Hey I've got a question about medieval swords. Was there ever a sword designed to split the actual sword from the grip? Like it had an extra piece of metal sticking out to split open more fragile parts of a sword? Is that even a good idea for a sword? You have a sword icon and I've seen some of your posts so I thought I would Ask
The simple answer to that is “No”. There’s very little about a medieval sword that could be called fragile.
If something unexpected happened and the pommel came off, then the sword might come apart, the blade would go shooting away and the wielder would be left with just the grip in their hand. I’ve read about this occasionally happening for real with cheap and nasty replica SLOs - sword-like objects - to the surprise and discomfort of people or objects down-range of the blade, but it’s very, VERY unlikely with a properly made replica or a medieval original.
Here’s why: (This is a simplified version of a much fuller explanation with more illustrations which can be found on the Albion Swords website.)
The sword on the left has the screw-on pommel used in a lot of modern repros, either for simplicity or to enable interchangeable blades (sharp for cutting / blunt for sparring etc). The sword on the right shows the traditional method, which was to pass the tang through the pommel, secure it with little iron wedges then heat and flatten the top of the tang (a process called “peening”, which seems to amuse some people...)
That’s not going to come apart without the attentions of a swordsmith with a file and chisel. The guard was already secured in place with more wedges before peening happened, but not the grip: the heating process would have burned it, since asword’s grip was usually two slats of wood hollowed to shape then sandwiched around the tang and secured with glue, a wrapping of cord then leather over the top.
It was the only part frequently replaced - grips got messy, and unlike steel wouldn’t just wipe clean.
These museum-pieces are 700-900 years old, their grips long gone, yet their guards and pommels are still in place.
Early Bronze Age weapons were made with separate handles and a solid thump with something could break the blade off, but later ones had tangs, as here.
“An extra bit of metal sticking out” could describe the “Parierhaken” (parrying hooks) on a Zweihänder, but those were just additional crossguards for times when the sword was wielded like a spear, with one hand on the blade.
This is made clearer on swords with protective leather covers on the blade.
Another bit of metal sticking out was the “Nagel” (nail) on a “Kriegsmesser” (war knife) - the middle example here - but that wasn’t meant to split open an opposing sword. Like the parrying-hooks it was just a hand-guard, and the other two in the photo have side-rings for the same purpose.
Incidentally, a theory why weapons as big as swords were called “knives” is because their hilts weren’t made by pommel, wedges, peening etc. but like this:
Again, a very solid construction.
This is probably far more than you were expecting, but I hope it helps answer your question. :-D
To cover a couple of extra details: there were specialised weapons for rapier combat called “sword-breakers”. IMO it’s a daft name, since breaking a length of tempered steel isn’t that easy; ”sword-catcher” is a bit more sensible. These two are in the Wallace Collection in London (originally two separate photos, but joined for convenience since the weapons are side-by-side in the same case).
Also - someone’s bound to think of it in connection with what I said about screw-fit pommels - a medieval Fechtbuch (fight manual) shows a technique called “ending him rightly” which involved unscrewing the pommel and throwing it:
...and another manual shows this middle sword...
I posted about it here, but the short version is this:
If swords like that existed at all they were rare and highly specialised; if that technique existed at all it was even rarer and a last-ditch resort which ruined the balance of the sword; and it may even have been a trick to catch out skinflints who bought the manual but didn’t pay for actual lessons...