THE DEVELOPMENT OF SWORDS THROUGH THE AGES

Adrian Ko

In ancient times, did mankind foresee that the rise and fall of civilizations would be brought about by the rise and fall of hammer against metal? The bladed instrument has been both friend and foe to us throughout history, with the earliest blades having been made from rock, bone, and wood. A people’s ability to survive depended upon their ability to hunt, cut, and prepare food, make clothing, construct shelter, and defend themselves from their enemies.

Over the centuries, systems of fighting were developed around the most efficient use of bladed, piercing or projectile weapons, for both the individual and the organized unit. Agile weaponry coupled with the ability to use it while withstanding the demands of armed conflict were essential to the survival and prosperity of a group. This necessity propelled the technology of weaponry toward better materials and better designs. The outcome of fights, battles and wars determined the next level of refinement and evolution of both sword and swordsmanship. Those people groups who failed to find, embrace, or properly deploy newfound materials and develop superior fighting methods were either captured or killed. Any technology they did have was absorbed by their conquerors. Many men throughout the world and throughout time have risen to power and preserved their places in politics, but none have done so successfully without armed military to protect that power and position.

The nature, shape and application of swords and swordsmanship of different cultures were in a constant state of change contingent upon what technologies and materials were available. The first true swords evolved with metalworking and blades of gold and copper have been discovered. Swords made in the Bronze Age were cast from molten metal and, once cooled, were beaten by hammer to increase material density and thereby hardness. These blades varied in shape and length from the straight bladed swords of ancient China to the "leaf" shaped blades of the Celts.

Gradually, with the advent of iron, weapons of the harder metal were able to cut into, or through, the softer bronze swords. This Iron Age emphasized the impressive advantage gained by those with better material for weaponry. While many blade shapes were carried into the Iron Age, the use of iron allowed for a greater variety of blade types and styles, as well as an increase in blade size.

As iron had almost twice as high a melting point as bronze, it was more feasible to shape iron by forging it. Gradually, steel—a product of combined iron and carbon—was discovered. The difficulties of smelting and refining iron made steel a precious commodity. Metal working techniques evolved to maximize the quantity of available steel.

Different grades of iron and steel were combined in a variety of ways to compensate for the scarcity of quality steel. Some of these manufacturing techniques enhanced performance—allowing different attributes to exist in a single blade—by addressing the paradox of shock-resistance in softer steel and the edge holding ability of harder steels.

One such technique was "pattern-welding", in which different pieces of steel were folded, twisted, and fused together in a finely laminated structure. The mechanical process of forging and folding steel onto itself also served to evenly distribute carbon throughout the steel and drive out smelting impurities.

Pattern-welding has been practiced across many generations and cultures, appearing in the swords of the Romans, the Celts and the Vikings; in Asia among the Chinese, Indians, and Tibetans; and as pamor in the kris of the Indonesian archipelago. The tradition of pattern-welding continues today, not only for its utility, but also in the artistic endeavors of modern bladesmiths.

Another technique was "multiplate" construction, in which larger "plates" or slabs of different steel were sandwiched together to construct a blade. Like pattern-welding, this method of sword construction has been used at various times in different cultures, often in parallel with pattern-welding.

Two basic types of multiplate construction are demonstrated in the structure of many traditional Japanese blades. The first type is creating a hard steel jacket around a softer core (kobuse san mai kitae). The second type places the hard steel between softer steel side plates and /or back (hon sai mai kitae). Both of these techniques were transplanted from the Chinese mainland, where they had been in use as early as during the Bronze Age.

A unique type of steel was developed on the Indian subcontinent, called wootz. This was the original "damascus steel" and its special properties were derived from the way in which it was smelted and worked, creating a molecular structure which had branching networks of iron carbides embedded in an iron matrix. This created the beautiful patterns or "watering" on the blade as well as a very hard cutting edge.

The use of wootz in sword blades has been documented as early as the 5^th century BC and reached its zenith during the 16^th and 17^th centuries. Wootz was a popular trading good, spreading from India into Rome, then later, through the Islamic empires, into Eastern Europe and Russia. In the lands of Islam, wootz was exquisitely worked into the gracefully curved blades for shamshirs, kilijs, and jambiyah daggers. Sadly, the secret of making wootz was lost in the 19^th century and has yet to be fully rediscovered.

Much could be said about the development of swords in other cultures, ranging from the damascus crescent-bladed swords of India, Turkey, and Persia to the wave bladed Keris and Kris of the Philippines and other parts of Asia – the evolution of these swords are equally fascinating to explore. Trade and conquest not only spread swordmaking technologies, but also the style and use of swords. Cross-pollination of sword forms was more the rule than the exception.

