[Christophe Meesschaert]

for what it's worth :
i had a replica made of the invalides falchion and although it's a blunt reenactment version it handles like a dream an it seams to eat shields alive lol so
ps and its always fun to hand it to someone who doesn't know and see hil hold it the wrong way around

[William P]

id just like to point out that the khopesh despite being called a sickle sword. does not have an edge like a sickle in that ost khopesh replicas ive seen online are sharpened on the convex edge manning imperial has two egytianand one canaanite khopesh like swords

is also worth noting that a swordcan indeed have both +types of edging, althogh theres not much of one or the other, for xample the hoplite xiphos being leaf shaped means that the top part convergint towards the tip forms a convex edged blade but the parts closest to the hiltcan form abit of a concave sharpened edge,
even the khukri curvs towards the tip creating abit of a convex edging, although bout 80% is concave,

as for why one would have a concave edged sword would be that like the knukri having a concave blade means the tip is often angled in the direction facing the opponent. forward momentum is then concentrated, sort of 'in that direction.. if you know that i mean. not only that but when you strike someon with a concave edged weapon like this or a khukri or a dacian falk, it means that you create a scything motion, the same thing that makes a billhook so nasty a weapon,.

[Bob Burns]

Yes Sa'ar in fact along with the inverted clip I noticed the. What appears to be two handed D guard, stuck out to me like a sore thumb! I also agree with Bill, let's not assume. The falchion a chopper. In fact to me. It seems more of a thrust and slash sword as opposed to a chopping weapon, the latter of which I have always found a peculiar analogy.

[Aleksei Sosnovski]

One thing I noticed when fighting full-contact with a concave blade (messer) is that blows feel less strong because the blade slides over the armor instead of stopping and delivering all the energy into the target. This property can be very desirable sometimes, but in some situations an opposite behavior could be desired from the blade. And that's where concave edge excels. So here is one benefit of that style of blade. Corner on the primary edge seems to make a good percussion point, at least when it is well-defined like on these paintings. Such corner can probably penetrate maille where a normal sword would fail. And finally, this falchion has a nasty thrusting point so it will be effective against armor that is "immune" to cutting blows. This blade combine properties of a wide cut-oriented sword, a thrust-oriented sword and an axe.

[Bob Burgess]

Not being a weapons collector or specialist, but concentrating on the humble billhook (already mentioned in this post) - it seems to me that with an edged weapon it can be used in two main ways - thrusting along its axis, as with a spear, or chopping at an angle to its axis, as with an axe.... Apart from thin blades such as épees and rapiers, most swords appear to have a broad blade, sharpened on the edge (or edges) - thus they are mainly use with a chopping motion...

Whether the cut is a slicing one or not will depend upon many variables, such as the shape of the blade, the material being cut, the direction of movement of the blade or the motion of the opponent being cut....

A concave blade, as found on most billhooks is useful for pulling the object to be cut into the blade, whereas a convex blade may concentrate the energy into a small area, and be useful against metal armour - the force of the blow could possibly break bone even if the armour is not pierced....

The word billhook (hackebeil in German) is dervievd from two Old German words - beil, which usally means an axe, but can also refer to a short sword, and hacke, which means to chop - a billhook is thus a chopping sword or axe (possibly a little bit of tautology there). As a boy I just called them a 'chopper' - in parts of Devon and Dorset (UK) they are often called a 'hacker' - I guess many types of sword are also best described as choppers or hackers.....

[Len Parker]

I thought I would add this monster to this thread ( scroll down to pic 7) http://www.tgorod.ru/index.php?topgroupid=2&a...tentid=285