top its snugly inside your anus.

SHOTEL
H
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How much of this is this one guy's ideas and how much is based on authentic traditions?

sword catcher perhaps

>dark_souls_washing_pole.jpeg

Not the poster, but I imagine that if you can move around like that with the sword it would meant for that. Just saying because it seems so efficient and swifter than a longsword

A little from column A a little from column B. It's half gleaning from ritual fighting as practiced in modern day east Africa, from colonial accounts of native martial arts, and the other half is hypothesis. The black guy is Da'Mon Stith, he does a lot of African martial arts reconstruction.

you'd lose ur hand pretty quickly hope ur ambidexterous

ud wanna b a 5'5 max ninja light as a feather and u wouldnt be dancing ud be slashing with lowe resistence and not turning for a second engagement

like in that anime (?) where the guy holds 2 short curves out and runs down a column.

might have been afro samurai

That's a kopis.

A morningstar or warhammer.

ud have to be on fucking angeldust to main a morningstar

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gauranteed ko

I just love the designs of the Jian dunno about its function.

guess with function I would choose a scimitar

I must admit that I love Indian weapons.

Step aside plebs

Bronze is also liable to fail catastrophically where iron might only suffer a minor bend.

They're literally fashion items, user. The small sword is flatly inferior in a fight.

>parrying heavier swords

someone trained in fencing would not have any conversation with a large blade. they would work displacement until the heavy blade wielder gave an opening... so probably immediately. especially with a little minute to feign.

and thats "min-u-et" not minute

and this.

Ah, a fellow practitioner of the blade I see. I too choose the noble katana as my primary weapon, though many of you may hold reservations on the basis that this is traditionally considered a two handed weapon, my advanced skills and years of practice have allowed me to perfect a one handed style whereby I transform my body into a veritable dancing flurry of blades, rendering me a very deadly opponent indeed.

i guess its moulinet whatever. didn pay ttentions in fencing class. still would crush my whole own team. mostly weeaboos and like X country kids

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>that gun design is over a hundred years old
U!S!A! U!S!A! U!S!A! U!S!A!