Swords And Hilt Weapons

Swords and Hilt Weapons" is the most comprehensive guide to nearly 4000 years of sword making from all over the world. Written by a distinguished team of experts and scholars, it provides an expert appraisal of the weapons themselves and is rich in historical and background detail. Fully illustrated throughout with photographs and art reproductions, this is a unique survey of a vast body of superb craftsmanship.

This book provides a comprehensive guide to nearly 4000 years of sword making from around the world. It gives an expert appraisal of the weapons and is rich in historical and background detail.

Swords and other weapons with handles, or hilt weapons, were originally designed for use in melee, or confused fighting, where combatants were little more than an arm's length apart. Wars are now often fought over much larger distances with much more elaborate methods, but for thousands of years swords, knives, daggers, machetes, axes, and other blades were the weapons of choice in any conflict. Even today, infantryman carry some sort of knife into battle. Swords & Hilt Weapons is an illustrated guide to these remarkable tools. From the simple stone knives manufactured during ancient times to today's albion swords, it offers a complete visual history for experienced swordsmen or anyone fascinated by the beautiful construction of a steel blade. Readers will learn about the anatomy of a sword--from the point, to the blade, to the grip--and the differences between one made in Central Europe and one made in Central Asia. What's better: a battle-axe or a bayonet? Become an expert with Swords & Hilt Weapons!

Only available from the TSO's on-demand service [November 1999]

The story of arms in Western Europe from the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution. A treasury of information based on solid scholarship, anyone seeking a factual and vivid account of the story of arms from the Renaissance period to the Industrial Revolution will welcome this book. The author chooses as his starting-point the invasion of Italy by France in 1494, which sowed the dragon's teeth of all the successive European wars; the French invasion was to accelerate the trend towards new armaments and new methods of warfare. The authordescribes the development of the handgun and the pike, the use and style of staff-weapons, mace and axe and war-hammer, dagger and dirk and bayonet. He shows how armour attained its full Renaissance splendour and then suffered itssorry and inevitable decline, culminating in the Industrial Revolution, with its far-reaching effects on military armaments. Above all, he follows the long history of the sword, queen of weapons, to the late eighteenth century, when it finally ceased to form a part of a gentleman's every-day wear. Lavishly illustrated. EWART OAKESHOTT was one of the world's leading authorities on the arms and armour of medieval Europe. His other works on the subject include Records of the Medieval Sword and The Sword in the Age of Chivalry.

Descriptive catalogue with typology of a British sword-type with a 500-year history.

A simplistic and informative guide to British Cavalry Swords that does not claim to be an academic treatise. The essential features are demonstrated by photographs and descriptions of swords from the author's own collection, supported by sketches of sword hilts that have not been generally publicised.