While the curved blade appears to have existed in some form as long as bladed weapons have existed, it rose to prominence during the conquests of the Turkic and Mongol tribes. Legend has it that the Japanese sword, originally straight, owes its curved shape to the attempted Mongol invasion of Japan. The Japanese discovered their straight blades were ineffective against the Mongol armor and so their chief swordsmith began making curved blades. In the Middle East, the sabers of these horse-borne invaders became the Persian shamshir and the Turkish kilij. Wootz, which left India as a trade good, returned in the form of blades wielded by the warrior troops of Islam. The swords of Dar-al-Islam were pitted against the native swords of India—the straight-bladed khanda, the katar stabbing sword, the re-curved sosun pattah, and the curved tulwar.

The pragmatic troops of the Roman Empire adapted blades for their short sword, the gladius, from the Iberian Celts and their long, straight cavalry sword, the spatha, from the Germanic tribes. It has also been argued that the Greek macheira, a sword with a re-curved, boomerang-shaped blade carried by the troops of Alexander the Great, was the progenitor for the Nepalese kukri, the Turkish yataghan, and the Indian sosun pattah. The machiera is itself thought to have derived from the Egyptian kopis.

In China, the two basic classes of sword were the straight, double-edged jian and the single-edged dao. While the jian retained its basic form, the dao evolved into many different varieties due to the influence of war and commerce. The zhibeidao, a straight, single-edged sword was exported to Japan during the Tang dynasty (600-900 AD), where it evolved into the curved form of the tachi and then into the katana. The disc-shaped guard developed in Japan and was later adapted for use on Chinese swords.

Encounters with the nomadic tribes of Central Asia led to the development of the peidao, a true saber with a curved cutting edge. The swords of these nomadic tribes later influenced the development of curved blades throughout Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East.

Trade along the Silk Road spread sword making influences bi-directionally. Chinese decorative motifs appear on Indian and Islamic swords, while Islamic-inspired faceted blades and fullering appeared on dao blades.

There is little question that sword development in China is one of the more remarkable chapters in the history of the sword. Chinese bronze advancements are well known, but even more remarkable is the circa 300 B.C. Chinese perfection of the steel processing techniques we know in the West today as the Siemans Carbon Reduction Process and the Bessemer Process—which are usually thought to be 19^th and 20^th century Western developments.

Light years ahead of their neighbors, the Chinese developed styles independently and applied creativity and imagination to sword design. The Jian, a straight double-edged sword, is likely one of the more ancient designs. It has survived to the present day and is often found in the hands of martial arts and Tai Chi practitioners. A wide variety of sabers were also developed in China, ranging from the sweeping, broad-bladed niuweidao (Ox Tail Saber) to the more refined, gently curving liuyedao (Willow Leaf Saber) as well as several other types. Such swords exhibit sophisticated pattern-welding, the use of clay for differential heat treating, and also multiplate construction, similar to or perhaps surpassing the construction and performance of Japanese swords.

Although Chinese swords are some of the most graceful and technologically advanced in human history, they also suffered the most in terms of development continuity. At many points in Chinese history, sword technology reached incredible heights. Sadly, because methods of sword making were often considered military secrets, knowledge of the art was not passed onto others and would then die with that generation. The next breed of sword makers had to decode cryptic poems or songs—if and when any existed—to rediscover age-old techniques, sometimes centuries later.

Developed originally by the Chinese was the use of clay to achieve different levels of hardness in the edge and the back. The Japanese, whose blades in earlier times were straight, later adopted this technology. (These blades were known as chokuto or "straight sword") Clay would be applied to the body and back of the blade, while the edge was left exposed. In the final thermal treatment of steel, when the blade was quenched, the clay allowed the blade to cool at different rates. The exposed edge would form a harder crystalline form of steel known as martensite while the body cooled slower and formed softer pearlite. Thus in one blade it was possible to marry two opposite qualities. The harder steel of the edge facilitated cutting ability and wear-resistance, while the softer body provided shock tolerance and impact absorption. Forged straight, the Japanese blade achieved its curve in the water quench, as the martensite steel of the edge is molecularly larger than pearlite, and thus the curve is a natural product of heat treatment.

The Japanese learned to fold and weld steel over itself in order to purify it, and would fold the billet eight to fifteen times. The finished blade – when polished – would produce patterns in the sides of the blade, depending on the method with which the billet was folded. Patterns could range from a straight grain to a wood-like burl. Even the clay application could be altered so as to stylize the resultant temper line to form patterns ranging from being completely straight to waves, clovers, and even a chrysanthemum on water.

In Medieval Japan the Samurai typically wore two swords—a longer sword known as a katana and a shorter sword called a wakizashi. The wakizashi remained by the Samurai whenever he was indoors—when he ate, slept or bathed. The shorter length facilitated fighting in close quarters and low ceiling heights.

