How to break your sword...

Today we examine how battle damage, especially edge on edge contact between sharp swords can lead to failure and breakage, even in otherwise excellent swords. As viewers of our videos know, we’ve been doing a series of tests pitting our weapons against medieval armors, and against each other, to see how, for example, edge on edge contact between swords impacts the weapons, how effective swords are against plate armor, and how chain maille holds up against axes, flails, daggers, and war hammers. In last week’s post on how to resharpen a sword with edge damage, and in our examination of historical swords that evidenced being repaired, we explored how nicks and chips were fixed. Today we look at what happens when a sword continues to be used despite having deep notches due to edge contact with another weapon. As you can tell by the picture above, the results can be catastrophic. Dr. Nathan Clough also reflects on what broken swords can teach us about HEMA, modern conceptions of medieval battle, and how medieval warriors might have thought about the danger of broken weapons.