[Clifford_Parker]

Originally Posted by rales

I felt like a Knight of the Round Table - vanquishing evil in all forms. It should prove that even a dull sword can be deadly!

This statement is historically accurate.

European swords were rarely sharpened any more than axes. Since they were used against armed and armored opponents and had to withstand impacts against steel they had relatively blunt edges and relied on the weight and momentum of the sword to do the damage. The Scottish claymores are a perfect example of this. They were designed to beat an armored opponent to the ground and hack or beat the armor (and the person in it) into pieces.

Up until the late Renaissance period a sword was generally a blunt hacking weapon. Only after guns began to make plate armor obsolete did the sword begin to downsize and become sharper, evolving into the sabre, rapier, and dueling sword of the 17th - 19th century.

The Roman gladius, Persian scimitar, and Japanese katana were different as they were designed to fight against lightly armored opponents and were made and sharpened to penetrate several layers of cloth, skins, or leather.

History lesson over.