Even though the Japanese sword seems virtually unchanged in the last one thousand years, its evolution is more subtle than swords of other cultures, like that of European swords. In more peaceful times, the Samurai’s weapon was light and slender and particularly agile. However, during times of war, swords that were thicker and more diamond-shaped in section were forged. This blade design resisted bending due to lateral stresses and inaccurate swordsmanship, and was effective for fighting opponents in armor—thrusting into openings in small, unprotected areas. The invasion by the Mongols (13^th century A.D.) caused the Japanese to engineer blades that were wider for added cutting power, specifically, cutting through their invaders’ armor. In the late 19^th century, the Samurai order was disbanded. Thus the Japanese sword—the "Soul of the Samurai" as it was hailed—found little application in the modernization of Japan and its naval fleet. In World War II semblances of the Japanese sword were mass-produced using machining equipment, but these were of a quality that paled in comparison to the splendor of older, hand forged Japanese swords. These military swords were known as gunto. Perhaps a parallel could be drawn between a nation’s swords and her people; as the Japanese had forged their alliance with Nazi Germany, it was as if the "Soul of the Samurai" became little more than a shadow of its former glory. After the Japanese surrendered, many swords were confiscated, destroyed, or brought back to America as trophies. Eventually, the Japanese were allowed to regain historic pieces and to continue the tradition of blade smithing for the purpose of cultural preservation. At present, much of the formerly lost art of sword making has been regained, and annual blade smithing competitions exhibit blades that rival the beauty and power of the old masters. The Japanese sword is very much the soul of its people today.

In Europe, the Medieval Sword in its handsome cruciform shape epitomized the honor, valor, courage and strength of the knight who served his God and his king. (This evolved out of the swords of the Romans, Celts, and Franks.) These straight-bladed swords were light, durable, and well balanced, and were the weapons of a highly developed fighting methodology, that has been traced back to as early as 1100 A.D.

The European sword was constantly changing in form and function, co-evolving with the development of armor. Much experimentation occurred and it was possible for several different forms to exist simultaneously, rather than one type superseding another.

In the 12^th and 13^th centuries A.D., Medieval swords varied in shape and style, while maintaining the basic cruciform shape and were generally used in conjunction with a shield. The pommels of these swords ranged from circular to "brazil nut" shaped, and cross guards varied from being straight to down-swept. Even blades had different degrees of profile and distal (thickness) taper. In many blades, fullers or grooves were used on the body of the blade in order to make the blades lighter, wider and stiffer, but without sacrificing structural integrity. There was some variation in the length, number and shaping of these fullers.

Beginning in the 14^th century, plate armor and chainmail with plates appeared on the battlefield. Because plate armor was proof against cutting, a shield became unnecessary. The free hand could join the right hand in delivering stronger blows. The hand-and-a-half sword developed which allowed both single and double-handed use. Swordsmanship styles changed as a result of using the sword as a conceptual and practical shield during battle. Gradually, great two-handed swords were made to be of service.

Hand protection was of paramount importance. The crossguard of swords were subject to change to adapt to different needs. Some found it easier to maneuver the sword with the index finger looped over the crossguard. While the blade shoulder was sometimes left unsharpened so as to avoid cutting the finger, it left the digit exposed to an enemy’s blade, and so the finger ring guard was developed to protect it. Eventually, around the early 15^th century, more ring protection was added, and various compound hilts were developed. The basket hilted sword found favor in the form of the Italian schiavona, but especially as Irish and Scottish basket hilted broadswords.

Many blades forged in Europe were imported to Scotland where the Scots worked steel to form basket hilts to mount their swords. This provided excellent hand protection that could be used offensively to punch one’s opponent, while the other hand would typically hold a shield known as a targe. The Highland Scot’s primary weapon, however, was the dirk or dagger, as swords were expensive and difficult to afford. An examination of historical dirks show the fullers or grooves to be in the same positions as in Scottish basket-hilted swords—broken sword blades would be recycled into dirks and the blades would once again return to battle. In essence, the dirk was to the Highland Scot what the wakizashi was to the Japanese Samurai.

In Europe, the rapier came about during the late 16^th century with its characteristic elegant compound hilt and slender blade, and was often accompanied by a dagger in the other hand. It was ideal for quick thrusts while the dagger served to parry or trap the opponent’s blade, depending on its design or technique of use. During the Renaissance, which was a tremendous revival of the arts, sciences, culture, history and technology, swords had become more affordable, and the rapier gained widespread use among commoners and civilians. European swordsmanship surrounding the rapier now stood upon time-tested principles of fighting developed during the Medieval era.

If there is anything to be learned in the history of the development of swords and swordsmanship among various cultures, the common thread is the development we can find for ourselves. For in such great diversity we can find great similarities—not just fighting methodologies and metallurgical technologies or the rise and fall of kingdoms, but whom and what we love and cherish, and the dreams we desire to protect so that they may be lived out in our posterity. No matter the culture or the nation, swords inspire in us greatness and remind us of the growth we are capable of and responsible for. They remind us of the many lives, and the battlefields of blood that have paid the price for our freedom. They teach us to value human life, and that we must all aspire towards righteousness, justice, truth, and peace, for against these things there is no law. If we learn this, the sweat from the swordmaker’s brow in the heat of his forge and the tears of the widow’s eyes as she embraces her slain sons will not be in vain.

Special thanks to Alexander Chin, Mark McMorrow and Sheryl Corchnoy for their valuable assistance in this article.